We left at 6 am to arrive with the low tides. From Holberg, Cape Scott Provincial Park is a 45 minute drive along a gravel road, and another 45 minute hike through coastal rainforest to reach the sandy shores of San Josef Bay. On either side of low tide, which was at 7:35 am on that particular day, there’s a two hour window to explore the sea stacks, sea caves, and islets that punctuate the bay.

The walk through the forest at that hour was both eerie and spectacular. A light mist hung over everything, and as with any dense forest on this island, there is always the chance of encountering animals like wolves and bears. We saw just birds and a nonchalant squirrel, unbothered by our presence and nibbling a young pinecone. I never get tired of this landscape, dripping with ferns and moss.

Eventually the forest opens onto the broad expanse of San Josef Bay, which at low tide, is broad and sandy far into the distance. Along the edge of the forest, campers were waking up for the day, moving their tents to the sun to dry and starting up their pots of coffee. We walked across the beach to the sea stacks – the thing I’d come specifically to see. These rocky outcroppings are part of the landscape when the tide is out, but when the waterline is high, they become little islets in the sea. Photographs really flatten out the dimensions, when moving around them in person there is always another appearing around the corner, dancing in and out of sight as you move, backlit by the sea.

We moved through the landscape, ducking into sea caves and turning corners. A wall of barnacles, snails, and little crabs crackled and popped with audible life, a cave revealed a cut in the cliffs leading up to the forest.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was at the foot of the two larger islands, sitting far across the beach just at the edge of the water. The bases of them were absolutely covered in anemones, a bright seafoam green in various states of unfurl. Nestled between them were hundreds – if not thousands of pisaster sea stars shouting out in brilliant violets and oranges, or blending into the stone in ochres and browns.

I don’t really know what else to say about this place, other than that it is magical in every sense of the word.