We stayed overnight at Port Renfrew – a lovely spot overlooking the bay. from there we set off west a short distance to a spot called Botanical beach Provincial Park. We had timed getting there for low water as it is an ideal place to explore the tide pools and beach. The wildlife is prolific with sea anenomes, red, purple and orange starfish and sea urchins, white gooseneck barnacles, blue mussels and green sea anemones and sea cucumbers. Coralline algae, periwinkles, chitons and sea stars can also be seen at Botanical Beach, though we didn’t manage to see all of these.
Just offshore of the rocks were kelp fields – a variety known as bull kelp. This is also known as edible kelp, ribbon kelp, bladder wrack, and other variations of these names. It forms thick beds on rocks, and is an important part of kelp forests. It can get to around 20-30 feet in length. It was while looking at the kelp that we spotted a much more interesting bit of marine life – a pair of Orcas.
Orcas or killer whales are known apex predators, as no animal preys on them. Thi pair looked like a mother and calf as one fin was significantly smaller than the other and they appeared to be fishing as we saw them for some time occasionally surfacing and appearing to swim round in circles quite often.
From there we walked back via Botany Bay and headed back in the car to Avatar Grove – an interesting drive along several miles of bumpy dirt track. Avatar Grove is a 10-hectare stand of 80-meter tall old growth Douglas-fir and western red cedar that is 15 minutes outside of Port Renfrew. There are two paths from the parking space – an upper walk and lower walk. We started with the walk to the upper grove and followed the path to Canada’s Gnarliest Tree.
We then headed down to the lower grove and followed the loop trail – a stunningly beautiful walk through the ancient trees and ferns including one of the largest Douglas Fir’s in the world.
To finish our circumnavigation of the southern part of the island we took the Pacific Rim Road back across through the centre of the island. We stopped at Fairy Lake for lunch before heading down to the San Juan Spruce tree. It is Canada’s largest Sitka spruce tree and the second largest in the world – the largest being across in the US on Olympic Peninsula. It is alongside the San Juan River. The tree measures 38.3 feet in circumference, is 205′ tall, and has a crown spread of 75′. By volume it contains 333 cubic meters of wood which is equal to 333 telephone poles.
San Juan Sitka Spruce
The final, very short, stop was at the Harris Canyon. As we drove over it, we decided it looked really nice, so stopped and walked back over the bridge for a look.
Finally, back to Lake Cowichan and from there back to the main highway at Duncan and left back to Ladysmith – a great couple of days.