Pacific Rim National Park Reserve Canada

Legendary

Located along the Pacific Coast, its rugged coastline and temperate rainforests have been protected since 1970.

Photo by Dale Simonson

Sailors used to call this coast the Graveyard of the Pacific. So many ships wrecked here that in the early 1900s the government built a trail along the cliffs, just so survivors could walk out.

That trail is still there. Today the West Coast Trail is one of the toughest hikes in Canada, 75 kilometers of ladders, mud, and rope crossings.

The park stretches along the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. It protects a strip where rainforest, sandy beaches, and the open Pacific Ocean all meet.

This is the traditional territory of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations, who have lived here for thousands of years. Their name means "all along the mountains and sea."

The park was established in 1970, the first national park reserve in Canada. The word "reserve" matters.

It means the Nuu-chah-nulth never gave up their rights to this land. The park was set aside while those claims are worked out, and the First Nations help run it.

The park has three separate sections. Long Beach is the easy one, a 16-kilometer stretch of sand between the towns of Tofino and Ucluelet where people surf year-round.

The Broken Group Islands are a maze of more than 100 small islands you can only reach by boat. One of them, Benson Island, is where the Tseshaht people say their first ancestors were created.

The third section is the West Coast Trail. Hikers need a permit, and the full route usually takes five to seven days.

Gray whales pass along the coast every spring on their way north. In the 1900s, hunting nearly wiped them out, but the population has climbed back to around 20,000.

Walk the sand at Long Beach and watch the surfers, or rent a board and try it yourself. Follow the Rainforest Trail boardwalks through trees hundreds of years old. Visit between November and March for storm-watching season, when huge waves crash against the rocks.