Kennedy Lake Camping Trip Day 1: Clayoquot Arm Provincial Park

Over the Easter long weekend I did a three day kayaking trip with intent to explore Kennedy Lake.  The trip came up quite last minute so we didn’t really have a concrete plan as to where on Kennedy Lake we would launch or camp.  We did know that there were at least four camps sites as indicated on the map.  So we drove up to Kennedy Lake in the darkness on Thursday evening and made camp near Kennedy River.  As we arrived in the darkness we did have some difficulty finding the campsite, but eventually stumbled upon the camp at the shore of Kennedy Lake.  There were quite a few campers at the site presumably on their way up to Tofino, as indicated by the surfboards on the roof.

The campsite on the first night was not great but it served us well and we were able to launch into Kennedy Lake early in the morning.  Our goal for the first day was to explore the Clayoquot Arm Provincial Park which is in the north west portion of the lake.  We had seen no campsites on the map in this area, so were going to try and paddle with the risk of having to paddle back down if no suitable place to camp was found.  We started the day in heavy mist but by midday that had cleared up and we could see the beautiful mountains and waterfalls all around us.  We navigated around the islands and rock cliffs which characterise the lake.  In the north end of the Clayoquot Arm we discovered a wonderful little campsite with a small beach, toilet facility, rope swing and fresh water brook nearby.  I would return to this campsite in an instant.  The only complaint was the lack of evening sun exposure.

Awesome campsite north end of Kennedy Lake

The following day we head back down the lake on the other side of the Clayoquot Arm.  We set up camp at the same spot as the first night but had a slightly cosier spot with fewer neighbours.