The Juan de Fuca Marine Trail is a 47km long trail on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. Lesser known than its infamous cousin, the West Coast Trail, the Juan de Fuca runs between Jordan River and Port Renfrew. The trail winds through evergreen forests and onto beautiful beaches, offering many chances for encounters with wildlife.
This trail is located on the traditional territories of the Pacheedaht First Nation.
I completed this hike with a friend in August 2018. It was my first coastal hike, and the longest multi-day hike I had done up to that point. As it does on the West Coast, the weather did not hold up particularly well; however, we still enjoyed our time on the trail and enjoyed some very scenic sunsets along the way (even if I only took one picture the whole time … oops).
Here is some beta for you to use while planning your hike on the Juan de Fuca Trail.
Trail Stats
Distance: 47km
Elevation: 1,451m (total gain)
Route Type: Thru-hike
Difficulty: Moderate
Hiking Season: Year-round (although expect it to be wet year-round)
Planning Resources
- The BC Parks website has lots of information and maps of the trail
Preparing for the Trip
Itinerary
We opted to do this trail over 4 days from North to South. It is possible to do the trail in either direction, but due to the bus schedules, it made the most sense for us to leave our vehicle at the south end of the trail and get a ride to the north end.
Most people complete this trail over 3-5 days. While my friend and I were avid hikers, this was the longest multi-day trip we had done at the time, and that was a reasonable itinerary for folks of our age and fitness level.
As this is a coastal hike, there isn’t the same kind of elevation gain that trails in the alpine have, but the constant undulation of the trail can be a different kind of challenge. There are also several beach crossings on this trail, and hikers should take a tide table with them and have a vague idea of what times will be safe for them to use those crossings so that they do not find themselves stranded.
With the itinerary described below, we hiked for 4-6 hours each day and had plenty of time at each campsite to relax and swim.
Transportation to Trailhead
As this is a thru-hike, we drove one vehicle from Vancouver and left it at the China Beach trailhead. From China Beach we took a morning shuttle run by the West Coast Trail Express to Port Renfrew, and walked ~3km to the trailhead from the drop off location. Check the website for current information and scheduling.
Sleeping Options
There are six campsites on this trail, running north to south: Payzant Creek (km 7), Little Kutschie (km 14), Sombrio Beach East (km 20), Chin Beach (km 26), Bear Beach (km 38), and Mystic Beach (km 45).
All six sites are first-come, first-serve, but a Backcountry Camping Fee of $10/person per night is required and needs to be purchased ahead of time on the Discover Camping website.
On the Trail
Day 1: Port Renfrew to Little Kustchie Campsite
My friend and I opted to drive up from Vancouver the day before starting the trail, and camped at China Beach Campground, where we would leave our car and be picked up the next morning by the West Coast Express Shuttle. After a quick breakfast, we packed up our gear and wandered over to the designated shuttle pick-up spot on the side of Highway 14.
Sure enough, the shuttle arrived right on time, and within 20 minutes we were in Port Renfrew. Crazy to think that walking back that same distance was going to take four days on foot!
The shuttle dropped us off in Port Renfrew, and we walked 3km along the road to the Botanical Beach trailhead, where we spent some time wandering around the tidal pools.
Once we had seen enough starfish sunning themselves at low tide, we officially began our hike. This section of the trail was quite mellow and generally well graded, weaving in and out of the forest and providing ocean views around many corners.
A few hours in, we came across a group coming in the other direction. The group informed us they had just run into a group of eight black bear on the trail. We had noticed some very fresh looking bear scat on the trail a few minutes back, but were surprised to hear how many bears they had run into! We continued onwards, talking loudly to detract the bears from paying us a visit.
Finally, we arrived at Little Kustchie campsite. This site has a handful of tent pads and cleared sites nestled in the forest, as well as a pit toilet and bear cache. Although this is not a beach campsite, there are a few small paths that lead to rocky outcrops overlooking the Salish Sea.
After we set up our tent, we spent the rest of the evening on one of these rocky outcrops, cooking dinner and drinking tea while the sun set. We fell asleep quite early that night as it had been a long day.
Day 2: Little Kustchie Campsite to Chin Beach Campsite
We woke up to the sound of my alarm, packed up our things, ate a few Clif bars for breakfast, and were back on the trail by 9 am.
It began to spit with rain on this day, which made the trail extremely muddy. Neither of us had gaiters, so we skirted around the sides of some of the large puddles that were forming on the trail. Unfortunately, we each managed to get a boot full of mud at least once or twice on this section of the trail.
After a couple of hours, we arrived at the stunning Sombrio Beach. We sunk into the small pebbles as we traversed the steep slope across this beach. There were a few car campers who had set up tents here, and I made a mental note to come back here and do the same in the future.
The rain increased as we climbed up from Sombrio Beach, and did not let up until we arrived at the Chin Beach campsite around 2pm. We set up our tent under a large tree, protecting us from the worst of the rain, and promptly jumped in the ocean to clean off our muddy limbs.
We watched another stunning sunset while we cooked our dinner on the beach. Once the sun had dipped below the horizon, we retreated to our sleeping bags for another early night.
Day 3: Chin Beach to Bear Beach
By this point on a thru-hike, you start to get into a real flow, and this was no exception. After we packed up our things and had a couple of Clif bars for breakfast, we hit the trail again around 9 am.
This section of the trail, like yesterday’s, had quite a bit of undulation, and was extremely muddy, given it had started to rain again. By the time we made it to Bear Beach around 2pm, the sun was starting to poke its head out, so we were able to dry off our tent and other wet gear during the afternoon while we read our books and generally lounged around.
While we cooked our dinner and the sun set, we watched porpoises frolicking in the kelp beds just off the shoreline, and fell asleep knackered after another day of walking.
Day 4: Bear Beach to China Beach
Why stop a good routine when you already have it going? As we had done for the past four mornings, we packed up our things, had some granola bars for breakfast, and hit the trail by 9am.
We progressed quite fast on this section of the trail, mostly motivated by the thought of greasy food on the ferry back to Vancouver. This section weaves through the forest and eventually ends up on the spectacularly sandy Mystic Beach. We stopped here for a snack to take in the view. There were quite a few campers set up on the beach here … for good reason.
After a quick snack, we embarked on the last 2km of the trail. This section of the trail is very popular with day hikers, so has some fancy boardwalks and suspension bridges which allowed us to move quite quickly.
Finally, we arrived at the southern trailhead of the Juan de Fuca trail after 47km and four days of all the weather we could have possibly imagined. We changed into some clean clothes we had left in the car and drove back to Victoria to catch our ferry, where we indulged in some incredibly well-earned White Spot burgers and fries on our ride back to the city.
Summary
The Juan de Fuca Marine Trail was a really good way to push my multi-day hiking experience. Having not done the West Coast Trail before, I cannot compare the two trails, but given that the Juan de Fuca is much less expensive and does not need to be booked in advance, it seems like a more realistic option for a lot of people.
If I have the chance I would love to go back and camp overnight at Sombrio Beach and/or Mystic Beach, as those were absolutely stunning.
Is the Juan de Fuca Trail on your hiking bucket list?
