Photos: Spruce Bay Old Growth Trail – Port Alice

Located roughly 23 km from Port Alice along the shores of Victoria Lake and in the territory of the Quatsino First Nation, is Spruce Bay and the little-known Spruce Bay Old Growth Trail and Recreation Site.

Photo gallery: Spruce Bay Old Growth Trail

This easy 3.1 km loop passes through glade after glade of monumental old-growth Sitka spruce trees and winds through a second-growth stand that was logged in the 1960s. Massive spruce stumps dot the forest, a haunting memorial to a forest whose trees likely exceeded the largest Stika spruce trees growing today.

While Port Alice is promoting itself as the “sea otter capital of Canada”, this magnificent old-growth forest could be another major tourist draw, helping the community transition into an ecotourism destination.