West Coast Trail Closed for 2020
The West Coast Trail will be closed for 2020 and reopen in 2021.
There are lots of options to getting to the West Coast Trail. The trail is linear so you have to arrange to get to the trailhead as well as from your exit trailhead. Most West Coast Trail hikers drive to one trailhead then bus to the other and hike back to their car. Others take the West Coast Express bus from Victoria to one of the trailheads and take the same bus back to Victoria.
Prologue- Chapter 1: The West Coast Trail
- Chapter 2: When to Hike & Fees
- Chapter 3: Trailheads
- Chapter 4: Getting There
- Chapter 5: Considerations
- Chapter 6: Campsites
- Chapter 7: Shipwrecks
- Chapter 8: Routes
Hike the West Coast Trail
Day 1 Pachena to Darling Day 2 Darling to Tsusiat Day 3 Tsusiat to Carmanah Day 4 Carmanah to Walbran Day 5 Walbran to Cullite Day 6 Cullite to Camper Day 7 Camper to Thrasher 
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
The West Coast Trail Express
West Coast Trail Express Inc. provides shuttle bus service(May 1 to September 30) from Victoria and Nanaimo to the trailheads and between the trailheads of the West Coast Trail and the Juan de Fuca Trail. The West Coast Trail Bus picks up and drops off passengers at Victoria, Sooke, Port Renfrew, Gordon River, Mesachie Lake, Honeymoon Bay, Nanaimo, Nitinat, Pachena Bay, and Bamfield. In 2017 the prices were $110 Victoria to Pachena Bay, $90 Port Renfrew to Pachena Bay. These prices may seem expensive on first glance, however the route covers quite a distance of brutal logging roads. After you take into account of how much damage you saved on your own vehicle, the prices look pretty good!
West Coast Trail Express Bus (Victoria, Nanaimo, Bamfield, Nitinaht Junction, Port Renfrew)
Toll-free: 1-888-999-2288
Website: trailbus.com/
Reservations can be made using a Visa or Mastercard. Online - by using the secure reservation page online at trailbus.com Phone - by calling us toll free from anywhere in Canada at 1-888-999-2288, or at our Victoria office at 250-477-8700. Individuals can save 20%, groups can save 40%, on return fares by making return trip reservations. Changes to reservations can be made up to the reservation date with no penalty. Changes made within 10 days of the reservation date are subject to availability. If seats are not available for the new date, you can cancel your reservation ( the cancellation policy will apply ), or you can receive a credit for your fare which must be used in the same calendar year. Cancellations require 10 days notice to receive a complete refund(less a $5.00 administration fee). Cancellations received with less than 10 days notice will be charged 10% per day ( example: 9 days notice = 90% return, 8 days notice = 80% return, etc.) There will be no refund when no notice is given to the West Coast Trail Express Office. Hikers with reservations, finishing the trail any day before their return reservation date, and up to 2 days after, have priority seating on the bus. They are given seats on the bus before anyone without reservations. This is not a guarantee that these hikers will have a seat. If the bus is fully booked, and there are no seats available, these hikers will have to wait for the bus on the following day. We advise anyone who is going to be early or late to call our office and give us notice. The more notice we have, the more likely we can have seats available.
Ferry Services
Butch Jack Hiker Ferry Services (Gordon River Trailhead)
Tel: 250-647-5517 / 250-647-5434
Email: [email protected]
Lady Rose Marine Services (Passenger Ferry from Port Alberni to Bamfield)
Tel: 250-723-8313
Toll-free: 1-800-663-7192
Website: ladyrosemarine.com
Nitinaht Lake Water Taxi / Nitinaht Wilderness Charters / Parking at Nitinaht
Tel: 250-745-3509
WCT Information Centres
Information Centre
Tel: 250-728-3234 (Pachena Bay)
Tel: 250-647-5434 (Gordon River)
Ditidaht First Nations Visitor Centre and Store (Nitinaht Village)
Tel: 250-745-3999
Trail Accommodation
West Coast Trail Comfort Camping
Ditidaht First Nation – Ditidaht Development Corporation
Website: westcoasttrail.com
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 250-710-4453 (Hike)
Air Services
Pacific Seaplanes (Bamfield, Barclay Sound, Ucluelet, Tofino, Port Alberni, Port Renfrew, Nanaimo, Victoria and Vancouver)
Tel: 250-616-5858
Website: pacificseaplanes.biz
Taxi Services
Bamfield Taxi
Tel: 250-728-3363
Road Conditions
Road Reports
Toll-free: 1-800-550-4997 (automated)
Toll-free: 1-800-661-2324 (person answers)
Website: drivebc.ca
Weather & Marine Conditions
Weather Forecast
VHF Channel: 21 B
Tel: 250-726-3415 (automated forecast)
Website: weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca
Marine Weather
Website: weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/marine
Tides
Website: waterlevels.gc.ca/eng/find/zone/11
Fishing and Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning Information 24 hour line
Tel: 604-666-2828
Toll-free: 1-866-431-3474
Website: dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Hike the West Coast Trail
Prologue 1: The West Coast Trail 2: When to Hike & Fees 3: Trailheads 4: Getting There
5: Considerations 6: Campsites 7: Shipwrecks 8: Routes
The West Coast Trail Guide
When shipping in and out of Juan de Fuca Strait rapidly increased in the mid 1800's and alarming and costly number of ships were lost, the need for a inland trail was realized. It would take decades, and many more brutal and costly shipwrecks in the waters leading to ...
