Story by Sharon McDonnell

When i heard about a safari-inspired resort that combined camping out with gourmet food and wine—soft adventure with soft beds in the middle of a wilderness—I thought: This is for me.

I’d never gone camping before, not even as a kid. And as a Type A baby boomer, my patience for roughing it
was, frankly, limited.

But as I savored Dungeness crab poached in butter, smoked oysters, Camembert, and vanilla bean cheesecake, while oil lamps cast a flickering glow over the English ironstone china and crystal in the “bistro tent,” I began to reconsider the wisdom of my no-camping policy. Sipping wine from British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley and munching on brownies as Brazilian melodies filled the air, I felt a sensation as delicious as it was unfamiliar: peace.

That night, I slept snugly under a fluffy down duvet on my Adirondack bed, in a canvas tent under the canopy of a rain forest. An antique dresser with mirror, chairs, an Oriental-style rug, table, oil lamps, a propane-powered wood stove, and — surprise — electric floor lamps rounded out the furnishings on a cedar platform. The next morning, coffee service appeared on my wooden verandah. Clad in the terry-cloth robe provided in my tent, I walked the boardwalks to shower in an outbuilding.

This was Clayoquot Wilderness Resort's Wilderness Outpost at Bedwell River, reached by a 30-minute boat ride from Tofino, a small surfer town on Vancouver Island’s west coast. While Tofino is a 45-minute flight from the city of Vancouver (on the mainland of British Columbia) in good weather, my visit in August — nicknamed “Foggiest” by natives — involved a 4-hour delay both ways.

Deluxe Tent at Dusk (above).
Horseback Riding at Wilderness Outpost (below).

The Clayoquot Sound area is not just any sound, and this isn’t just any rain forest. A massive demonstration by over 12,000 environmentalists protested the wholesale logging of old-growth redcedars, Sitka spruce, and hemlock in this temperate rain forest back in 1993. Thanks to their vigilance, Clayoquot Sound became a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, one of more than 400 worldwide that must be protected because they are recognized as habitat important to the biodiversity of our earth.

The Wilderness Outpost is located in a transition zone of the Biosphere, meaning communities and economic interests cooperate for sustainable development of the area’s resources. As a result, composting toilets in cedar outhouses replace flush toilets at the Outpost, and food scraps are thrown in the water. There’s a 5-year plan to restore salmon spawning habitat in the Bedwell River, and guests can take part in an Environmental Legacy program.

As I took boat rides past tiny islands and mountains blanketed in forests—at one point spying a black bear hunting for salmon on the beach—and hiked the rain forest accompanied by the resort’s cheerful black Lab, the days melted away. So did the evenings, as I relaxed in front of an outdoor stone fireplace with a cognac or in the library tent, where—miracle of miracles—Internet access awaited.

Other guests were out horseback riding, having a massage in a spa tent, or fishing. A Seattle couple and their son and daughter were thrilled to catch two salmon that were then smoked and shipped back to their home.

“We thought this would be more of a couples place—but it turned out to be a family thing, where families could stay together and not send the kids to camp,” said John Caton, Managing Director of Clayoquot Wilderness Resort, which opened in 2000. “All those baby boomers who backpacked through Europe or camped out 30 years ago yearn to do it again—but in style.”

Camping out: Why had I waited so long?

Northwest Travel July/August 2007