Bamfield and Pachena Bay in 2024
I hope that all of you have been enjoying the summer so far. Apart from the smoke a couple of weeks ago, the weather has been wonderful and overall, the Island has been in top form. We have been on a couple of camping trips so far this summer and have some more lined up over the next few weeks. One of the ones we have already done was a five day trip up island, with four nights at the Pachena Bay Campground. The campground is on the land of the Huu-ay-aht First Nation and near the fishing town of Bamfield. I have written about a previous trip here back in 2018 (you can read that article here), but since it was so long ago, I thought a new article was in order and a lot has changed since that last visit.
When we have travelled to Bamfield previously, we have always gone through Lake Cowichan and along the South Shore Road to the Nitinat Junction. From there we would head north to the old Franklin Camp Townsite before getting on the Bamfield Road. It was pretty rough with the last leg to Bamfield being the worst. As many will remember, there was a terrible bus crash in 2019 where two Uvic students died. This accident led to calls for the road to be fixed. In November of this year, the province finally completed an upgrade to the road so that for the entire 80 kilometres from Port Alberni to Bamfield, the road has been chip sealed. Due to this we decided to drive up to Port Alberni and take the entirety of the new road; it was great. The trip from Victoria is still very long, with a couple of short stops it is about five hours to get there. I would suppose it is comparable in length to heading out to Tofino.
Pachena Bay
Being a a long distance away from everything, some might worry about services, however, the town has everything you could need for a few days, with a small gas station, market, restaurants, fishing tackle and a tire repair place. We were booked into the Pachena Bay Campground which has to be the largest accommodation in the area. The campground is on the traditional and treaty territory of the Huu-ay-aht First Nation. There are over 129 sites now at the campground which is probably almost double from our last visit. The campground has drinking water, nice washrooms and there are hot showers available by the office. If you are looking for a full hookup site, there are still only a handful and the one we booked was just a regular site.
If you have never been to Pachena Bay, you are missing out on one of the most beautiful beaches on Vancouver Island and therefore in Canada. The beach is about a kilometre long and has a very fine light sand. It is a bay in the truest sense, with points of land stretching out and creating a fairly narrow opening. Because the water is shallow and has a sandy bottom, the water gets quite warm on a sunny summer’s day and you can feel like you are almost in Mexico. I will say that when the wind kicks up, cold water does get blown in, so it isn’t like that every day. Still the water is far warmer than you are going to find in Tofino and the waves much smaller. I could easily spend days sitting at the beach watching the fog and cloud blow by (and we did just that for a couple of days).
Pachena Bay is at the northern terminus of the West Coast Trail, so you quite often will see pairs of hikers that have just come off the trail coming through the campground on their way to Bamfield to get the bus back to Port Renfrew. Being surrounded by wilderness, you do have to keep an eye out for bears and we did see a couple of them on our last trip. Apparently cougars and wolves can also sometimes come through the campground but I have never seen either here (or anywhere on Vancouver Island). Between the beach and the amazing campground, Pachena Bay is one of my favourite places to camp.
Bamfield
About 7 kilometres north of Pachena Bay is the fishing community of Bamfield. Vancouver Island has a lot of amazing small towns, but in my mind, Bamfield is maybe the most beautiful. The town is divided into two parts, East and West Bamfield. East Bamfield is the part of the town that you drive into. Here you will find a general store, a gas station, a pub, a hotel, a fishing tackle and repair shop and more. When you get into Bamfield, you will find yourself at a four-way stop. To the west is the wharf and where you will find water taxis to West Bamfield, to the east heads down to another campground and marina; and to the north leads to the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre.
If you only have a short amount of time in Bamfield, the one thing you must do is hop on a water taxi to West Bamfield. West Bamfield is only accessible by water. While there are a few roads and cars on the peninsula that West Bamfield sits on, they all had to be ferried across. That said the main attraction of the town is the 800 metre boardwalk along the water that makes up the “main street” of the town. The roughly 40 minute walk along the boardwalk is one of the most magical experiences. You will pass by the Bamfield Wreckage, a small pub sitting over the harbour, go past amazing little fishing cottages, through an enchanted forest (with composting public toilets), and end at the hub of the village, with a boardwalk post office, general store and coast guard base. I won’t go into everything you discover because it would destroy the wonder the of the place. Just up the hill from the general store you will find Flora’s Restaurant and beyond that a beautiful community park. From here you can extend your walk down to Brady’s Beach, which I haven’t had a chance to visit myself, but I hear is beautiful.
Apart from the village and boardwalk, during your visit you can head up to the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre. This is a non-profit research centre that is run in conjunction with a number of educational institutions like UVic and UBC. During the summer they run tours on Tuesdays and Fridays. You can get the details here if you are wanting to visit. Even if the tour isn’t running, it is worth heading up to see the centre, as it is an amazing property. The buildings are beautiful, especially the Rix Conference Centre. You have great views of West Bamfield and out into Trevor Channel and the Deer Islands. For history buffs, the site that the Sciences Centre sits on was the landing place of the underwater telegraph line across the Pacific Ocean. From here messages were sent to distant parts of the British Empire. The original cable station building was designed by Francis Rattenbury (though has been torn down), the same architect as the BC Legislature and Empress Hotel. You can read some of the history here.
There is so much more around Bamfield that I have not done yet. Top on my list is a guided tour to the Kiixin National Historic Site. Unfortunately, on this trip the tours weren’t running and you can’t visit without a guide. That just means that I have to go back! Let me know your favourite places around Bamfield if you have been or if you have any questions, leave them in the comments.
