Hiking the West Coast Trail

The West Coast Trail is located on Vancouver Island in Pacific Rim National Park. It is a 75 km long trail through forests, beaches, and over bridges, cable cars, and up many ladders. It is beautiful, challenging, and extremely rewarding. Anyone wishing to do this trek must book their permits through Parks Canada and organize transportation to/from the trailhead. On average, the trail is hiked in 5-7 days. There are many campsites along the way, and the trail can be trekked from either direction. We were on the trail from June 17th-22nd. Here is my adventure with four other girls!

Travel Day: We left early in the morning and drove from Banff to Vancouver. We caught a ferry from Nanaimo to Vancouver Island and stayed at hostel for the night.

Travel Day: We drove from Nanaimo to Port Renfrew. This is the south end of the trail and is where we would end after six days. We parked our car at this end. From here, we took a bus to Bamfield, which is the north end of the trail. We had an orientation at the Parks Canada building, (you MUST take an orientation prior to using the trail), and then we had a reserved a campsite at the Pachena Bay Campground. We would start our hike the next morning so we spent the night at the trailhead. Within ten minutes of arriving at our campsite, we saw two whales!

Day 1: This day was our first day on the trail! We studied the tide tables at the start of our day, and since it was low tide when we started we began our trek on the beach for the first kilometer. We hiked 14 km this day from Pachena Bay to Darling River. It was a relatively easy hike on this day. I highly recommend the Darling River campsite. It is 2km past the more common site Michigan Creek, and is quieter and has a beautiful waterfall. We saw lots of whales, a bald eagle, and of course, SLUGS!

Day 2: This day we hiked from Darling River to Tsusiat Falls. This section was 11km and we encountered our first cable car and lots of ladders. We saw sea lions, whales, bald eagles, and lots of sea urchins and anemones in the tidal pools. This day was harder than the first day, however, it was a nice short day and we arrived with time to set up a beautiful campsite tucked in the rocks and got to enjoy another waterfall!

Day 3: This day we hiked from Tsusiat Falls to Carmanah Creek and it was a very long day. I would recommend staying at the campsite before this one instead. Although our campsite was quieter and had a beautiful stream, after a long day the extra push to our campsite was tiring. It might be worth it to stop at the previous one. This day was 21 km and took us roughly 10 hours. This day had a little bit of everything! We had cable cars, ladders, tons of wildlife and ever-changing scenery. We stopped at Carmanah Lighthouse and the lighthouse keeper was kind enough to let us use his telescope to see sea lions out on a rock. Earlier in the day, we stopped at Nitinat Narrows. Here we purchased from fresh salmon from the locals, which we carried with us and cooked over our fire at night. It was the best salmon I have ever had! At the end of this day my feet were so sore, but my heart was so full.

Day 4: This day we hiked from Carmanah Creek to Camper Creek which was a 16 km long section, yet took us nearly as long as the previous day! It was a much more technical day and we even encountered our biggest set of ladders; 7 flights and 227 rungs to the top! What a leg burner! I had a good stumble in a mud pit in which I sank up past my knee in mud. It’s safe to say we had a good laugh about that. We had some beautiful beach walks, broken boardwalks, and lots of roots and high steps. The last 4 km of this day was the toughest part of the whole trail in my opinion. It was gnarly and completely amazing! What a challenge! This trail got harder by the day, and each day I fell more in love with it.

Day 5: This day we hiked 8 km from Camper Creek to Thrasher Cove. We woke up early to make sure we could make the tides to see Owen Point. This area is a must see! The trail has two access points down to the beach from the forest. Take access A. This access point is safer. From here you start the hike to Owen Point. There are some really neat surge channels and sea caves, and Owen Point made the perfect spot for lunch. The trail continues through a sea cave and leads you to a section of hiking over massive boulders. I mean massive! Some of the boulders were the size of small cars. Since we left early and it was a shorter day, we arrived at Thrasher Cove and set up camp in the early afternoon. It was a hot sunny day and we spent the day relaxing on the beach. I was not ready for the next day to be our last day. I was not ready to leave this magical trail and head back to reality.

Day 6. This was our last day on the trail. We hiked 5km from Thrasher Cove to the Gordon River Trailhead. Our day started off right away up lots of ladders. It is on this section that you also reach the highest point on the trail. The last 5 km has lots of ups and downs, and is through the forest the entire way. At the end, you come to a your last km marker of the trail. What a feeling! I have never been so proud of myself or felt so happy to accomplish something. I felt so at peace and so full of life. Once we completed the trail, we raised a ball in a tree to catch attention for the boat to come pick us up and bring us across the river. Since we parked our car there, we drove to Victoria from there. We concluded our adventure with a night at the Fairmont Empress. What a way to end the trip!