Our last stop along Vancouver Island’s coast was Botanical Beach. This is in Port Renfrew, about 2 hours from Victoria. We planned carefully so that we showed up around low tide. The walk from the parking lot down to the beach is about 1.5 km and is very pretty.
Once at the beach, we were blow away by its unique landscape. There were tons of little pools throughout the sandstone with plenty of creatures in each. The most common sea creature we came across was the purple sea urchin and there were plenty all around every little pool. We also spotted a fair amount of sea anemones. No starfish during our visit, although I have read that they can be spotted here.
Our kids had so much fun exploring. They peeked into each pool (some little and some more like small ponds) and climbed all the rocks they could. We also made sure to remind them to watch their steps! There were tons of mussels stuck along the rocks and we tried so hard to keep them safe as we explored. It was quite the adventure!
We visit a lot of tide pools, so I was a bit worried at first that this would end up being a bit underwhelming. Luckily, even though we normally see more sea creatures at places like Beach 4 on Washington’s coast, the vast amount of sea urchins and the especially unique landscape left us all loving our afternoon here.
We would definitely go back someday. The entire southern coast of Vancouver Island was a real treat for us this summer. It was a trip that we’ll always remember and hopefully we can explore more of the island someday!
Daley Family Travels 