Tofino Off The Beaten Path Tips by toonsarah Top 5 Page for this destination

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve: Long Beach Unit

Tofino is a great base for visits to this national park, which lies along part of the west coast of Vancouver Island. It consists of three distinct parts. The Long Beach Unit is easily the most accessible and the only one we visited. It lies between Tofino and Ucluelet, and is named after the 16 km sandy beach of Wickaninnish Bay. The other units are the Broken Group Islands Unit (an archipelago of more than one hundred islands and rocks scattered throughout Barkley Sound and accessible only by boat) and the West Coast Trail Unit (a 75 km backpacking route).

Within the Long Beach Unit are a number of trails of different lengths. We did one of the shorter ones, the Spruce Fringe Trail. This led us through the Sitka spruce forest to Wickaninnish Bay, where we enjoyed the many great photo opportunities and peering into the tidepools.

Other trails include:

~ Halfmoon Bay Trail, which is 1.7 km in length and winds through an old growth cedar-hemlock forest where fallen trees serve as nurseries for seedlings, and ends with a steep climb down to the sands of Halfmoon Bay

~ Shorepine Bog Trail, a 800 m loop boardwalk through coastal temperate rainforest which is wheelchair accessible

~ Schooner Cove Trail, 1 km each way, which leads to the beach through a forested area, crossing a small stream on the way and passing the Tla-o-qui-aht village of Esowista

Daily entry to the park is $6.90 (Canadian) for adults, $3.95 for children. The ticket we purchased allowed us 24 hours in the park so after visiting one afternoon we returned the next morning to get our money’s worth!

To get here, head south from Tofino on Highway 4.

Website: http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/bc/pacificrim/index_e.asp