BOTANICAL BEACH, PORT RENFREW, VANCOUVER ISLAND

Botanical Beach offers really great opportunities to view intertidal marine creatures and plants on Vancouver Island and is on my list of one of the Top Ten Things To Do on Vancouver Island.

It is one of the most amazing places on the entire West Coast, particularly at low tide. This is when you can walk a long way out across flat sandstone and granite outcroppings to view tide pools filled like jewel boxes with brightly coloured marine animals. Purple, red and orange starfish and sea urchins, blue mussel shells, white gooseneck barnacles, and green sea anemones only begin to hint at the spectrum of intertidal life that thrives here.

To get there, travel along Highway 14, a winding coastal route that ends in Port Renfrew, 104 km from Victoria. Then find your way to the beach along the same rough road used for most of this century. The distance from the dock in Port Renfrew to the beach is 5 km and the walk down is lush and fairly steep.

Plan ahead so that you visit here when the tide is falling. At this point on the coast there is often only one major tide per day, and you can spend several hours waiting for it to recede if you arrive at the wrong time. The best local tide chart to consult is the one issued for Tofino. The store at the Port Renfrew Hotel is a good local source; so is Parks Canada's West Coast Trail office in Port Renfrew, as well as the Sooke Info Centre.

We arrived at 8 am, just as the tide was at it's lowest ebb and that planning was well worth getting up early to leave at 6 am to arrive just in time. Once you are there, shale and quartz jut up through the basalt to create immense rock sculptures in places such as the awe-inspiring Devil's Punchbowl.

The Punchbowl, flanked by smaller bowls on either side, features a gallery of caves rising above two huge cedar logs and a field of driftwood kindling. Although you wouldn't want to be anywhere near here at high tide, it's interesting to imagine how conditions must boil in there during winter storms. These formations are located at the north end of the sandy beach and require some scrambling to reach.

Wear rubber boots, as the going is always wet.

Botanical Beach is located in Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, near Port Renfrew on the south coast of Vancouver Island. There are four main areas to the park: the China Beach Campground, the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail, the China Beach day-use area and Botanical Beach. This is a great day trip.