This panorama shows the beach of Florencia Bay. The skies were slightly overcast, and the tide was low when the panoramic image was taken. Like most of the beaches in the Pacific Rim National Park, the beach of Florencia Bay is backed by tropical rain forest.

Florencia Bay Beach - Pacific Rim visitor guide showing a virtual tour of 'Florencia Bay Beach' linked to an interactive map with local and travel information. 360° panoramas from Vancouver Island.

Florencia Beach is one of the closest beaches in the Pacific Rim National Park to Ucluelet on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It is in the Long Beach section of the park, close to Shorepine Bog and /1945/Pacific_Rim/Wickaninnish_Beach.

Access to the beach is via a short trail from the car park which, at the beach end, descends steps down a steep hill through the forest. The beach itself is sandy and quiet, lined with driftwood logs washed up in past storms.

Shpwreck of the Florencia
The beach is named after the shipwreck of the Florencia. A plaque at the beginning of the trail to the beach states: 'In January 1861, the brigantine Florencia, homeward bound to Peru with lumber from Victoria, became unmanageable and drifted helplessly to the Nootka area where HMS Forward finally took her in tow. But Forward developed engine trouble and the luckless Florencia, cut adrift, shattered on the islet in the bay. Until 1930, Florencia Bay was known as Wreck Bay, a name still in common usage.'

Kaacumin - Pebbles on Florencia Beach
There is a First Nations story behind how Florencia Beach got it's pebbles. As a local information board reads: 'Thunderbird and Skate decided to play a game on the beach where they tried to spear one another. Thunderbird had the first throw of the spear. When Thunderbird threw, Sakte turned sideways and the spear missed him. Skate took his turn and threw the harpoon. Thunderbird created lightning and hail so Skate wouldn't be able to see him. Neither Skate nor Thunderbird were hit, but it is said the hail remained on the beach and turned into pebbles. Future generations are warned never to remove pebbles from this beach because it is said Tunderbird will create fierce hail and lightning.'

The road to Florencia Bay comes off the road to /1945/Pacific_Rim/Wickaninnish_Beach, about 5km from Ucluelet and some 35km from Tofino in the Pacific Rim National Park. Visitors must Must purchase a Park Use Permit, available at the car park.