Peaceful Sunset at Vargas Island

Vargas Island is relatively flat, with much of the island's interior featuring bogs. The park area also includes the Cleland Island Ecological Reserve, home to a great diversity of nesting sea bird colonies.

Species that can be viewed include the Rhinoceros Auklet, Cassin's Auklet, Pigeon Guillemot and the Black Oystercatcher. Access to the 8 hectare island is prohibited, as the breeding seabirds are very sensitive to disturbances.

Many marine features are represented in this 5,788-hectare park, including exposed rocky coast, sand beaches, sheltered channels and bays, an intertidal lagoon and mudflats. The park is also home to ancient sand berms - rows of crescent-shaped sand mounds that indicate earlier sea levels. These berms can be seen on the historic 3-km telegraph trail, which crosses the island from east to west. Magnificent Ahous Beach, on the island's west coast, provides excellent camping for kayakers who braved the Pacific swells and hikers who trekked the old telegraph trail from the east side of the island.

Vargas Island has one of the highest concentrations of Nuu-chah-nulth heritage sites in Clayoquot Sound. The traditional territory of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation incorporates much of the western portion of Vancouver Island.

Vargas Island offers an excellent vantage point for observing marine mammals. Naturalists are drawn to this area every spring as Gray Whales migrate through the offshore waters en route to their summer feeding grounds in the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea.