Owen Point, at about the 67km mark on the West Coast Trail is home to a stunningly colourful and well hidden area of sandstone caves carved out by the ocean. Centuries of crashing waves have gouged out huge, circular openings in the cliffs jutting out into the ocean. If the tide is low enough you can walk through a gap in the rock face and walk in behind one of the huge openings, like a giant window to the Pacific Ocean.
West Coast Trail Shipwrecks
Alaskan at 4k Soquel at 5k Sarah at 7k Becherdass-Ambiadass at 8k Michigan at 12k Uzbekistan at 13.8k Varsity at 17.6k Valencia at 18.3k Janet Cowan at 19k Robert Lewers at 20k Woodside at 20.2k Uncle John at 26.2k Vesta at 29k Raita at 33k Skagit at 34.2k Santa Rita at 37k Dare at 39k Lizzie Marshall at 47k Puritan at 48.5k Wempe Brothers at 49.4k Duchess of Argyle at 58k John Marshall at 62.3k William Tell at 64.2 Revere at 69k Cyrus at 75k
West Coast Trail Campsites
Pachena Bay Campground Michigan Creek at 12k Darling River at 14k Orange Juice Creek at 15k Tsocowis Creek at 16.5k Klanawa River at 23k Tsusiat Falls at 25k Cribs Creek at 42k Carmanah Creek at 46k Bonilla Creek at 48k Walbran Creek at 53k Cullite Cove at 58k Camper Bay at 62k Thrasher Cove at 70k Pacheedaht Campground
If you manage to get to Owen Point in the afternoon or evening on a sunny day you might be in for a wonderful light show. At just the right angle, the sun lights up the brilliantly vivid colours of the ocean carved rock all around you. Hundreds of shades of green and yellow light up the little world hidden behind and under these stunning caves. The cave narrows and backs against a vertical cliff of more erosion resistant igneous rock. Despite the seemingly solid, jagged rock wall behind you, the rainforest can be seen emerging from every crack in the rock. With your back against the cold rock face you look out at the layers of colour rising up to the ceiling of the cave lit up by the blinding reflection of sunlight off the ocean underneath. Looking up you suddenly realize that the ceiling of the cave you are looking at was the bridge you just crossed before descending down to the beach and entering this amazing place. The array of colours are a combination of layers of sandstone and a green slime that thinly covers the smooth rock. Though you are standing back from the actual cave while inside this beautiful little place, the forest above has grown over to block much of the sky above. This adds to the magical serenity of this beautiful place which glows all around you and above you is almost solid forest, lit up bright neon green by sunlight.
Owen Point West Coast Trail Map
Owen Point juts out into the ocean marking the entrance to Port San Juan which leads to the town Port Renfrew and the start or finish of the West Coast Trail. Owen Island is just a few metres offshore from Owen Point and is not much of an island. More of a reef with its flat top barely rising out of the water. If you are hiking from the Thrasher cove direction along the beach you will encounter the Owen Point caves when you see a narrow opening in the cliffs at the end of the beach. You can walk through the gap and enter this cool little world full of colours and peer through the wide cave at the beautiful ocean. On a sunny day the walls of the cave practically glow with the neon green slime coating the rock. When you back out of the cave, you will see a faint trail at the waters edge climb up on top of the cave, this is the route across the top of the cave.
The Name Origin of Owen Point
There doesn't seem to be any easy to find information on the naming of Owen Point or Owen Island which is located just a few metres beyond Owen Point. It is very likely that Owen Point and Owen Island are named after the Chief Officer of the SS Quadra, W.G. Owen. The Quadra was the only ship that patrolled the coastline in this area until 1908 when she was finally joined by additional vessels. She served as a rescue ship, supply ship, a fisheries patrol vessel and quite a lot more. With few lighthouses in service in those days, Quadra was usually the only ship available to take care of the whole west coast of Vancouver Island. In the years after after 1908 it was usual to have five lighthouse tenders patrolling the same region Quadra covered on her own for years. Captain John T. Walbran commanded the Quadra and of course Walbran Creek on the West Coast Trail is named after him. As Owen Point and Owen Island mark one side of the entrance to Port San Juan, it seems likely that this significant feature, with no known name would have been named by and after one of the crew of the Quadra.
Lighthouse Tender SS Quadra Shipwreck 1917
The lighthouse tender SS Quadra had quite an eventful history as a rescue and supply ship that came to a sudden end in 1917. In the entrance of Nanaimo Harbour in dense fog she was hit by the SS Charmer. Charmer collided directly into her broadside and ripped a huge gash into the side of the Quadra. With Quadra sinking fast, the captain of the Charmer quickly realized that her only hope was to be beached on the nearby shore. The SS Charmer then rammed the Quadra until she reached a shallow part of the harbour and was saved from disappearing under the waves and the crew could safely escape and much of the ships valuables could be recovered. The SS Charmer escaped the incident with comparatively little ship damage.
SS Quadra Shipwreck Recovered in 1920
The Quadra shipwreck remained in Nanaimo Harbour for just three years before she was refloated and repaired. She then was used as a rum runner during the United States prohibition in the 1920's. She ran booze from Canada to the US for years before being apprehended by the US authorities and sold for scrap.
The Amazing Owen Point Caves
Arriving at Owen Point from the north is pretty impressive as the caves are stumbled upon quite unexpectedly. Hiking along the rocky coast along the jagged shelf that barely rises above the water, you come to a tiny, mysterious looking beach exit to the forest. You only notice it by the thin, old rope dangling down a slope and disappearing into the forest beside a tree with a couple old floats hanging from it. These beach exits on the West Coast Trail are common of course, but this one is very different. It is steep, narrow and looks hardly used, so you start to think that it is a side trail to a viewpoint or something.
Into the deep rainforest you start to wonder where you are going as the overgrown and bendy route takes you deep into the dark forest completely blocking out the ocean you have been walking along for the last hour. Suddenly the ocean reappears as the narrow trail descends down toward the ocean.
You catch site of the hostile, rocky reef with a weirdly idyllic little island in the middle with a few hardy trees huddled together like survivors of a shipwreck. Is it rare that you find a ship friendly beach along the West Coast Trail and the Graveyard of the Pacific. Jagged reefs line the coast of much of Vancouver Island and countless ships over the centuries collided onto these reefs and pounded into pieces by huge beakers.
Arriving Above the Owen Point Cave
The thin trail descends quickly down to another rock shelf very different than the jagged one you've gotten used to. This rock shelf is clay like and smooth, sloping up from the swirling ocean several metres below. The rock shelf narrows and you look over the edge to see the ocean a few metres below swirling down the disappearing cliff. A few metres on and you begin descending down the smooth sandstone toward a sandy beach that has just come into view. It is only then that you realize that you have not just passed over a cliff, but a sea cave, the Owen Point sea cave.
The smooth sandstone cliff slopes down toward the hidden little beach that lays outside the narrow, gap entrance to the Owen Point cave.
A couple very old and thin old buoy ropes help you rappel down to Owen Beach. Rappel is an exaggeration, but they do help a lot, especially after rain when the green slimy slope is slippery. The wonderful shape of Owen Point is interesting. The relentless tide has eroded the sides so they are rounded, making it look like the bow of a ship jutting into the ocean.
Charmingly Beautiful Owen Point Beach
On a sunny day the little Owen Point beach is spectacular. Directly ahead is the Port of San Juan, the ocean channel that leads to Port Renfrew. Botanical Beach is just beyond in the distance to the far right of the picture. The smooth, green slope on the right is the route down to the beach from Owen Point where you just crossed over the Owen Point cave. All around you is the bright green glow from sunlight reflecting off the rock and rainforest behind and above you. Though the sunny day in May is only 17c, this protected oasis feels much warmer. The West Coast Trail has countless hidden corners of paradise like this. On first glance they are a far cry from the perfect white sandy beaches of Hawaii, but they have a different kind of captivating beauty about them. Maybe it is the messy, randomness about them. Rocky reefs and boulders jutting out of the ocean. An explosion of rainforest at your back arching above your head. And the constant curiosity you get while hiking along the West Coast Trail, when you never quite know what hides around the next bend in the beach or trail. When you are constantly surprised by one new beach radically different than the last, you can't help but be caught off guard and captivated by the hostile beauty of your newly discovered little corner of paradise.
The gap in the cliffs leading into, or rather behind the Owen Point sea cave. By the looks of it, the cliffs are constantly eroding and making this area bigger and hopefully even more impressive.
Cave View of Owen Island
Through the narrow gap you get your first view from the inside of the cave. Dark and rounded smooth sandstone gives off a greenish glow from the neon slime the coats some of the walls. You get the ominous feeling that you are inside a whale, looking out of its enormous mouth. Looking down the water flows calmly in and out, crashing lightly over the half submerged little reef at the opening of the cave. A couple hundred metres beyond you see the smooth, lifeless table top of Owen Island.