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The West Coast Trail is incredible. Everything about it is amazing. From the wildly, incomprehensibly enormous trees to endless jaw dropping views. And it's tough. Very tough. It is a trail that shouldn't exist. Hiking trails always form out of the easiest route worn ...
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The West Coast Trail hiking season is confined to just five months due to the dangerously stormy weather during the winter months. In the winter the days are short, tides are high and heavy rain and strong winds are frequent. Hiking the trail in the summer is tough ...
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There are three entry/exit points for the West Coast Trail, however the midway entry/exit point at Nitinaht Narrows is for hikers only hiking part of the trail. The two main entry points are at Pachena Bay in the north(Bamfield) and Gordon River in the south(Port ...
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There are lots of options to getting to the West Coast Trail. The trail is linear so you have to arrange to get to the trailhead as well as from your exit trailhead. Most West Coast Trail hikers drive to one trailhead then bus to the other and hike back to their car. ...
Read more
The West Coast Trail is a very tough hike. About one out of one hundred hikers don't make it, they need to be rescued. That's why there are so many fees. By the time you are done preparing and registering, you laugh at how hiking got so expensive. Isn't hiking usually ...
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West Coast Trail Campsites
The campsite at Klanawa River is quite nice because of its lovely, swimmable river, expansive beach and serenity relative to other West Coast Trail campsites.. Though the beach is a thick, tangle of driftwood, you can still manage to find cleared areas perfect for a ...
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Walbran Creek at 53k is home to possibly the best, and most unappreciated campsites on the West Coast Trail. The Walbran Creek campsite encapsulates so much that makes the West Coast Trail truly wonderful. The expansive beach which seems purpose built for ...
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The Pacheedaht Campground is a beautiful, and often bustling campground, quite close to the Gordon River trailhead for the West Coast Trail. Pacheedaht Beach is exactly what you would hope for in a Vancouver Island, west coast beach. It is a two kilometres long, ...
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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 WCT. It has everything, a lovely wooded area with clearings for tents and campfires. Stunning views all around. A terrific, ...
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West Coast Trail Shipwrecks
At about 47 kilometres along the West Coast Trail you will pass the final resting place of the Lizzie Marshall. On February 7th, 1884, this 434 ton American ship headed out of San Francisco to an ...
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The Alaskan was a small, wooden hulled steamship of 150 tons built in Oregon in 1886. She was owned by a Vancouver freight company and was on route to Kildonan in Barkley Sound with 100 tons of box ...
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The Puritan was a 4 masted schooner of 614 tons sailing inbound from San Francisco in ballast. She was heading for Port Gamble in Washington to pick up a load of lumber when the crew failed to ...
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The Valencia is usually regarded as the worst shipwreck disaster in the West Coast Trail and the final impetus for the creation of the West Coast Trail. The SS Valencia was an iron-hulled, 1600 ton ...
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The Robert Lewers was a 185 foot, four masted schooner of 732 tons, built in Port Blakely, Washington in 1889. She was wrecked just past kilometre 19 on the West Coast Trail, just half a kilometre ...
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Day 1 on the West Coast Trail hiking south from the Pachena trailhead is a fairly relaxing first day. Your first beach, Pachena Beach is a lovely, wide, sandy arch that stretches to a thick wall of ...
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Day 6 on the West Coast Trail is another short, yet brutally challenging day hiking between Cullite Cove and Camper Bay. The ladders and mud sections are numerous as you snake your way through the ...
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The route from Darling River to Tsusiat Falls is just under 12 kilometres and quite a lot of that distance can be hiked on the beach. From Darling River you can take an inland route or walk along the ...
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Day 5 on the West Coast Trail is a stunning, very difficult and tremendously enjoyable day of hiking. Walbran Creek is gorgeous campsite to wake up to. Your tent will open up to a sweeping view of Juan ...
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