There are quite a lot of petroglyphs throughout British Columbia, Canada. Petroglyph Provincial Park (located near Nanaimo on Vancouver Island) has a collection of concrete replicas of petroglyphs as well as a rockface that is carved with some original carvings from the Snuneymuxw nation. The best bit is the area of original rock carvings including mythical creatures like sea wolfs. I liked that they have information and replicas of the petroglyphs so you can get up close and touch them, but the best part has to be the original carvings!

Trail to the Petroglyphs

The parking area is a pull off, next to Highway 1 in the south of Nanaimo, so watch out for the signs! There is a super short walk to reach the petroglyphs, less than 500m in a loop. You can’t go wrong; Follow the signs from the parking area.

Soft Sandstone

On the walk up to the petroglyph gallery you can see some of the local sandstone. It has plenty of holes carved by water over the years.

Petroglyph Gallery

At the end of the path, follow the trail left to reach the interpretive area. There are information boards with notes on how to decipher the petroglyphs as well as history about the area.

The gallery is made up of 8 concrete replicas of petroglyphs. Visitors are encouraged to make rubbings of the concrete versions of the carvings (that way you won’t spoil the originals.) They are not quite the same as the originals – more like copies than exact casts.

Original Petroglyphs

Slightly further up the trail there is a large sandstone area, covered in the real petroglyphs and moss. Right in the center you can see the mythical creatures, the sea wolfs. The provincial park website says these are 1000 years old, wikipedia mentions they are least as old as 10th century. So they were here long before Nanaimo.

Leave no trace

This park was established in 1948 to help protect the rock carvings. Stay on the designated trails to protect the petroglyphs and surrounding vegetation. There are more modern rock carvings, next to the originals – including English letters. Please don’t add to them!

Coast Salish people normally chose to create petroglyphs in locations that had special significance. These places are mystical or powerful to the people who lived here. This site was once a spiritual refuge for the Snuneymuxw.

More links

• You can find the Snuneymuxw First Nation website here and their Petroglyph development group here.
• There are more replicas of local Snuneymuxw on Gabriola Island in the Petroglyph Park.
• Nanaimo museum has activities for school children about Snuneymuxw rock art
• I mentioned it in my post about Mount Benson, but as part of reconciliation, in Jan 2024 part of Mount Benson was given back to the Snuneymuxw Nation from the BC government.

Fancy more Rock Art?

There are more than 500 examples of either petroglyphs or pictographs (ancient rock paintings) in BC, normally near water, caves or interesting rock formations. If you fancy seeing examples of pictographs, we found some when hiking in the Lower Stein Valley; Which has largest concentration of pictographs in Canada. We found more petroglyphs at Sproat Lake Provincial Park (also on Vancouver Island.) I’ll write about those soon.

This was quite a short stop-off, which makes it great as a mini-adventure on the way to or from the ferry in Nanaimo. After you have viewed part of Nanaimo’s ancient history, if you have more time, you can also try some of the more modern culture by trying a Nanaimo Bar at one of the local cafes. I hope you like the look of it all. Click on the pins below to save this for later.