Looking out to the open ocean the cave has the feel of a pirate movie or shipwreck saga. When someone eventually makes a movie about the Valencia shipwreck, which seems inevitable as the events were extraordinary, this place would be a wonderful setting for a lifeboat coming ashore. There was a story told by some locals in the years after the Valencia shipwreck of finding a lifeboat full of skeletons in a cave near the wreck. Michael Neitzel, author of The Final Voyage of the Valencia is currently in the process of making a documentary about the Valencia.
As you back up to the end of the cave it arches over your head and you get an impressive look at the beautiful curves in the rock carved out by the ocean.
It is amazing to see the rainforest pouring out of every crevasse and angle of the rock. The smooth rock that is plant free is polished by the ocean, far inside hidden from the sun.
Rainforest Concealed Owen Point Cave
Looking back at Owen Point and the big Owen Point cave you just emerged from, you find it completely hidden by the rainforest spilling over the cliffs. The shadowy gap nearest the rocky slope in the left side of the picture below is where the cave hides.
Campsites Near Owen Point
Owen Point is 5km from Camper Creek at 62km
Camper Creek is very nice with towering cliffs on either side of the campsite and the clear water of Camper Creek flowing through. The only negative about Camper Creek is that it is often crowded with campers and you tend to get tents lined up along the treeline. On the plus side, it is a very social atmosphere and the surroundings are quite beautiful. Finding a campsite with a river or creek running through it is always a great bonus. Camper Creek is the first really good campsite from the Port Renfrew(Gordon River trailhead) direction. Still, it's spacious and well laid out with the creek cutting along the edge and around to the ocean. Another little negative about Camper Creek is the proximity of Port Renfrew. It's hard to get the wilderness feeling when you can see boats pass by every minute and cruise ships in the distance. Camper Bay is often home to quite a number of campers. You always find the campsite lined with tents along the treeline packed so close together as to hear each others conversations. A bit too cozy, but on the other hand, Camper Bay is a great place to socialize with fellow campers. The linear tent site arrangement make it necessary for you and others to walk past several tents to do almost anything. So you get fairly well acquainted with your fellow West Coast Trail hikers. The trail from Camper Bay in both directions is pretty brutal with ladders and erratic terrain, so you and your fellow campers with be exhausted. Cullite Cove is a wonderful campsite on the West Coast Trail at the 58 kilometre mark. One of the nicest campsites you will find on the West Coast Trail. It has everything, a lovely wooded area with clearings for tents and campfires. Stunning views all around. A terrific, rocky beach, beautifully hemmed in by beautiful cliffs on either side. Cullite Creek pours into the cove, making for a stunning, albeit freezing swim into the surf. The campsite here is often very quiet as everybody seems to camp at Camper Creek just 4 kilometres away and doesn't even drop down the short detour off the main trail to Cullite Cove.
Camper Bay campsite continued here...
Owen Point is 3km from Thrasher Cove at 70km
Thrasher Cove at the 70km mark of the trail has a lot of good aspects as well as some bad. In terms of good, the beach is very pretty and quite interesting. Not a broad and long beach, the beach at Thrasher is quite varied with rock outcrops and constant bends. You can easily keep yourself amused by wandering down the beach, poking your head around every new corner. Back at the campsite, the beach tent sites are backed by an alarmingly abrupt ascent to the main trail. The outhouses at Thrasher Cove are perched up in the trees above the beach and looking around, you feel the embrace of the trees all around giving just narrow glimpses of the ocean. As for bad, Thrasher Cove is generally crowded with fellow campers, and you may find yourselves elbow to elbow with a dozen or more tents in an increasingly confined area. The problem, of course is the narrow beach and abrupt cliff at your back. This does, however, give you a wonderful feeling of how the West Coast Trail truly is. Wild rainforest behind you with ladders attached to the steep terrain and a beautiful ocean in front of you. The biggest negative about Thrasher Cove is the lack of a nice, flowing river or creek. There is a small creek nearby, but often flows at a trickle. The next campsite if you are headed north, having just started the trail is Camper Creek, which has a great big, crystal clear creek bending around the campsite.
Thrasher Cove campsite continued here...
West Coast Trail Campsites
The Valencia Disaster
The West Coast Trail by Day
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