PIW - Botanical Beach Pt.1

The Shorts and Gaiters Inaugural Adventure took place on June 5th and 6th of 2011. Karsten Klawitter and I have been on many wild and wonderous photoadventures and decided to take two days to explore the heck out of several sites around Southern Vancouver Island.

1 Places I've Wandered - Gonzalez Hill Sunrise
2 Places I've Wandered - Not Sooke Potholes
3 In Transit - From Sooke River to Botanical Beach

Places I've Wandered - Botanical Beach June 2011 Pt.1


Welcome to Botanical Beach! Sure.. we've been here before. Taking a Botanical Beach newbie along we've made annual trips out there for the past 3 years. Therefore when it came time to plan our Shorts and Gaiters Inaugural Adventure around Southern Vancouver Island we knew we had to make out here. And we arrived at low tide!

Pro-tip: Arrive at low tide so you can walk the beach and explore the tidal pools and all the park has to offer.


This park offers all sorts of amazing plants, animals, and geology


and if you have someone like the Island Alpinist around he'll want to scurry about the place (and sit on stoneheads like a gargoyle of stone heads)





The shoreline is frequently hammered by storms and waves that come in off of the Pacific. It makes for a wide array of erosive work on the varied underlying strata of stone. It also carves nifty caves.



High tide hides much worth seeing


Bull kelp rests motionless beneath the sky's reflection reflected upon by the Island Alpinist


He moves on, leaving behind the sea urchins at work in their hollowed out enclaves



Bull kelp swishes about just below the surface. Growing so plentiful and feeding the urchins who in turn used to feed sea otters. A balance existed once before the sea otters were hunted nearly to extinction and the urchins then consumed unabated the great kelp forests that once ran the length of the island




Sometimes my heart is tinged with sorrow. But I also know that all things change and move on. And that there will always be more as we grow and go forwards.


We're not finished at this beach, not by a long shot ;)
See you guys next time! :D

Thanks for your comments and support!
The Maplemusketeer