Pacific Rim National Park
Pacific Rim National ParkBox 280, Ucluelet, BC V0R 3A0
250-726-7721
Camping reservations 1-800-435-5622 (required mid June to mid-Sept)
This park is located along the western edge of Vancouver Island, and has three sections:
- Between Port Renfrew and Bamfield which is seen only by hiking the 77 km (48 mile) West Coast Trail
- The Broken Island Group (southwest of Ucluelet)
- the Long Beach area which runs for 30 km (24 miles) between Ucluelet and Tofino, which is accessible from Highway 4, which also services those two main communities.
The park covers 510 square kilometres (197 square miles) and includes rocky coastline, primal first growth rain forests, and tranquil lakes and tidal estuaries. The park includes key migratory stop-overs on the Pacific migration routes, and the shoreline is popular with seabirds and sea lions, as well as Gray whales who feed offshore in the summer.
An estimated 66 ships have sunk along this shoreline, and in 1907 the Canadian government established a trail system as an escape route for shipwreck survivors, which
Along the Tofino–Ucluelet Highway, you pas a sign (just north of the Highway 4 junction and park entrance) that you are crossing the 49th Parallel. Vancouver Island (along with several close-by Gulf Islands) are the only part of Canada, west of the Great Lakes that lies south of the 49th parallel.
The Park’s information office is on Highway 4, and is open from mid-March to mid-October, and there is a West Coast Trail information office in Bamfield and in Port Renfrew. Trail open May – September.