Pachena Bay is located 13 km south of Bamfield. It is in the Pacific Rim National Park on the southwest end of Vancouver Island, BC. It was the location of a First Nation village which aboriginal oral history says was devastated when an ancient earthquake convulsed the West Coast of North America that sent a tsunami onshore in the 1700s destroying the original village.
Pachena Bay is the northern starting point for the west coast trail. The trail was built in 1007 as a rescue trail, it was then called the Dominion Lifesaving Trail. It was created to help facilitate the rescue of the survivors of shipwrecks that regularly occurred in what was known as the Graveyard of the Pacific. The West Coast Trail is open from May 1 until September 30 by reservation only.
Camping at Pachena Bay is awesome. The Pachena Bay Campground is right on the beach and you are only a few minutes from Bamfield where supplies can be bought. The Campground is situated in an old-growth forest that is up against the bay. On the northern end of the bay, the Pachena River flows into the Pacific Ocean. The campground offers RV and tenting sites approximately 70 sites, two washroom facilities, and a main shower house.