China Beach

These West Coast beaches are different from our mild urban beaches. Everything seems bigger and wilder, untamed. It's an environment that is both exhilarating and calming.

Forest

Much of the West Coast of the Island is steep and heavily forested cliffs and hillsides that tumble down to the shore. The trees are huge and and a dense ground cover of salal makes trekking off the trails very difficult. It's a lush wet environment.

Surfing

The West Coast of Vancouver Island is famous for its surfing beaches. China Beach doesn't have much surf since it faces the relatively sheltered waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. When we were there on Saturday it was a calm and windless day and there were no waves to speak of though a few wet-suited surfers were practicing their moves.

Vancouver Island's West Coast

Victoria is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, and is sheltered from the open Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula. However, traveling westward along the island's coast one moves within 40 or 50 kilometers into a much wilder and more robust environment, the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Much of it is not accessible by road. Where the road ends, the West Coast Trail begins, a 75 kilometer hike famous as one of the finest wilderness trails in the world. Fern mentioned on Sunday that we drove west on Saturday and stopped at one of the many beaches along the way, China Beach. The photo above is of one end of China Beach and shows the landscape typical of much of the rugged coastline.

China Beach 2

In January we made a trip up to China Beach and I was so besmirched by it's wild beauty I had to go again and take Benjamin this time. We left Victoria in the pouring rain and had accepted that it was going to be wet up there. So we were very delighted when it cleared up for the afternoon! We had a lovely time exploring the beach and soaking up the grandeur of our rugged coast. - Fern

China Beach

Yesterday some friends visiting from out of town desperately wanted to go up the coast and check out China Beach and even though is was rainy and blowing we made the trek. Wow! It was beautiful and I am glad we did it. I've made a pledge to myself that we will do it more often too; it's easy to take for granted the wild and rugged coast we live on but thanks to people who don't live here I see it again! - Fern