Skip to content
psingh.ca
Menu
Contact
Wooden boardwalk winding through stunted shorepine in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve

Shorepine Bog Trail: An 800 Metre Boardwalk in Pacific Rim, and No Beach

The honest short Pacific Rim walk that is not Radar Hill and not Long Beach - an 800 m boardwalk through twisted shorepine, sundews if you look, and a sign that says no beach access. Worth the stop if you are already paying the park fee. Stay on the boards.

·

Quick facts

Distance
0.8 km
Elevation gain
5 m
Highest point
30 m
Difficulty
Easy
Time needed
0.25-0.75 hours
Route type
Loop
Season
Year-round. There is no snow to speak of at this elevation on this coast. The boardwalk is slippery when wet, which is most of the year. Summer is the dry, busy version. April is the light on this page.
Drive from Vancouver
7 h 30 min
Transit accessible
No
Dog friendly
Yes
Pass or permit
Fee requiredPacific Rim National Park Reserve charges a day-use fee, collected at the park gate and enforced at the Long Beach lots. Same fee structure as Radar Hill. The cheaper Beach Walk Pass does not cover every stop in the unit - confirm what you bought before you assume this lot is included. Recreational drones are prohibited. Dogs on leash. Stay on the boardwalk. The bog is the whole point and it does not recover from footprints.
Last hiked
Traditional territory
ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ (Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation) territory, within the ḥaḥuułi of the Nuu-chah-nulth Nations
On this page3 sections

Radar Hill is the five-minute viewpoint. Long Beach is the sand. Shorepine Bog is the 800 m boardwalk through trees that look like they have been growing in a bad wind for a century, because they have. The kiosk says no beach access, which is the sentence people skip and then feel cheated by.

I walked it on 5 April 2024, the day after Englishman River Falls and the day before the Sooke Potholes, on a bright Pacific Rim morning. That is the light in these pictures. It is harder light than the bog wants.

Getting there

Ferry, Highway 4, park gate, then the signed lot in the Long Beach Unit. You are already paying the Pacific Rim fee if you are doing Radar Hill. This is the other short stop that fee covers, depending on which pass you bought. Confirm. The Beach Walk Pass is not a skeleton key for every lot in the unit.

Parks Canada kiosk for the Bog Trail, 800 m loop, with a note that there is no beach access
The board at the lot. 800 m loop. No beach access. Both of those sentences are the whole briefing.

From Vancouver that is a sailing plus most of a day. Do not drive to Tofino for an 800 m loop. Do it because you are already here.

The loop

From the kiosk, get on the boards and stay on them. Eight hundred metres. Flat. The trees are stunted shorepine, the ground is bog, and the sundews are the plant the sign is talking about if you slow down enough to look.

Weathered wooden boardwalk curving through gnarled shorepine and bog shrubs under bright sun
Stay on it. The bog is a living surface and the boards exist so you do not walk on it.
A hiker walking the Shorepine Bog boardwalk through stunted pine under a clear April sky
The loop is short enough that you will pass the same people twice. That is not a reason to step off the wood.

The wood is slick in shade even on a dry April day. The yellow caution stickers on the kiosk are not decoration. Dogs on leash. People come off the beach looking for a forest walk and treat this like a sidewalk. It is a bog with a boardwalk. Pack out what you carry.

There is no viewpoint deck and no ocean. If you wanted the highest ground in the unit, that is Radar Hill, fifteen minutes up the road. If you wanted sea stacks at the end of a long drive, that is San Josef Bay, which is a different Island.

The photograph

The twisted pine is the subject. Shoot down the boards for the leading line, then put the camera on a single trunk. Hard sun turns the wood into a hole. I know, because that is the light I had. Overcast would have been kinder.

Drones off. Parks Canada, not a suggestion. Fines are real.

Hiked it myself

Bright sun, 800 m loop from the kiosk, boards dry in spots and slick in shade. No beach. Stay on the wood.

Reported by Parveen Singh

Trail notes from the field

One email a month: what is melting out, what is snowed in, and where the light is good right now. Written after the hike, not before it.

By subscribing you agree to receive occasional emails from psingh.ca. No spam, no selling your address, unsubscribe any time.

Shooting this trail

Photography notes

Best light
Overcast for the bog itself, because the stunted pine and the boardwalk are a contrast nightmare in hard sun. I shot it on 5 April in bright light and the boards went white. Early or late, or a grey Tofino morning, is the correct version. Side light on the twisted trunks is the frame that is actually of this place rather than of a path.
Best season
Year-round. April is the trip these files came from, on the same Island week as Little Qualicum and Englishman. Summer is drier boards and more people. Winter is the storm-coast version and the wood is slick.
Compositions
  • Down the boardwalk at 24-35mm, the curve as a leading line, shorepine as a tunnel. Get a person in for scale if you can do it without asking them to pose in the bog.
  • A single twisted trunk at 50-85mm. The trees are the subject. The path is the access.
  • The kiosk as an establishing frame if the piece is a Pacific Rim day rather than a secret.
Gear
Handheld. Polariser optional. The boardwalk is narrow and other people live on it. Do not set a tripod in the only walking line. Drones are prohibited across Parks Canada places. The bog is not a launch pad.