Juan de Fuca Provincial Park covers a long stretch of the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, from China Beach to Botanical Beach. This is where the popular 47 km Juan de Fuca Marine Trail runs along the coastline, although the trail sustained severe storm damage in 2024 and is closed for 2025 except for a few day-use access points to the popular beaches. China Beach Campground is the only vehicle-accessible frontcountry campground in this park.
Camping at China Beach Campground
We came to China Beach after our stay at nearby French Beach Provincial Park. The campsites were spacious, but densely covered by tall trees, so it got dark hours before sunset. It had that classic west coast forest campground feeling: beautiful, shaded, and a little gloomy once the evening rolled in.
A new addition to the campground was a newly built shower building with four family-sized stalls, hot showers, and flush toilets. The showers were payable by credit card at a rate of $3 per 5 minutes, which we haven’t seen anywhere else in a BC Park. This felt pretty deluxe for a provincial park, almost private-campground-esque.
From the campground, there is a 1.2 km trail down to Second Beach. I took a morning jog while the kids were still sleeping and visited the small beach by myself.
I noticed that the trail before the descent to Second Beach had a gentle slope and no major obstacles, so I brought the gang out later for some easy “mountain biking.” They loved it and looped it countless times. Sometimes the best kid biking trail is not a real mountain bike trail at all, but a smooth forest path with just enough slope to feel exciting.
There were also several small walk-in tent sites around the periphery of the campground. Some of these sites were much more exposed, probably because the forest had recently been cleared to make way for them. They would be convenient for tent campers who want a quieter edge-of-campground feel, but they did not have the same sheltered forest atmosphere as the main sites.
Beaches to Visit Around Juan de Fuca Provincial Park
The major attractions at China Beach and Juan de Fuca Park in general are the spectacular beaches. We made a list of beaches to check out:
- Sandcut Beach: 400 m easy trail to the beach, then another 500 m walk on the beach to two waterfalls that drop directly onto the beach.
- China Beach: 700 m easy trail down to the beach.
- Mystic Beach: either a 1 km moderate descent from roadside parking or a 2 km walk from the China Beach parking lot. The trail is closed in 2025.
- Sombrio Beach: 500 m moderate hike down to the beach, followed by a 1 km beach walk and short hike to a hidden waterfall.
- Botanical Beach: 1 km easy hike down to the rock slabs with many tide pools.
China Beach
First, we tackled China Beach since it was only a 1 km drive west from our campground. The parking lot was large but filling up fast on this Saturday. BC Parks is planning to expand the parking lot due to demand, and after seeing how busy it was, that made sense.
The hike down was easy for our 7- and 5-year-olds. In fact, it was so easy that it was borderline boring for them. Baby Bro needed some TLC to get down to the beach. It is a nice sandy beach below the pebble line for lounging and sunbathing, but otherwise China Beach was not the most memorable stop of the trip.
Botanical Beach
After China Beach, we decided to drive all the way to the end of the trail and visit Botanical Beach next. The drive was a long 45 minutes down a paved but surprisingly bumpy highway.
We knew we should have visited at low tide, but we ended up arriving when the tide was much too high, so the tide pools were all but underwater. This was definitely a planning miss on our part. Botanical Beach is famous for tide pooling, and without low tide, we only got a partial version of the experience.
The first 200 m of the trail was somewhat rocky and rooty, which made it more interesting for the kids. Soon after, it changed into a pretty flat, gravel-covered easy walk again.
The beach reminded us of the tide pools in Ruckle Provincial Park, but at low tide, people have reported seeing sea urchins, giant anemones, and other sea creatures at Botanical Beach that we have not seen at Ruckle. We will need to come back and time it properly next time.
The small town of Port Renfrew did not have much in terms of tourist spots, mostly offering lodging and food. We stopped for some coffee, and Tina shopped in a boutique fashion truck. It was a nice little pause before the long drive back toward camp.
Sandcut Beach
On the last day of our trip, we took down camp early and squeezed in one final beach on our way back. Sandcut Beach is just east of China Beach, between French Beach Provincial Park and Juan de Fuca Provincial Park. It is a CRD regional park, and it was actually the most memorable beach out of the ones we visited this year.
The trail to the beach was the most interesting of the trip, including a small creek crossing on a boardwalk with an embedded downed tree. It was still easy, but it had just enough character to keep the kids interested.
The beach itself was similar to China Beach, but the magic was about 500 metres to the east: a pair of waterfalls dropped from a carved-out sandstone cliff directly onto the pebble beach, and the water disappeared into the stones. This was easily the most unique beach feature we saw on the trip.
This was by far the most unique beach experience. Some beachgoers used the waterfall as a natural cold shower to rinse off. We lingered here for a snack break before finally heading home.
What We Missed This Time
We skipped Sombrio Beach and Mystic Beach this trip, since they seemed to be the most challenging and our team of youngsters was tired. That gives us a good incentive to come back and revisit this spectacular region again.
We hope that the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail will be repaired soon, so that we can tackle the whole trail from end to end. I have a feeling that Big Bro is close to being ready for this 4- to 5-day hike, but the question is when Baby Bro would be ready too…
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