Juan de Fuca Trail - WINTER

Location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada 
Distance: 47 km
Time: 21 hours
Elevation: 25 m



This multi-day backpacking trip along the West Coast of Vancouver Island can be done within 3-5 days. There are multiple trail heads to start your hike along Highway 14. On the far east side is China Beach. 27 km in from the East is Sombrio Beach (which includes a campground), a popular spot for local surfers. At 37 km is Parkinson which is not a campground so you can choose to do a nice day hike by continuing west, or do the longer overnight trek to the east. On the far west side in Botanical Beach.

It is typical to park at one end of the trail and once you get to the other side, hitchhike back or take the West Coast Trail Express shuttle (which costs $30 per person). Or if you can organize with another car, have one vehicle at each end of the trip.

You pay for camping in advance, which costs $10 per person/night or $5 per person/night for persons 15 years of age and under. You can register online or pay with self-registration envelopes at the trail head (it will come with a slip to put in the dashboard of your car).

Going East to West, here at the possible campsites, each one with its own outhouse, bear cache and water source:

1. Mystic Beach - 2.2 km
2. Bear Beach - 10 km
3. Chin Beach - 21 km
4. Sombrio Beach - 27 km
5. Little Kuitshe Creek - 33 km
6. Payzant Creek - 40 km

Note: Only Little Kuitshe Creek and Payzant Creek are not on the beach.

There are major tide problem areas along this trail so it is important to learn how to use the tide tables before the start of the trip. Tables will be posted along the way but it is still recommended to print one out to carry with you:

1. Bear Beach east - 8.7 km
2. Chin Beach east - 20.6 km
3. Chin Beach west - 21.3 km
4. Sombrio Beach east - 28 km
5. Sombrio Beach west - 29.6 km
6. West of West Sombrio Bluff - 30.2 km

Note: At high tide there is an alternate forest route available for Chin Beach west, and a slop failure at Sombrio Beach west has made the alternate trail inaccessible from the east end.

February 21-23 2018,



Originally we had planned to do this in four days from East to West, sleeping at Bear Beach, Chin Beach, and Sombrio Beach. We slept the night before the start of our hike at French Beach, a provincial park, that is a ten minute drive away from the China Beach trail head. That way we wouldn't have to worry about ferries and travel delay on the day of the hike.

Since we did the trip in late February, high tide was at 9 AM/PM and low tide was at 3 PM. By the end of the trip we agreed that this was ideal as we needed to cross many of the tide problem spots in the afternoon.

Day 1 - China Beach to Bear Beach (10km)

A waterfall off the rock slabs at Mystic Beach.

We left the China Beach trail head at 10 AM. The first 2 km to Mystic Beach were relatively moderate. It's a popular trail for a day hike so it's well maintained. The beach is pretty with waterfalls coming down from the large slabs of rock.

As soon as we moved past it, it began to snow (one of the downsides to hiking in winter) but it was light so we stayed dry. Other than the people at the beach, we didn't see anyone else for the rest of the day. Spoiler, we didn't see any backpackers on the trails our entire time out there.

Crossing some snow covered logs over the river.

We arrived at Bear Beach at 3 PM. The best campsite on Bear Beach is one of the furthest west. So if you have the energy, I highly recommend you get over there. You have to cross a couple streams which can be a bit tricky, but the outhouse is newer, and much more accessible in the middle of the night when you don't want to be crawling over rocks.

We knew we hit jackpot when we found a stack of wood under a makeshift bench at the campsite, as well as newspaper and an axe. We tried to make a fire but it was too damp for anything but smoke. But we gave it a fair shot. 

We were able to set up our tents under a thick canopy of branches so we weren't even bothered by the snow. Since it was so cold, it didn't matter whether we kept the tent door open so we could watch the sunrise right from our sleeping bags. There were also no bugs to deal with so only a few snowflakes made their way in.

Day 2 - Bear Beach to Sombrio Beach (17km)

We left at 8:30 AM from Beach Beach. The tide was high but there was no problem getting around the last bit of Bear Beach since we had passed the tide problem area the day before. To get back onto the path we had to cross a small stream with a riverbed of clay which was very slippery. But we took small steps and made it across.

Already climbing back out of a ravine.

This stretch of the trail is considered the most difficult. I was worried that it meant technically difficult with lots of mud patches and scrambling sections, but the rating mostly comes from the amount of uphill and downhill you have to do. You are constantly climbing out of ravines to get over a hill, then going back down to cross a bridge. We read that there were supposed to be thirteen of these ups and downs but we quickly lost count because sometimes the trail wouldn't go completely down to a ravine before skirting a rough area and going straight back up again.


The trail has not been cleared since the previous spring so there were many trees that had fallen onto the path, as well as broken steps or planks gone on bridges. There were three immense trees that were exceptionally difficult to get around. Not only were they at least one and a half meters in diameter, they were also so thick with branches that they couldn't be climbed over. Instead we had to get creative with bushwhacking around. 

The emergency shelter at Chin Beach is quite nice. We took a quick peak inside when we passed. There were two bunks up high and what appeared to be another one under one of the bunks.

Chin Beach was beautiful but we hesitated at staying there overnight. Low tide for us occured at 9 AM - right around the time we started every morning - so we didn't want to wait until noon to start the following day. It was really beautiful, though. As we walked down there was even a seal that poked its head out of the water and watched us walk past. Overhead we saw a few eagles and a red plane.

View from West Sombrio Beach campsites.

The second part of the trail wasn't quite as physically demanding as the beginning of the day, but it had more technical sections with marsh, especially when we neared Sombrio Beach. That was tough since we were so tired at that point that we had to slow down to make sure we didn't get hurt. Sombrio Beach pops into sight long before you actually get there because it is so treacherous that it's quite slow.

The first part of the beach is NOT the best place to camp. We almost made that mistake before deciding to venture around the corner where it is so much nicer. The outhouse is better, there are nicer places to put your tent, and there are surfers to watch as you get ready for the night.

We arrived at Sombrio Beach at 4:30 PM.


Day 3 - Sombrio Beach to Botanical Beach (20 km)

We left Sombrio Beach at 8:30 AM. This day was a lot easier than the previous one in terms of elevation gain and loss, but it does have a lot more technically difficult sections with horrible muddy sections where you are hopping from log to log, keeping balance with your poles.

We walked straight through Little Kuitshe Creek campground because it looked a little dismal, hidden within the trees without much light coming through. There is a place to walk out onto the shoreline but after the beautiful spots we camped the previous nights it wasn't very inspiring.

At about halfway through the day, we reached Parkinson which is a place where the trail meets a road coming down from Highway 14. The trail just before and after it is quite nice and flat with minimal mud.

Then we came upon Payzant Creek campground which looked a lot nicer than Little Kuitshe Creek campground, except there isn't a way down to the shore from there. But the creek beside this campground was quite beautiful to cross. If I had to stop overnight, I would have preferred this one over Little Kuitshe Creek because you spend so much of your hiking days right on the coast so one day without is not so bad.

In the last five kilometres of the trail, it did get a little rougher where logs had been brought up by the tide and blocked the trail. We either had to carefully climb over them or find another way around. We arrived at the parking lot on the Botanical Beach side just before 4 PM.