Botanical Beach offers one of the best opportunities to view intertidal marine creatures and plants on Vancouver Island and is on my list of one of the Top Ten things to do on Vancouver Island.

It is one of the most amazing places on the entire West Coast, particularly at low tide. This is when you can walk a long way out across flat sandstone and granite outcroppings to view tide pools filled like jewel boxes with brightly coloured marine animals. Purple, red and orange starfish and sea urchins, blue mussel shells, white gooseneck barnacles, and green sea anemones and sea cucumbers only begin to hint at the spectrum of intertidal life that thrives here.

It’s a great day trip.