Earlier this week I went snorkelling on Salt Spring Island. Beaver Point in Ruckle Provincial Park is widely regarded as the best place to go snorkelling on that Gulf Island but this time I wanted to do a little exploring so I finally spent some time in the water at Grandma’s Beach.
The nearest place to park is in the small gravel lot just beyond the heritage farm site. From there it’s more than a 200 metre walk to the well-maintained stairs leading from a loop trail down to the shore. Unlike Beaver Point, the location is sheltered from the wind in all directions except from the southeast.
This first video shows what the site looks like from the water. The final frames look back at the entry/exit beach.
This second video shows some of what I saw. The visibility was typical for this time of year and the seasonal kelp was a major obstacle to seeing marine animals at a casual glance so I had to do a lot of poking around in the shallows to uncover invertebrate life. I have yet to identify the dorid nudibranch that shows up at around the 1:58 time stamp.
I would not travel to Salt Spring specifically to return to this site but will keep it in mind as a backup in case conditions are too rough at Beaver Point some day.
