Clayoquot Sound has a staggering array of hiking trails within it. Between Tofino and Ucluelet, Pacific Rim National Park has several wilderness and beach trails, each one radically different from the last. The Islands in the area are often separate Provincial Parks.
TheWestCoastTrail
The world famous West Coast Trail is found not far from Ucluelet. Bamfield is home to the northern trailhead to this wonderful trail known for its 80 foot ladders, stunning beaches and regular encounters with shipwrecks from the Graveyard of the Pacific.
Day 6 on the West Coast Trail is another short, yet brutally challenging day hiking between Cullite Cove and Camper Bay. The ladders and mud sections are numerous as you snake your way through the thick rainforest. It is sometimes funny and sometimes worrying to see hikers coming toward you with a look agony and determination. A very fit person will find the trail difficult.
An out of shape hiker must find the trail exhausting at every turn. Between Cullite Cove and Camper Bay you pass northbound hikers on their second or third day hiking, and the look they give you in passing reveals a hint of doubt that they can make it. Everybody knows that the trail from the Gordon River trailhead starts off extremely difficult, then gradually gets easier. By the time you reach Walbran Creek at the 53 kilometre mark, you return to beach hiking and escape the maze of ladders and mud pits. One thing that is very endearing about the West Coast Trail is the alternating sections of beach hiking and forest hiking. You emerge from the forest, muddy, sweaty and sometimes bloody and find yourself on a stunning west coast beach. Wild and beautiful, with nobody for miles and the Pacific Ocean stretching beyond the horizon. Before long you will encounter a river or stream to dunk yourself into. Or better yet find one of many waterfalls along the West Coast Trail. There are a few big ones and dozens and dozens of smaller ones tumbling off of short cliffs. These ones require a trick to find because the thick forest tends to hide them back from the beach.
If you hike high on the beach away from the ocean you will have to work harder with every step as you sink into soft sand instead of the harder, moist sand at the water's edge. You will, before long hear the wonderful sound of a waterfall. You follow the faint sound through the curtain of forest and there it is. A channel of water flowing off a rock face just a couple metres above your head. Often the water amounts to a little more than a shower in your house. But when you are exhausted, sweaty, dirty and thirsty, these little waterfalls are terrific to find. Back on the beach hiking for a while on a beautiful sunny day you find yourself in paradise. Every section of beach is quite different. Some are nice sand, some are rocky. Some are filled with life and others you see little life stirring in the shallows. After an hour or two you find yourself longing to get back in the forest. It is the West Coast Trail way of changing the channel and it never gets old.
Leaving Cullite Cove at 58km
Leaving Cullite Cove starts with a ridiculously huge set of ladders up into the forest. One tall ladder leads to a platform, then another ladder, then another platform, then another ladder.
Day 1 on the West Coast Trail hiking south from the Pachena trailhead is a fairly relaxing first day. Your first beach, Pachena Beach is a lovely, wide, sandy arch that stretches to a thick wall of forest on ...
The route from Darling River to Tsusiat Falls is just under 12 kilometres and quite a lot of that distance can be hiked on the beach. From Darling River you can take an inland route or walk along the beach. ...
The gap between official West Coast Trail campsites is quite large after Tsusiat Falls at 25km. The next campsite heading south is the crowded and ugly one at Cribs Creek at 41.5km, followed by Carmanah Creek at ...
After camping at Tsusiat Falls and Carmanah Creek, you start to fall in love with every new campsite. Tsusiat Falls with its sweeping ocean views with the occasional passing whales to its crashing falls just ...
Day 5 on the West Coast Trail is a stunning, very difficult and tremendously enjoyable day of hiking. Walbran Creek is gorgeous campsite to wake up to. Your tent will open up to a sweeping view of Juan de ...
Day 6 on the West Coast Trail is another short, yet brutally challenging day hiking between Cullite Cove and Camper Bay. The ladders and mud sections are numerous as you snake your way through the thick ...