Juan de Fuca Provincial Park is Unlike Any Park You’ve Ever Seen

By
Emily H
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Photo by Eddie Lawhead on Unsplash

Juan de Fuca Provincial Park is a national park located on the west coast of southern Vancouver, Canada. It attracts tons of visitors because of its unique look and incredible ecosystems. One of the most popular sites in the park is the Botanical Beach and is one of the most unique looking places you’ve probably ever seen.

What makes Botanical Beach so special in its appearance is the sandstone tide pools and rock formations, home to hundreds of different animals and plant species. It’s one of the most diverse tidal areas on the west coast and if you stay long enough, you can even witness a complete change in the inhabitants based on the tide. Low tide is the best time to be there because you can walk over all the sandstone pools and witness all the amazing and brightly colored wildlife and flora.

Throughout the park, there are tons of trails to explore, including the main Juan de Fuca Marine Trail, as well as camping sites like at the China Beach campground. The campground is just about 0.5 mile from the China Beach day-use, so there are many options to look forward to in the park. Although what you experience really might be life-changing, it’s vital that nothing is taken out of the park as not to disturb the ecosystem.

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Juan de Fuca Provincial Park Rich tide pools, a shoreline full of life and fantastic geological features impress visitors to ‘Botanical Beach’ a "natural jewel" in the newly created ‘Juan de Fuca Provincial Park'. The abundance of life was what drew Dr. Josephine Tildon in 1900 to choose ‘Botanical Beach' as the location for the ‘University of Minnesota’s' marine station. For seven years students and researchers came from all over the world to study here. To get to the station, a steamship would come from Victoria to Port Renfrew. From there it was on foot on a very muddy and narrow trail to the station. A better road in to the station was promised, however, it did not materialise and the difficult access was considered a reason for the station's closure in 1907. There are few remains of the station left today. Universities still use ‘Botanical Beach’ for field trips and research. The area became a ‘Class A’ provincial park in 1989. ‘Botanical Beach’ has extensive upland habitat, but is best known for its abundance of intertidal life. A visitor can find hundreds of species of plants and animals. The organisms that live here must be able to handle a wide range of conditions. When the tide is out there are large changes in temperature, predators, food sources and salinity. Each creature has adapted to contend with these variable conditions. Organisms that can not cope with drying will survive in the tide pools or in shaded crevices. There you will find congregations of sea stars (starfish), chitons and anemones, the sea stars often piled together to conserve moisture loss. Barnacles, snails, mussels are able to survive by closing up tightly with a small amount of water inside their shells. There are some plants and animals that are specialists to the high impact waves found at ‘Botanical Beach’. The ‘Gooseneck Barnacle’ (an animal) and the ‘Sea Palm’ (a brown algae) are two of these. These organisms survive in the surf zone by being attached to the rock with flexible stocks that bend with the force of the waves. They are just two of the thousands of species of marine invertebrates and algae that can be found here at low tide.

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