Botanical Beach

Botanical Beach is a shelf of sandstone and black basalt that the surf has bored into hundreds of basins, and when the tide drops below about 1.2 metres they become a set of accessible aquariums: purple and green sea urchins, ochre sea stars, gooseneck barnacles, coralline algae and sea palms that stand upright in the surf zone. The University of Minnesota ran a marine station here from 1900, one of the first on the Pacific coast, because the diversity was so high. The pools only work at low tide, so a tide table decides whether the visit is worth making at all. The trail down runs through rainforest.

What you actually see

• The drilled pools - sandstone basins holding urchins, stars and anemones.
• The sea palms - upright algae standing in the surf line.
• The black basalt shelf - dark rock alongside the pale sandstone.
• The rainforest trail - a fifteen-minute walk down from the car park.

When to go

Time it entirely by the tide: below 1.2 metres, ideally lower, from May to September. At high tide there is nothing to see. Summer minus tides fall in the morning.

Honest expectations

Arriving at high tide means a wasted two-hour drive from Victoria. The rock is extremely slippery with algae. Touching or removing anything from the pools is prohibited.

Nearby

Port Renfrew lies close; the Juan de Fuca Trail starts here.