Tapaltos Beach

Tapaltos Beach—spelled Topaltos in the park's route information—is a crescent-shaped Pacific beach on the Cape Beale headlands, reached from the Cape Beale Lighthouse Trail. I'd take the branch for a beach walk in a remote stretch of coast, but it isn't a quick roadside stop: the approach is challenging, muddy, rooty and slippery, with log crossings.

The trailhead is at the end of South Bamfield Road. The junction is about 1.5 km in; take the right-hand, west branch to the beach. Parking is signed about 400 m up the road from the trailhead. All day visitors to the Cape Beale headlands must register at the West Coast Trail Information Office at Pachena Bay. The wider trail has no outhouses or reliable fresh water, so plan for that before setting out.

Low tide gives you more of the crescent to wander and exposes the rocky shelves and pools. For a photo, put the tide pools in the foreground and the wooded headlands beyond. If you continue toward Cape Beale Lighthouse, check the tide first: the sand-flat crossing on that extension requires a tide of 1.8 m or lower. That restriction is for the lighthouse route, not access to the beach.

From the beach's southwest end, floats hanging from a tree mark the continuation toward Cape Beale Lighthouse. The lighthouse is 7 km one way from the trailhead, so the beach is an earlier branch, not the end of that longer walk. The extension follows the historic telegraph route between Bamfield and the lighthouse; remnants of the old line may still be visible.