Botanical Beach Beach by Vancouver Island during winter is worth a visit as we RV during the Winter on the island. It is located on the south-west edge of Vancouver Island, just past Port Renfrew, BC. Visiting Port Renfrew and not hiking at Botanical Beach would be like visiting New York City and not going to the Statue of Liberty. Botanical Beach offers one of the best opportunities to view intertidal marine creatures and plants on Vancouver Island. The area is a protected zone, please just take pictures. We were like kids in the shop running around all the tide pools with all the creatures. Wear water-resistant shoes with sturdy soles as the going is always wet. Even during the lowest tides of the year. Purple, red and orange starfish and sea urchins, blue mussel shells, white gooseneck barnacles, green sea anemones and sea cucumbers. So significant is this location that a research station was first established here in 1900 by a team from the University of Minnesota.
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Video Summary
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A journey to Botanical Beach in British Columbia, highlighting the challenging drive, the stunning geological formations, and the rich biodiversity of the tide pools. The visit emphasizes the area's importance as a living ecosystem and a long-term site for marine scientific research.
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A great big adventure today!
laughing
Starting route to Botanical Beach, British Columbia...
You know it's a big adventure when it's still dark?
When you leave.
when you leave, and Kate is up and perky and I am not.
This is... I can't even think of the words.
I'm not going to be green by the time we get there.
I'm not. It's a little... the roads are a little intense.
We made it to Botanical Beach, but let me tell you,
if you have any sort of nausea like I do, be prepared.
Take some gravel. I barely made it.
With the help of Kate, she showed me some acupressure nausea points.
It really was helpful, but...
That Marine Pacific Drive, that used to be an old logging...
It used to be a logging road and now it's paved over.
It has... it has... it's so windy. So windy.
So windy, that road.
And another variety of forest.
Yeah, always the ever-changing forest.
So here we are on Botanical Beach.
The tide pools and all of the creatures and plants and things that we see
and all of what the tide is left behind when it goes out and brings back in.
There's apparently so much to see, especially in the summertime.
We missed the bottom end of the tide pool, but it's so incredibly awesome anyways.
It's spectacular.
Like open ocean, big crashing waves.
We've been in such a peaceful state from seeing the ocean.
We haven't seen this.
Wow, check out up there.
The story told by the rocks in this area begin 135 million years ago,
when mud and sand that ultimately became clays and sandstone
formed about 100 kilometers to the east, possibly near the San Juan Islands.
About 55 million years ago, movement in the crystal plates
caused these sediments to be transported to this area,
creating intensely folded rock formations as they rammed into and under Vancouver Island.
Some of the things that are found on Botanical Beach are blue mussel.
It's a little bit of a pond.
Mossy chiton.
Owl grass.
Pink-tip anemone.
Welcome to Botanical Beach.
This is Botanical Beach.
This is actually really cool.
We found a, I guess a clam that is alive.
You can still see the clam.
We got to go, but it's a living ecosystem that is on this ocean.
Amazing.
So you have to make sure you come here during low tide
so you can actually see the tide pools that are from the ocean.
So the Pacific Ocean.
Just really, really, really, really cool.
So we've been trying to get here since seven o'clock this morning
in order to make it and see the tide pools.
I don't know what this is.
I think it's another sea urchin.
See those two shells?
Yeah.
To the right of it is a long, the beginning of a longer thing.
And that's a shrimp right down there.
I can see something.
Yeah, I can see it.
See, it's gray.
Oh, yeah.
Something.
It's a little fish or something, wasn't it?
Wow, look how this just filled up.
So given its rich diversity and abundant marine life and easy access,
Botanical Beach provides a great location for scientists to study changes
and a diversity within the marine environment.
Since 1901, when a marine research station was first opened in Botanical Beach,
scientists have used the area as a baseline
for studying changes caused by human and environmental impacts.
Do these things bite?
So that's huge.
Yeah, I wonder if that's just a huge mussel.
What in heaven's name is that?
Wow, I don't know.
It's like, seems like it's growing out of it.
Yeah, that is like, I have to take a picture of that with my macro.
It's a seaweed.
It's seaweed?
It's actually very light.
Is it?
I was expecting this to be heavy, but it's not.
So bottom.
That attaches to the bottom.
Yes, they use this for fishing.
It's actually quite amazing how many
things you can find here at the beach.
So this is, for example, a sea urchin.
And it's alive.
It's a beautiful color.
This was a huge clam.
So back here, right there, is an amazing connection from the ocean
to a freshwater, a freshwater creek.
We think and assume that this would have been an amazing place for salmon
who are coming in from the ocean to come up this creek
and up to the Kawuchun Valley in order to spawn further up into the island.
So there must be lots of these kind of connections
in order for the salmon to come from the ocean and up these entranceways.
I'm enjoying the heat and the sound of waves.
Guess what?
We're in a rainforest.
We are the artifacts in the rainforest.
We are in the rainforest.
This is all rainforest.
It is.
