Port Renfrew, with hikes to Botanical Beach, Mill Bay, and Parkinson's Creek Beach

Ryan and I took two nights to ourselves and visited Port Renfrew. We stayed at Soule Creek Lodge.
The lodge is at the top of a small mountain and it accessed by a well maintained gravel drive way. The drive was steep and narrow, but manageable.

The lodge has a large upstairs room with wonderful views of the straight and inlet. Both breakfast and supper are served here. Wi-Fi is available in the lodge, but not in the Yurt's. This main room is nicely decorated with first nations art.

The Green Yurt we stayed in was large and beautiful. It stayed warm and felt like luxurious camping. We enjoyed the 200 degree view from the windows and deck as well as the domed skylight that allowed us to see stars from the bed.

The room has a couch and 2 tables as well as microwave, fridge and kettle. It does not have a TV or Wi-Fi, phone or cell service. (Cell service ended shortly after leaving Sooke.)

Behind the lodge is a large hot tub with a deck that has a gazebo. The view is wonderful from this spot and might make a nice spot for a small wedding. Robes, slippers and towels are available in the lodge.

Breakfast was delicious and substantial. Served between 8-9 am, the time was a bit early, but there are few options for food in Port Renfrew, so we set the alarm to be up in time. Supper is served at 6:30 pm and costs about $35 per person. Each day brings a new local cuisine dish. We had Citrus Almond salad, Steel Head Trout with red pepper rice and citrus veggies and decadent flourless chocolate cake with home made vanilla ice cream. As an added bonus, we were able to watch the sun set from our table. We were welcomed to bring our own wine to supper.

The trickiest part of the whole trip was the highway from Sooke to Port Renfrew. Wow! That is a challenging drive! Thankfully I was able to navigate all the twists, turns, hairpins, inclines, washouts, one lane sections and narrow sections during daylight hours! 

We did 3 hikes during our stay. These first photos are from Mill Bay and the hike down to it. This was like a nature walk. Nothing too strenuous. The Bay was beautiful, with a neat knot of twisted roots near the beach head. The tide was coming in pretty fast, so there was not much beach accessible to us.

 Ryan got this neat photo on the hike back up to the car.--->

The Seagulls were near the Port Renfrew Hotel.

Our second hike was more adventurous and was part of the Juan de Fuca trail. We did the segment down to Parkinsons Creek Beach. The afternoon we went was the day of the 'super Moon' so there were some BIG waves. Even before we could see the ocean, we heard  the huge thunderous crashes and felt the low rumble in our chests. Standing on that beach was awesome. We could see the western tip of Washington State across the water, then, nothing! Just open ocean. It was beautiful and powerful. 

This hike was SO worth it!

 The rocks at Parkinsons Beach were odd. It looked like really pebbly cement formed into Hoodoos. There was very little in the way of shell fish or annenomies at this beach. I think it's just scoured clean by the waves. 

The morning we left, we visited Botanical Beach. You have to time that for low tide, which was around 9 am. There are not too many photos of that beach because it's really hard to photograph things under water!

The pools are all over the place and shell fish are everywhere too. Some of the pools looked to be over 5 or 6 feet deep.