Yesterday, we decided to take the car from Sooke to Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island, and we did make a few stops.
One of them was the Botanical Beach in Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, and even if it was crowded (like the first time since we arrived on the island), we loved it so much.
Where is Botanical Beach located?
I couldn’t find it on my GPS. But I knew it was south from Port Renfrew, and to be honest, I just followed the signs, and I was good to go.
But, if you prefer having more details, you could enter in your GPS this address in Port Renfrew:
Cerantes Road in Port Renfrew and go at the end of this road, and you will enter Botanical Beach Juan de Fuca Provincial Park.
I learned a lot this weekend that sometimes, there is no address, so I always enter my GPS a road nearby, and I went for it (and it worked!)
The Botanical Beach parking lot is the western terminus of the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail, located at Kilometre 47. In addition, this parking lot provides access to nearby Botany Bay and Botanical Beach itself.
What can you do there?
We went for the Botanical Beach loop, and we did walk on the beach too to see the tide pool, and it was so beautiful and impressive.
The loop itself was not so long, around half an hour, but it took us longer as we spent a lot of time by the water and watching all this ecosystem in the tide pools!
Botanical Beach affords visitors access to uniquely rich tide pools and shoreline trails with fantastic geological features. The wide variety of marine flora and fauna in this colorful intertidal zone includes:
- Red, purple, and orange starfish and sea urchins.
- White gooseneck barnacles.
- Blue mussels.
- Green sea anemones.
- Sea cucumbers.
Coralline algae, periwinkles, chitons, and sea stars can also be seen at Botanical Beach.
The region is so biologically significant that the University of Minnesota installed the first marine research station in the Pacific Northwest at Botanical Beach in 1901. Since then, the area has been used for research by several universities in BC and Washington.
A low tide of 1.2 meters or less is best for viewing these tide pools. Use the Canadian Tide Tables “Port Renfrew” section. Remember to add one hour to the listed tidal times during May to October as Daylight Savings Time is in effect.
The don’ts at Botanical Beach:
The impact of human activity on the intertidal area is of growing concern. When visiting Botanical Beach, please look in the tide pools only – do not touch the marine life. Do not remove, collect or disturb any tide pool life, shells, plants, flowers, kelp, etc. – they are all part of a vulnerable ecosystem that Botanical Beach was established to protect. Even touching the water in a tide pool with sunscreen on your hands can create an “oil slick” that could kill the vulnerable creatures in this sensitive ecosystem. Photographs make great souvenirs.
Please note that no camping or fires are allowed in this section of the park.
Why should you go to Botanical Beach?
It was the perfect spot to watch the tide pools and discover the tons of mussels (I was thinking about when I will be eating some mussels and fries ). Even if the sun was not out, we could see all the marine living species in the tidy pools, and trying to spot the few crabs- fish- anemons in there is a great moment.
