Happy Father's day everyone. Father's day is already over for some of you on the other side of the world, but I'm living in a time zone that lags behind most of the world, so I'm still here to wish everyone a happy Father's day. My Father's day was quite uneventful, starting with a few hours of work, followed by a well prepared lunch by my wife, and another Sunday trip to the local library with my wife and kids. I finally got time to sit down and type out this week's hiking post, so let's get right into it.

This week, I would like to talk about our hike/walk of the Botanical Beach Loop Trail. The Botanical Beach is located in the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park on the South Eastern side of Vancouver Island. The trail is an approximately 3km long loop trail with minimal elevation gain, and provides access to several different sections of Botanical Beach. Aside from the beach access sections, the trail also weaves through the beach front forest. As you might notice from the photos, some trees in these forests grow slanted at an angle or in strange ways. This is probably due to the trees being frequently affected by coastal winds, blowing the trees in certain directions or sometimes even knocking them down.

Botanical Beach Loop Trail trailhead.

When we reached the first beach access, we were greeted with dense fog out in the ocean. The blue sky and the horizon were well hidden behind the thick morning fog. We were worried that the fog will persist and we will not have an unlimited visibility view of the Pacific Ocean. We spent some time playing at the first beach, then continued our hike on the loop trail. By the time we reached the second beach access, our worries about the fog were cleared, because the Sun did his work and started burning away the morning fog.

The morning fog was still dense and thick when we reached the first beach access.

Fog starting to clear up by the time we left first beach.

Continuing on the loop trail.

We continued back on the trail after spending a short time at the second beach and made our way to the third beach access (probably main beach). Here, the beach was full of tidal pools. Supposedly, each tiny pool was teeming with life. We saw clams, mussels, small fish, and even sea urchins. There were also bull kelps on the beach. We spent time observing the different lifeforms on the beach and we also made our way to the edge of the beach to see the ocean waves crash against the beach rocks.

Second beach access. The horizon and blue skies starting to show up after the Sun did quick work on getting rid of the morning fog.

Back on trail heading to the main beach. Tree growing in strange shape.

The main beach.

More of the main beach.

Tidal pools teeming with life.

Sea urchins. (Photo taken by a friend)

Mussels everywhere.

Pacific Ocean waves crashing against the beach rocks.

More tidal pools.

Even more tidal pools.

Long bull kelp on the beach.

After spending some time at the main beach, we made our way back to the trail and completed the rest of the loop through the forest to get back to the parking lot.

Check out my previous hikes: