Long Beach is the largest and longest

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

in the

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is a national park located in British Columbia, Canada, which comprises three separate regions: Long Beach, the Broken Group Islands, and the West Coast Trail. Its the Pacific Coast Mountains, are characterized ...

on the west coast of

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada. It is located on Wickaninnish Bay between

Tofino Tofino ( ) is a town of approximately 2,516 residents on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The District of Tofino is located at the western terminus of Highway 4 on the tip of the Esowista Penins ...

(NW) and

Ucluelet Ucluelet (, also Ukee) is a district municipality (population 1,717) on the Ucluelet Peninsula on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Ucluelet means "people of the safe harbour" in the indigenous Nuu-chah-nulth (No ...

(SE) and is adjoined by campgrounds and picnic areas. The Tofino-Ucluelet highway parallels the entirety of the beach. The beach's consistent surf, exposed to the open

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, established it as one of the earliest and most popular

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

locations in British Columbia. Long Beach features rocky 'islands' in the mid-tidal zone of the beach that are accessible only at low tide; when the tide is high, these islands are either surrounded by water or thrashed by ocean swells. In addition, dangerous

rip current A rip current, often simply called a rip (or misleadingly a ''rip tide''), is a specific kind of water current that can occur near beaches with breaking waves. A rip is a strong, localized, and narrow current of water which moves directly away ...

s exist around the larger islands, and to some extent in the open sea farther out. Unsupervised swimming is considered extremely hazardous, and park visitors have been swept from shorebound rocks during storm season; for this reason, beach access is restricted during heavy storm weather. Prominently posted signs warn about the danger of visiting the beach during high tide, as shorebound logs can be shifted unexpectedly by swells that wash onto the higher reaches of the beach.

References

External links

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve
at the Parks Canada web site
Long Beach history and natural historyArticle on Long Beach
{{coord, 49, 03, 00, N, 125, 43, 00, W, region:CA-BC_type:landmark_source:GeographicalNamesBoardofCanada, display=title Beaches of British Columbia Barkley Sound region Clayoquot Sound region Surfing locations in Canada

See also

References

External links