Trip Summary

Apparently, I just can’t get enough of this provincial park. So I went back for a 3rd weekend, this time to finish the remaining 10km I had left (and more!). I like to call it my National Geographic weekend because of the amount of wildlife we saw! Check out my AllTrails activity here.

Trip Breakdown

Saturday

Drive from Victoria to Juan de Fuca Provincial Park

Hit the trail at kilometre 47 (Botanical Beach) around 9am

Explore Botanical Beach

Lunch at Payzant Creek camp at 12:15pm (7.7km)

Arrive at Little Kuitshe camp at 3pm, set-up camp (14.5km)

Dinner and whale watching at 5:30pm

Sunday

Break camp, back on trail by 8am

Parkinson Creek snack break 9:15am

Back to Botanical Beach parking lot for late lunch 

Trip Details

I love Juan de Fuca Provincial Park. And now I can say that I have hiked every single kilometre of the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail. This trip started with epic car sing-alongs, and for once, it was nice to drive on Highway 14 in the daylight. The weather was cloudy for most of the time, but that simply enhanced the coastal hiking aesthetic. 

Tide pools and holey boardwalks

As we explored the tide pools of Botanical Beach, we found the usual suspects: mussels, crabs, sea urchins, anemones, and chitons. The trail renovations had not made it to this end of the trail, so we navigated some rotten wooden stairs and rickety boardwalks. 

“A bear!”

Around 10am, a man on a boat saw us at a lookout above the water and yelled out: “There’s a bear!”. We could barely hear him, but we pieced together what he was shouting: he had seen a black bear wandering on the beach not far from where we were hiking. We thanked him and made lots of noise during the next part of the hike. Unfortunately, bears did not make our wildlife sighting list. 

OCTOPUS

Shortly before Parkinson Creek, we saw something I never thought I’d see: an octopus in the wild! Sadly, this octopus was dead and stuck in a deep tide pool. It was still really cool to see it. 

Dinner and a show (whales)

We found our tent pad at Little Kuitshe Creek and set-up camp around 3pm. Then, we spent the afternoon sitting on the rocks, looking out at the ocean, and wandering down the beach. While we were eating dinner, we saw whale spouts! I couldn’t believe my eyes! There were a few of them, swimming along in the Salish Sea which separates Vancouver Island from the Olympics in Washington, US. The whales definitely made up for the lack of sunset. 

Seals and sun rays

The next day, we packed up camp and got back on trail before 8am. We needed to reverse our 14km to get back to the parking lot, bringing the trip total to 27.8 km and 626m of elevation. Early in the morning, we spotted two of the cutest seals hanging out together on a rock! 

Around 10am, the clouds cleared and the sun came out! The conditions worked out perfectly to give us beautiful sun rays cutting through the trees as the fog evaporated. It was really cool and I felt like I was in an enchanted forest. 

Parking lot blues

With the day getting nicer and nicer as we hiked, I was sad to see the parking lot, but my friend had a ferry to catch. We packed up my van and headed back towards Victoria, still in awe of all the unique wildlife we saw. This hike doubled my love for Juan de Fuca and its beautiful backcountry. Find my other Juan de Fuca blog posts here and here.

Key Points

• Juan de Fuca Provincial Park is full of cool wildlife, 100/10 recommend
• Make sure you look into the type of campsite before you go: some of them are right on the beach and some of them are in the forest.