Camping at China Beach

This past weekend we went camping with friends at China Beach along the Juan de Fuca Trail. It was rather chilly weather all weekend but I think we all still had fun. We didn't get to hike much of the trail since there were children along but we did do a nice hike in the woods and along China Beach.

The forest trail down to the beach was a nice walk. There were a lot of stairs (which I was dreading having to climb back up). The weather was interesting there was some sun but also some fog rolling in from the beach. We checked out fungi and enjoyed some huckleberries and thimbleberries. And although we didn't get a good picture of them we did see a few stellar blue jays and heard a couple ravens.

There was plenty of evidence of the wind storms from this past winter. This poor tree looked like it just exploded. The wind this winter was worse than I can remember. It was the only winter where the wind was strong enough to knock out power at our home.

I loved this tree. It was just dripping with lichen. In general the forest was really dry. Most of BC has been battling forest fires. In fact there was a fire burning just up the way from where we were.

This was a fresh water stream flowing down from the forest into the ocean. It was so cold and refreshing. I love the green color of the trees in this picture.

The beach itself was beautiful. We were hoping to see some whales or seals but no such luck.

We did encounter a dead jellyfish. And we found some interesting animal paw prints in the sand.

Overall it was a really nice camping trip. We had hoped to do one more hike but unfortunately it rained on us and we were just too wet and cold to attempt a hike. Maybe next time.