Description

Day 4 on the trail is another mostly coastal day, with more pristine beaches, another cable car crossing and plenty of wildlife.

You start the day with a beach walk towards the lighthouse, if you time it with low tide you can follow the coastline all the way to the lighthouse.

By doing this you get another chance to see Sea Lions on the haul out rock, you can also see a few different species of Whales from here too.

A mix of ladders and stairs take you up to the lighthouse and offer some good views out to sea.

This is potentially another opportunity to try to spot some whales, although you will need binoculars as you are now quite far away from the coastline. The ladders make a return as you head down towards the beach, there aren't many on this section of trail, but they are very steep. Once back on the beach, it's great hiking up to Carmanah Creek campground.

The beach here is awesome, there's really nice sand and it's a great place to stop for lunch and maybe even go for a swim.

If you are worried about getting cold after going for a swim, the cable car over Carmanah creek will soon warm you up, this cable car has a steep approach to the eastern side, so it's quite the workout to pull yourself across. On the other side of the Creek you are back to more fantastic beach hiking.

This continues almost all of the way to Walbran Creek campground.

This is a really enjoyable days hiking with beautiful views for most of the trail.

Keep your eyes peeled for bald eagles and sea otters, as they can be spotted all along the coastline here.

If you time your hike well with the tide times, you can walk along the coast the entire way to the campground, you do have to ford Walbran Creek, which is straightforward at low tide and when the creek isn't flooded.

Walbran Creek Campground has a good mix of tent sites, whilst it's tempting to arrive and set up straight on the beach, there are some really nice tent sites just up the creek in the forest, that are more sheltered and have really nice views.