One of my favourite things to do when I'm oceanside is hunt for tide pools. The abundance of flora and fauna that can be found within a tide pool gives you a little window into what the ocean floor might look like in that area.
What exactly is a 'tide pool'? Here is the official definition from Wikipedia: "Tide pools or rock pools are shallow pools of seawater that form on the rocky intertidal shore. Many of these pools exist as separate bodies of water only at low tide. Many tide pools are habitats of especially adaptable animals." The animals that typically enjoy tide pool environments are starfish, anemones, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, snails, crabs, and many more I'm sure!
When we visited Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island last month, I insisted on visiting the famous Botany Beach where tide pools dot the ocean's edge.
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| You can't miss the sign for Botanical Beach! |
Botanical Beach is located in Botanical Beach Provincial Park, which is free to visit. It is easy to find from Port Renfrew, so I won't bother with directions. You don't even really need to use your GPS, since there is signage the whole way, and it is basically just a straight line out of town!
When we parked in the large parking lot, there were a few different 'trail heads' leading from the lot and away into the trees. We chose one at random, which eventually led us to NOT Botanical Beach but Botany Bay, a smaller, rockier version of Botanical Beach. By the time we reached Botany Bay, the kids were tired of walking and wanted to start playing in the sand.
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| The trees were literally clothed in green moss - so beautiful! |
Once we got started exploring Botany Bay, we never did make it to Botanical Beach!
That's not to say the walk down to Botany Bay was hard or boring. It was a wide path with a steady decline down to the beach, interrupted occasionally by large, flat rocks or a few tree roots. The massive, moss-draped trees that lined the pathway were so beautiful; tall and completely green from their mossy cloaks. I flew my drone a little ways down the path to try and capture the beauty of it.
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| Avy loved running down the path to Botany Bay! |
But Botany Bay was really the star of the show that day! The bay is just a small, crescent-shaped inlet made mostly of rock slabs and a little swatch of sand. In the middle of the bay is a tall, layered rock formation capped with a handful of pine trees. It is extremely picturesque.
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| The gorgeous vista of Botany Bay. |
We arrived at the tail-end of low tide, so there were a lot of tide pools to explore, but they were beginning to fill in with higher levels of ocean water. We convinced the kids to leave the sand for a bit and come help us search for marine life among the tide pools.
Just a word of warning: the rocks are slippery, uneven, and covered in barnacles and kelp, so tread carefully! Don't slip and fall, or you could be seriously injured, and please remember this is animal habitat so mind where you place your foot, don't squish any animals, and take care not to disturb the homes of your new tide pool friends!
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| Finding some marine life in the tide pools! |
While tide pooling, we discovered plenty of anenomes, barnacles, crabs, snails, and and chitons. Some of the rarer creatures to find included fish (we saw only two!) and starfish. We discovered one bright orange starfish for sure, and later the arm of a deep red starfish from afar. I'd read somewhere that a starfish wasting disease had decimated around 80-90% of the starfish population, which could account for the fact that we only saw one and one-fifth of a starfish that day!
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| Our first (and almost only) starfish sighting of the day! |
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| These giant anemones gave us just a peek of their bright pink fronds. |
The kids tired quickly of tide pooling, and Joey took them to the sandy part of the beach to build sculptures out of the flat rocks found there, while I continued to hunt for more evidence of marine life. The tide was coming in pretty quickly, however, so I abandoned my hunt and returned to my little family.
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| A spiky sea urchin caught our attention! |
I practiced flying my drone low over the tide pool rocks, but because I still am relatively inexperienced at flying it, I almost lost it in the ocean! Panicked, I hit the 'Return to Home' button for the first time ever, and the drone shot up into the sky super high. I thought it was going to crash into the forest, but it certainly did 'return to home' and all was well. I really need to get out and practice my drone flying in a safer area than a rocky beach with the tide coming in!
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| Bye, bye, beautiful Botany Bay! |
We really enjoyed our afternoon out at Botany Bay. I do wish we'd had the time to meander over to Botanical Beach, but with kids you really have to pick and choose your battles in order to have a successful day of traveling! Botany Bay was very beautiful and we did manage to see some interesting creatures in the tide pools, so I call that a win!
What's the neatest thing you've ever seen in a tide pool? I'd love to hear your story in the comments!
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