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Description

Aylard Farm is popular with picnickers, and those looking for easy excursions. A five minute walk through open fields leads to a pocket beach where you can discover intertidal life, or watch river otters scurrying across the sand. Trails head inland to hilltop views, or along the rugged Coast Trail. Aylard Farm parking lot has parking for more than seventy vehicles (summer overflow parking also available), room for full-size buses, and four accessible parking stalls.

Aylard Farm to Becher Bay user-friendly trail is 300 metres one way. It has a smooth gravel surface and gradual slopes less than 6% through old farmland and coastal forest environments. Enjoy ocean views from the rest shelter. There is an accessible toilet at both ends of the trail. There is an accessible toilet at the trailhead, picnic shelter and picnic area.

Anderson Cove, on the Sooke Basin, is the starting point for hikers heading to Babbington Hill and Mount Maguire. The trails to these hilltops are steep with uneven terrain. At the top bald eagles, turkey vultures and red-tailed hawks join you for sweeping views of the Olympic Peninsula. Anderson Cove parking lot has room for more than twenty vehicles and room for mid-size buses. Pike Road parking lot offers parking for twenty plus vehicles and room for mid-size buses.

Pike Road is the most westerly access to the park, and to the Coast Trail. An old logging road with a smooth gravel surface and gradual slope less than 6% winds through forest to meadow; a short steep trail leads down to Iron Mine Bay beach. Here, at low tide, look for periwinkles, goose-neck barnacles and purple sea stars, but do not remove.

Pike Road to Iron Mine Bay user-friendly trail is one and a half kilometre one way. It has a smooth gravel surface and gradual slopes in a forested environment. Enjoy ocean views from the rest shelter. There is an accessible toilet at both ends of the trail.