Several brochures and blogs had recommended going to hike out to Jacks Point but the descriptions were very sparse and the pictures were terrible so I didn’t have high hopes. It turned out to be a really great hike and therefore this is a really long post.
From Jacks Point you look across the harbour to Nanaimo. The point is mainly used as the terminal for one of the ferries to Vancouver.
From the parking lot it is only 2.5 km out to the end. With all the wandering we did the GPS said we went 5.7 km. We really took our time as it took 4 hours to get back to the car.
 | From the things I read it seemed that most people stuck to the official shoreline trail. From the GPS track (pink line) you can see that we headed out on to the tidal flats as soon as we could. There were some amazing rocks formations that that you could not see from the trail. From what I had read I had no idea they were even there. Low tide today was at 1:28pm which was in the middle of our visit so we had lots of time to look around. We also spent a lot of time at the actual point, again off the trail, looking at all the tide pools on the rocks. |
From the parking lot we first had to cross under the highway to the ferry.
At around low tide most of the bay from the point across to Nanaimo is not dry but not under water. It would have been nice to get a high tide picture but when we came back it was still much the same.
The weather forecast had called for a cloudy morning but clearing in the afternoon. This line of sun teased us but we never seemed to be under it. Eventually it just clouded over again.
Believe it or not, the following picture was one of 5 I found on another blog. The rest were about as useful at describing the hike.
There was a saw mill on the other side of the highway. On the way out there was a nice smell of fresh cut cedar but on the way back there was a very strong chemical smell that made us hurry along.
There were not a lot of flowers to look at but the rocks made up for it.
Someone carved a fish into this rock.
Once we got down off the trail onto the tidal flats the scenery got really interesting. The stone along the shore is mostly sandstone, which has been carved into all kinds of wonderful shapes by the wave action.
We thought that this looked like an open fish mouth.
And this was a snake mouth with fangs.
Maybe a skull or Darth Vader’s helmet?
The next section had a great set of carved out caves.
This was a prime location for some photospheres. I took three so I will put all three here.
There are two Jennies in this one.
There were millions of shells for Jennie to check out.
Every little hole had a tiny crab poking its head out as you went by. As our footsteps went down the pressure would cause a small geyser from all the holes around it.
Off in the distance some people were looking for crabs.
The sky look a little angry but we just got cloud and no rain.
We picked one of the easily climbable caves for our lunch spot.
As we moved farther out the point, the water was starting to get closer to shore and there was no obvious way up so we went back a short way and climbed up to the official trail. It was not nearly as interesting.
Even right at the edge you were standing over the rocks so you couldn’t see the rock formations below.
Looking across to downtown.
This was the best view you got of the rocks from the trail.
The climb up, to do the loop at the end of the point.
There were lots of things to look in all the nooks and crannies.
Whereas, at the other beaches we have been to, there have been almost no sea stars, here they were everywhere. Some hiding in the cracks.
A lot were right out in the open.
We always expect them to be soft and squishy but they are quite hard.
Moving around to the other side of the point.
Checking out the rocks and forest with the ferry terminal in the background.
Watching the boats go by we noticed that the ferry was coming into sight around Gabriola Island.
So we decided to wait and watch it come in.
Jennie loved the curling graphic at the stern.
After it docked, we headed back to the car along the official path. There was still not a lot of water out there.
Watching the fishermen.
A really great hike.
Best hike yet! Love the rock formations and tide pools! Glad you made the decision to walk the flats!!
ReplyDelete