Photo: Tourist Exploring Rainforest Pacific Rim National Park

This picture shows a tourist reading an interpretative sign while exploring the Rainforest Trail in Pacific Rim National Park, Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

A tourist reads an interpretative sign on the Rainforest Trail in Pacific Rim National Park on Vancouver Island, British Columbia while exploring along a boardwalk near a set of wooden stairs, surrounded by moss-covered trees.

The Rainforest Trail comprises two loops of trails. The first one is a one kilometre (five-eighths of a mile) loop that enters dense vegetation groves with ancient trees and young saplings; some of these young seedlings were well on their way to being large trees when Europeans first saw the coast of North America.

The interpretive signs not only supply information about what the tourist is seeing but also explain how the forest's ecology has evolved over the eons. The second trail is also about one kilometre (five-eighths of a mile) long and takes the tourist through the various stages in the growth cycle of a forest. ... continue below the picture...

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... Each loop takes about 40 minutes to complete and neither is wheelchair accessible.

Visitors interested in botany will be looking for the epiphytes, plants that feed on the nutrients in the air brought in by rain and fog; the dwarf mistletoe that can shoot its seeds up to fifteen metres (49 feet) away to infect the plant as a parasite; nurse logs and the many plants that have adapted to living in the shade.

Both the loops of the Rainforest Trail of the Pacific Rim National Park take the visitor through the temperate rainforest of the British Columbia coastal region. Rainfall on the Pacific Coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia averages about 304 centimetres (120 inches) per year and temperatures are mild with about 220 frost-free days a year. Snow is rare but with that amount of rain, the boardwalk Rainforest Trails can be slippery and the visitor is warned to watch underfoot. The area is known for stormwatching in the autumn and winter months especially.

Visitors can access the Pacific Rim National Park and the Rainforest Trail by travelling along Highway 4 past Port Alberni and towards Tofino. The road is winding and at times narrowed by jutting rock ledges with majestic views of mountains, forests and lakes along the route. Both Rainforest Trails of Pacific Rim National Park are located about 16 kilometres (under 10 miles) south of Tofino, British Columbia on Vancouver Island.

Woman reading an interpretive sign along the Rainforest Trail in the coastal rainforest of Pacific Rim National Park, Long Beach Unit, Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, West Coast, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.