Plan ahead so that you visit here when the tide is falling. Even during the lowest tides of the year – December and January, June and July – the prospect of being caught out here will make your adrenal gland flutter.
Wear rubber boots, as the going is always wet. These formations are located at the north end of the sandy beach and require some scrambling to reach. Although you wouldn’t want to be anywhere near here at high tide, it’s staggering to imagine how conditions must boil in there during winter storms. The Punchbowl, flanked by smaller bowls on either side, features a gallery of caves rising above two huge cedar logs and a field of driftwood kindling. Ridges of shale and quartz jut up through the basalt at Botanical Beach to create immense tableaus in places such as the awe-inspiring Devil’s Punchbowl. As you near the beach the trail divides: take the right fork to reach Botany Bay, go left for Botanical Beach and the tide pools. Allow 45 minutes on foot from the parking lot. Beyond here the road narrows, parking is limited, and turning around is all but impossible. Only four-wheel drive vehicles with high clearance should attempt the road past the parking area. The distance from the dock in Port Renfrew to the beach is 5 km. Visitors find their way to the beach along the same rough road used for most of this century. Highway 14 is a spectacular coastal route that ends in Port Renfrew, 104 km from Victoria. Their sharp, hard spines help to wear away the indentations in which they live. Purple sea urchins have established a particular niche in the soft sandstone. Barnacles, snails and mussels are able to survive by closing up tightly with a small amount of water inside their shells. There you will find congregations of seastars, chitons and anemones, the seastars often piled together to reduce moisture loss.
Organisms that cannot cope with drying will survive in the tidepools or in shaded crevices.
Where are bald head island tidal pools pro#
Each creature has adapted to contend with these variable conditions.įlickr Album Gallery Pro Powered By: WP Frank When the tide is out there are significant changes in temperature, predators, food sources and salinity. The organisms that live here must be able to handle a wide range of conditions. So significant is this location that a research station was first established here in 1900 by a team from the University of Minnesota.
Purple, red and orange starfish and sea urchins, blue mussel shells, white gooseneck barnacles, and green sea anemones and sea cucumbers only begin to hint at the spectrum of intertidal life that thrives here. This is when visitors can walk a long way out across flat sandstone and granite outcroppings to view tide pools filled like jewel boxes with brightly coloured marine animals. It is one of the most amazing places on the entire West Coast, particularly at low tide. The area is a protected zone, so please take nothing but photographs from Botanical Beach. Botanical Beach has 251 hectares of upland habitat, but it is best known for its abundance of intertidal life.
Where are bald head island tidal pools full#
Rich tidal pools, a shoreline full of life, and fantastic geological features attract visitors to Botanical Beach, northwest of Victoria.īotanical Beach offers one of the best opportunities to view intertidal marine creatures and plants on Vancouver Island.
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