Pacific Rim National Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island is one of the younger national parks in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The park, which covers a total of 511 square kilometers, was founded in 1970 and was only made a national park in February 2001. The tripartite Pacific Rim National Park consists of Long Beach, Broken Island and the West Coast Trail. Due to the year-round mild climate and the large amounts of rainfall, the park, which attracts almost a million visitors annually, has a rich flora and fauna. Due to the very special climate, a natural and dense rainforest has emerged over the years, in which above all huge Sitka spruces up to 95 meters high stand out impressively.
Gray whales migrate to their summer and winter roosts off the Pacific coast, especially in March and October. Numerous killer whales live in the many romantic bays. Most visitors to Pacific Rim National Park are drawn to Long Beach – a kilometer-long sandy beach with an impressive hinterland.
Hiking in Pacific Rim National Park
The Pacific Rim National Park is a real paradise for hikers with its numerous hiking trails in Long Beach. The paths were inconspicuously integrated into the landscape in order to preserve the naturalness of the park. At the edge of the path, visitors will find numerous explanations of the flora and fauna and exciting details about the region on signs. One of the toughest and most legendary hiking routes in Canada is the West Coast Trail in the south of Pacific Rim National Park. The 77-kilometer route, which is open from May 1st to September 30th annually, follows the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. The path, built in 1907, runs through the rainforest, past spectacular coastal areas and along impressive rocky and swampy regions. The difficulty level of the West Coast Trail requires a certain amount of experience on the part of the hiker. Even experienced hikers need a whole week for this route. In order to protect nature from the negative effects of hiking, the number of hikers per day was limited to a total of 52. Due to the extensive maintenance, the Pacific Rim National Park has become one of the largest employers in the entire region in recent years.
The Broken Group Islands region is also extremely popular. This consists of several hundred small islands, the discovery of which can be made adventurous as part of a boat tour. The largest of these islands are Turtle, Gibraltar and Nettle.
Did you know that …
- the cool and humid maritime climate of the Pacific Rim National Park creates a wealth of life in water and on land?
- the “Long Beach Unit” is located between the cities of Ucluelet and Tofino and was named after the 16 km long sandy beach of “Wikaninnish Bay”?
- Year-round bird watching in Pacific Rim National Park is a special experience?
- the Pacific Rim National Park maintains a wide variety of habitats? In the park you will find wide sandy beaches, calm mudflats, small islands touched by waves, rocky coasts, dense cone-bearing rainforest, moss, meadows, rivers and streams.
- that 330 species of birds are registered in the park and it is known that 96 of these species are known to reproduce here?
- 22 km of beaches and 12 km of hiking trails are available in the “Long Beach Unit”?
- most of the area of the “Long Beach Unit” is on the open Pacific Sea?
- the variety of coasts and bays of the “Broken Group Islands” is a paradise for boaters?
- you can even camp on the “Broken Group Islands”? However, there is no potable water and everyone has to take their rubbish with them.