Nature
The West Coast Trail runs along the southwest coast of Vancouver Island between Bamfield and Port Renfrew, following a rugged shoreline of beaches, rainforest, bogs, and creeks within Pacific Rim National Park. Long used by Indigenous communities for travel and trade, it was developed by the Canadian government in 1907 as the Dominion Lifesaving Trail after the wreck of the SS Valencia, linking shelters, telegraph lines, and rescue points along the dangerous Graveyard of the Pacific. Though later adapted for recreation and incorporated into the park in 1973, it remains physically demanding, shaped by storms, tides, conservation concerns, and ongoing Indigenous presence.
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