Horseshoe Bay & Whytecliff Park Scuba Diving

Our travels north of Vancouver took us to the wonderful little village of Horseshoe Bay, one of the main ports for BC Ferries. The majority of visitors to Horseshoe Bay travel there specifically to catch ferries to numerous destinations, including Nanaimo and Victoria on Vancouver Island, but there is one lane off of Highway 1 that instead of taking you to the ferries, brings you to the village of Horseshoe Bay. It’s well worth the side trip if you ever have a chance. It was raining really hard while we were there, but I managed to shoot a few photos before getting completely soaked.

On the way out of the village, we found our way to Whytecliff Park, which has absolutely stunning views of Howe Sound. At first we thought we saw people having a picnic, which was odd considering how hard it was raining. When we took a closer look we discovered that it was scuba gear spread out on the picnic tables. That seemed a bit odd, but looking out at the cove, we saw several divers in the water and others suiting up on the beach. We spoke with one of them and he explained that this area was Canada’s first Salt Water Marine Protected Area (MPA) and is known worldwide as an excellent scuba diving location. Here are some photos I shot of Whytecliff Park, including the unexpected sight of people scuba diving off the coast of BC on a cold and rainy day in February.