The Willowbrae trail is a quick, easy walk to the lovely Florencia Beach (otherwise known as wreck beach) near Ucluelet in BC. From there, there is a second trail through some gorgeous mossy forest to Half Moon Beach. Both beaches are great for rock pooling.  We loved the way these pristine beaches meet the rainforest; It’s such a quintessential look for the coastline on the West Coast of Canada.

Willowbrae trail & Half Moon Bay trail Map

Willowbrae & Half Moon Bay trails – the basics

Distance: 4.5 km to both beaches, or 3 km to Florencia (Wreck) beach
Note, this is the minimum distance if you don’t walk along the beaches. We recorded 7.5km visiting both.
Elevation gain: 100m-ish
Time: 2-3 hours (we recorded 2 hours moving time on strava)
What to bring: The 10 Essentials and swimming things
Cost: Theses beaches inside a Canadian National Park, so you need to purchase a parks pass.
Facilities:  Drop toilet at the trailhead. This trail and these beaches are quite wild.
Dogs: Dogs allowed on leads on both trails
How hard is it? Quite easy. Both trails are easy to follow with good signage so you’re unlikely to get lost. There are a lot of steps, so this is less suitable for people with mobility issues.

Getting Started

The trailhead for these beaches is at the junction of Willowbrae Road and Highway 4, 6km North of Ucluelet. There are a few spaces for cars to park, and then you can follow the obvious trail towards Florencia Bay.

The willowbrae trail is pretty short (around 1.4 km) and is mostly flat until the last 200m, where you descend a rickety old staircase down to Florencia Beach. This is the one known as Wreck Beach to the locals.

Rock Pools

Florencia Beach has an area to the left that is great for rockpools! I loved seeing the rocks that were absolutely covered in sea anemones.

Plus, if you are lucky, there might be multiple coloured sea stars too.

Florencia Beach

This is looking back from the far side of the beach, near the rockpools. We then went for a walk along the long, sandy section below the cliffs.

Florencia Beach has wide, flat areas that fill with water to act like giant mirrors. You can see the layers and layers of sand that makes up the cliffs above the beach, and the trees, clinging on at the edge!

We visited on an overcast day (which is not really unusual in the summertime near Ucluelet!) There was a moment when we got a pocket of blue skies!

Half Moon Bay Trail

Next we decided to hike onwards along the Half Moon Bay trail. If you are not used to the spectacular forests on Vancouver Island, you’ll LOVE this part. You get to wander past multiple giant, gnarled old growth trees.

There is a boardwalk the entire way, so the precious tree roots are protected from stomping hikers and tourists. There are also quite a lot of steps! You climb down about 60m, and the wood is a little old and rickety, so watch your steps!

Oh! And watch out for the happy half moons that have been carved into the boardwalk.

Half Moon Bay

This is a small beach, shaped a bit like a half moon, with rock pools to explore at either edge. It’s lovely, even on overcast days!

There are some lovely spots to relax and watch the Pacific Ocean swish in and out against the rocks.

Somehow we managed to visit when the beach was completely empty (in August!) But even if there were more people, I think this must always be a relaxing location. This is the view back towards those huge sandy cliffs along Florencia Beach. This joins up with the beeeautiful Wickaninnish beach, further along the coast.

Once you are ready to return. You just have to retrace the trail, back up the steps and then back along the flat easy section to the parking area.

Other beaches near Ucluelet and Tofino

The beaches near Ucluelet and Tofino are just fabulous. The three below are Tinwis (Mackenzie Beach), Chesterman Beach and Wickaninnish Beach

I am such a fan of the wild, beautiful beaches within the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve near Ucluelet. I especially loved this trail as the walk (and steps) put off some folks, so there is a chance these lovely locations will be quiet. We saw far more people at the easier to access spots like Long Beach!