Discover Sooke Blog – Avatar Grove in Port Renfrew

Over the long weekend, Mrs. Discover Sooke and I, made the trek west from Sooke to Port Renfrew to visit the much talked about piece of land with a few remaining first growth forest trees standing on it. This piece of land has been dubbed “Avatar Grove”, after the movie, for its large and gnarly trees.

It took us about an hour and a half to drive there from Sooke. The directions we got were really good and had no problem in finding this plot of land which has been slated for clear cutting at any moment.

Regardless of your stance on forestry and the industry, there is something to be said about any large first growth trees and just leaving them be.

We wandered around for an hour or so taking in the lush west coast rain forest and forest floors lush with ferns and moss.

There are two sides to the Avatar Grove. The upper grove and the lower grove. We managed to wander around the lower grove and Mrs. Discover Sooke is 8 months pregnant and the steep trek up to the upper grove proved to be a little hard for her to manage.

After we left, we decided to take the rest of the Pacific Marine Circle route to Duncan and Cowichan Bay to eat some dinner, then head back to Sooke on highway #14.

There were MANY people driving this newly paved route and many people camping alongside the route. One of the nicest stops we made between Port Renfrew and Duncan was the Harris Creek Canyon. The road follows along this river for many kilometers and we stopped a couple of times to take in the roaring water crashing through the canyon, which can be seen on this video. The sun was out and the weather couldn’t have been better for this trip.

Please enjoy.