Luxury Meets Wilderness
Through the windows of our float plane, the green estuary of Bedwell Sound is invitingly lush. Flowing into it, a blue ribbon that is the Bedwell River flattens and spreads out, turning almost a tropical shade of aquamarine. I search for the white prospector-style canvas tents that Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge is celebrated for, and which are an essential part of my next few days. Seconds before we splash down, I spot a few of them perched on the shoreline, nestled in the old growth forest.
There is nothing like arriving at your destination in a float plane. Waiting for us with their carriage and driver are a pair of mottled grey and cream Percheron horses that whisk us to The Cookhouse, hooves clacking in unison on the dirt road, where staff greet us as if it’s an overdue homecoming—and for me, it feels like it is.
I first visited in 2008 for a women’s-only fly fishing weekend. I didn’t catch any fish, but the concept of “glamping” (luxurious camping) and the extraordinary beauty of this valley caught my imagination. Over the past two decades, glamping has become a global phenomena, and Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge continues to refine the concept, looking for that perfect balance of nature and culture, comfort and raw wilderness.
The resort was founded in the late 1990s by Vancouver businessman Richard Genovese. He liked the idea of mixing luxury with wilderness. When he passed away in 2017, the resort was sold to KSL Capital Partners, who asked Baillie Lodges of Australia to take the reins going forward. James and Hayley Baillie knew how to give guests deep experiences in places of natural and cultural significance in Australia, such as at their property in Queensland’s Daintree Rainforest, at Longitude 131° at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, and their well-known Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island, which was destroyed in the 2020 wildfires.
Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge was a perfect fit for their portfolio. The new decor is both comfortable and contemporary. The cedar-sided bathrooms adjoining each tent are stocked with natural body care products from Tofino Soap Company, and the artwork by local artisans, including carved bowls by Moy Sutherland from the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, gives the tents and common areas a distinctive West Coast flavour.
And speaking of flavour, the culinary experiences at Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge are immensely satisfying, from our first dinner of pan-seared sablefish to our last breakfast of warm Bedwell porridge with poached rhubarb and candied pistachios. 
Executive chef Asher Blackford arrived from Australia (most recently from Baillie’s Southern Ocean Lodge) with loads of experience—and zero ego. “The gratitude goes both ways,” he says humbly, after my friend Chloe and I thank him for creating a six-dish tasting menu starring Vancouver Island seafood and food that we foraged from the land.
A day earlier we had followed Justin, one of the lodge’s knowledgeable guides, into the forest with Asher’s grocery list in hand. We filled containers with orange salmonberries, we snipped citrus-scented tips of hemlock branches, and we picked delicate Siberian miner’s lettuce from the sun-dappled forest floor. From high up on the moss-covered trunk of a maple tree, Justin carefully plucked a licorice fern, roots and all.
“Take a small bite,” he cautioned, exposing a woody root. “It’s very potent.”
Asher would later use the fern root to flavour macarons, while the hemlock tips lended a mouth-cleansing sorbet the subtle scent of grapefruit. The wild lettuce adorned Dungeness crab, and salmonberries brightened a platter of spot prawns. “I want food to be an extension of the experience,” Asher told us after that memorable meal.
Food can be an experience in itself, of course, something lodge manager Sarah Cruse calls “the art of eating.” But the range of other experiences here is nothing short of phenomenal, from heli-hiking to rock climbing to wildlife viewing by boat, where you might spot bears, whales, sea otters and bald eagles. One day we hike with Justin up a forested mountainside to Penny Falls, where we jump into an emerald green pool of icy cold glacier water. Another day we saddle up a few of the lodge’s 29 horses for a ride through the wide valley bottom, criss-crossing the fast-flowing Bedwell River. One morning, I kayak partway down the serene 11-km long Bedwell Sound at dawn.
In the evening, Chloe and I head for The Ivanhoe bar overlooking the estuary. The Ivanhoe is a sleek retreat, especially when the weather’s foul, with floor-to-ceiling windows and leather bar stools and chairs. Upstairs on the patio, there are firepits, lounge furniture and bigger views. While sipping The Bedwell Bramble (a cocktail of foraged blackberry shrub, fresh lemon and Wayward Unruly Gin made from mead at Wayward Distillery in Courtenay), we ponder the dinner menu and consider the range of choices, including wild caught coho and confit pork belly.
I picture Asher working his magic next door in The Cookhouse kitchen and remember a bit of advice he offered that will stay with me. He said, “Start with a vision...the sun setting, the golden tops of the mountains...how can I put that on a plate?”
It’s safe to say that founder Richard Genovese’s vision for the resort all those years ago have come beautifully to fruition in Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge.
If you go:
Stays at Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge include luxury tented accommodation, gourmet meals, premium wines, beers and spirits, guided experiences and one 60-minute massage per person. Peak season rates start at $1,700 per night, per adult. Children six and older are welcome at reduced rates when sharing a tent with an adult.
In 2022, the lodge will be open May 12th through September 28th. Arrival is by float plane from Vancouver or boat from Tofino. clayoquotwildernesslodge.com
All images courtesy of Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge.
