The best move for this compact, interesting town is towards expanded tourism.

Gold River is improving as more tourists find their way there.

Ridgeview Motor Inn is perhaps the best motel in Gold River. It has a good pub. 250 283-2277, or 800 989-3393 for reservations.

Also recommended to us is the Gold River Chalet (formerly the Parkway). 250-283-2688. Best room rates & great location on the village mall.

The most convenient campground is at Peppercorn Trails Motel & R.V. Park 250 283-2443.
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Accommodation in Yuquot (Friendly Cove)

If you want to hang out in Yuquot there are good tent sites available. Ask at the church museum kitchen regarding costs & to register.

You could also rent one of the 6 rustic cabins (no electricity) (250) 283-2015.

Accommodation on the Trail, Beano Creek

Treat yourself to a bed & shower about half way along the Nootka Trail at Beano Creek, a nice way to recharge the hiking batteries. Breakfast included!

Ocean view rooms or unique Perch (12x12 raised tent platform).

Check the Nootka Island Wilderness Retreat website for details & costs.

Food in Gold River

There are a number of options in Gold River — but only one for an early breakfast. The traditional pre-Nootka carbo-loading is breakfast at the Husky gas station across from Peppercorn Motel.

For lunch or dinner try the Ridgeview Motor Inn pub / dining room.

Of the other options, Charlie’s Family Restaurant has been recommended.

There is one grocery store in Gold River though the opening hours are limited. You are better to get groceries in Campbell River.
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Food in Campbell River

In Campbell River, many rush to Starbucks for a high test coffee fix. There are dozens of restaurant options in Campbell River — we like the Riptide Pub on the harbour.
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Food in Yuquot (Friendly Cove)

There is no restaurant in Friendly Cove but you may be able to purchase food at a concession during high season. And there is a good snack bar on the Uchuck.

Yuquot History

This remote spot has a facinating history:

• site of first contact between Europeans & First Nations People earlier than 1778
• 1778 Captain Cook landed
  • George Vancouver & William Bligh were crew
• 1779 Spanish built a settlement
• 1803 Chief Maquinna killed a fur trading crew of 25 keeping alive only 2 white slaves
• 1889 original Catholic Church built
• 1911 Nootka Lighthouse built
• 1923 designated a National Historic Site

The Pacific Coast Native peoples lived in a land of plenty. Yuquot was a centre of whaling. The people evolved a unique and sophisticated culture.

Hernandez and Quadra sailed into the Nootka Sound in 1774 & 1775. The Spanish captains exchanged gifts with native people but did not go ashore. Many of the place names here are Spanish.

In 1978 Cook spent a month in Resolution cove in the Nootka Sound. He was given sea otter pelts which he later sold for astounding prices in China. This was the beginning of the end for sea otters on the Canadian west coast.

Native people (still wrongly called Indians today) called out to Cook's ship: "itchme nutka, itchme nutka", meaning go around, but Cook thought they were telling him that Nootka was the name of the area.

Friendly Cove is an interesting moniker for the site of John Jewitt’s imprisonment by the great Chief Maquinna in the early 1800s. Jewitt, the blacksmith, was spared when the Chief had 25 other crew members of his fur-trading ship beheaded. All is told in Jewitt’s chronicals White Slaves of the Nootka, later reprinted as White Slaves of Maquinna: John . Jewitt’s Narrative of Capture & Confinement at Nootka. Jewitt is quite sympathetic of his captors in his book.

Smallpox & other white man plagues reduced the Yuquot population to 250 by 1967 when the government offered houses & schooling to those who would move to Vancouver Island. All but 1 family — the Williams — took the offer.

Today only the Williams family and another family tending the light house live year round in Yuquot.

Yuquot is a little known gem of a tourist destination. No doubt numbers of visitors will increase rapidly in the coming years.

More history:

• Gold River history page