Pachena Bay is a wide Pacific beach south of Bamfield, beside the Huu-ay-aht community of Anacla. It is also the northern end of the West Coast Trail, which gives the beach a different mood from a simple picnic stop: people arrive here salt-stained, muddy, or just about to become both.
Even if you are not hiking the trail, Pachena is worth the drive for old-growth forest edges, beachcombing, and the feeling of being at the start of something much larger.