--- title: "Yurts at the end of the road" description: "Two hours west of Campbell River, past Strathcona and Gold River, the pavement runs out at a marina on Nootka Sound. Moutcha Bay is the only one of the three Nootka Marine resorts you can drive to, and the only one that works for a party where not everybody fishes." author: "Ben Taft" published: "2026-09-02" updated: "2026-09-02" canonical: "https://wildernessledger.com/guides/yurts-at-the-end-of-the-road" about: - "Moutcha Bay Resort: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/moutcha-bay-resort" --- # Yurts at the end of the road > Two hours west of Campbell River, past Strathcona and Gold River, the pavement runs out at a marina on Nootka Sound. Moutcha Bay is the only one of the three Nootka Marine resorts you can drive to, and the only one that works for a party where not everybody fishes. Words, photography and film by Ben Taft. Published 2 September 2026, updated 2 September 2026. Canonical page: https://wildernessledger.com/guides/yurts-at-the-end-of-the-road Photograph: Moutcha Bay Resort and its marina from the air, the yurt village set along the shore of Nootka Sound The drive is the first part of the trip. You leave Campbell River, cross Vancouver Island through Strathcona Provincial Park, drop into Gold River, and then keep going. The tarmac gives out, the trees close in, and about two hours after you started the road simply ends at a marina on the shore of Nootka Sound. That marina is [Moutcha Bay](https://wildernessledger.com/experience/moutcha-bay-resort), and the fact that you can drive to it makes it the odd one out among the three Nootka Marine Adventures properties. The other two float, and you fly or boat to them. This one has a car park. Photograph: North River guide boats moored in a row at the Moutcha Bay marina, Nootka Sound Caption: The guide fleet at the dock. Same boats and same guides as the floating lodges; the difference is that here you can also just take a rental and go. Same fleet, same guides, same water as the two floating lodges. The difference is that this one has a road, and a road changes who the trip is for. ## The yurts are the reason to come I had assumed "yurt" meant canvas and a camp bed. Ten of them sit on the waterfront here, cedar-framed, properly built, and lit at night like small houses. Photograph: Luxury cedar yurts lit from within at dusk on the beach at Moutcha Bay Resort On the ground ### Ten of them, along the shore They are set along the rise rather than in a row, each one turned to face the water, and dusk is the hour to photograph them because that is the hour they start to glow. A luxury cedar yurt sleeps four and runs $1,199 a night; the smaller signature yurt is $449. That is a per-unit rate rather than a per-person one, which matters more here than anywhere else on this coast. Fill a yurt with four people and the arithmetic looks entirely different from the way it looks on the page. [Check availability](https://wildernessledger.com/experience/moutcha-bay-resort#request-availability) Photograph: The cedar yurt village on the rise above the water at Moutcha Bay Resort Photograph: The deck of a signature cedar yurt looking out over Moutcha Bay The end of the road > That is exactly right if everybody wants the same thing, and quietly awful if they do not. > > Field note Photograph: Living room and full kitchen inside a luxury cedar yurt at Moutcha Bay Resort Caption: A full kitchen, a sitting room, and a round wall. ## Not a tent with a better name There is a full kitchen, a sitting room and a proper bathroom. The wall is round, which takes a few minutes to get used to and then stops registering at all. The kitchen is the part that changes the trip. Self-catering is an option here in a way it is not at a package lodge, so a family can cook in and eat out on alternate nights without asking anybody's permission. Next to the yurts are waterfront chalets, two-storey lodge suites, and, genuinely, right there in the same place, twenty-four serviced campsites with washhouses. I cannot think of another property on this coast where a family in a $1,199 yurt and a couple in an $89 campsite share a beach and a bar. Photograph: Waterfront chalets lit at dusk along the shoreline at Moutcha Bay Resort Field note ### The rest of the property The waterfront chalets take six, the lodge suites run from $399 to $899 depending on size, and the campsites start at $89. Breakfast is included with the suites, the yurts and the chalets, and the licensed Conuma Grill in the main lodge handles dinner. It is an unusual spread for one property to carry, and it is the reason the place works for a group that would otherwise have to split up. Nobody is sleeping in a compromise so that somebody else can afford to come. [Check availability](https://wildernessledger.com/experience/moutcha-bay-resort#request-availability) ## Why this is the one for a mixed party Everywhere else I shot on this coast sells you a package: so many nights, so many guided days, one price, everybody in. That is exactly right if everybody wants the same thing, and quietly awful if they do not. Photograph: The marina and dock at Moutcha Bay Resort on a still morning Caption: Morning at the dock. Fuel, moorage, tackle and the boat fleet are all on site. Moutcha Bay sells you a room and lets you buy the fishing separately. Within one booking, two people can fish guided, two can take a rental and work it out, and two can go nowhere at all. Guided fishing is $2,150 per boat per day for up to three anglers. The marina is full-service, with fuel, moorage, tackle and the group's guided and rental fleet, and fish processing is on site and provincially regulated, which is the part nobody thinks about until they are trying to get sixty pounds of coho onto a flight. There is a [virtual tour of the resort](https://demo.360immersion.com/nootkamarine/moutchabay-final/) if you want to walk through a yurt before you commit to the drive. The [Moutcha Bay listing](https://wildernessledger.com/experience/moutcha-bay-resort) has the full 2026 rate card, the season, and a way to ask what is still open. ## Questions **How do you get to Moutcha Bay Resort?** By road, about two hours west of Campbell River through Strathcona Provincial Park and Gold River, the last stretch on gravel. It can also be reached by floatplane or private boat, and there is a full-service marina on site. **Do you have to fish?** No, and that is the point of this one. Accommodation is sold by the unit rather than as a fishing package, so a party can split, some guided, some in a rental boat, some kayaking or on the beach. **What does it cost?** Rates are per unit, so the per-person cost drops sharply with party size. Published 2026 rates run from $89 for a serviced campsite and $399 for a Lodge Suite up to $1,199 for a luxury cedar yurt sleeping four and $1,299 for a six-guest waterfront chalet. Guided fishing is separate at $2,150 per boat per day for up to three anglers. **Can you bring a dog?** Yes, in some units. Confirm which when you ask about dates. ## The experience in this story - Moutcha Bay Resort: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/moutcha-bay-resort (plain text: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/moutcha-bay-resort.md) Moutcha Bay Resort: from $1,829 CAD per person for the Bronze self-guided fishing package, 3 nights, two to a boat, summer 2026 (May to September), plus tax, at a Nootka Sound resort reached by road 2 hours from Campbell River, with serviced campsites from $89 a night. Read from Moutcha Bay Resort, 2026 fishing package sheet (PDF) on 14 September 2026. Written by Ben Taft, Photographer and filmmaker, The Wilderness Ledger (https://wildernessledger.com/about). Ben Taft stayed at the place this story describes and wrote it afterwards. Every photograph and film is his. Publisher: The Wilderness Ledger. Corrections: hello@wildernessledger.com.