The best family-friendly hikes and walks in Beaufort East Woodlands

This easy, well-marked path leads you through a forest of tall cedar and fir trees to a beautiful waterfall. The most interesting thing you can see here happens in the late summer and autumn. If you look down into the river from the viewing platforms, you will see thousands of salmon swimming upstream.

You can watch salmon leap over the waterfalls or use the special "fish ladder" built into the rocks to help them reach their spawning grounds. It is an amazing sight to see so many fish jumping through the white water at once.

The Deep Bay Community Trail passes through coastal forests with moss-covered ground. Be careful when crossing small creeks and crossing over the railroad tracks. After rain the ground becomes muddy and slick, and in some notoriously muddy areas there are some flat wooden boards laid over it. The boards that have been on the trail for a few years are moss-covered and can also become slick, so trekking poles are advised after rain.

Deep Bay Marine Field Station is an educational centre popular with school field trips. Sitting right on the water's edge, this centre has a touch pool, wet and dry labs, and two marine vessels. There are also 11 hectares of shellfish farms right off the coast.

Deep Bay Marina is home to a dock, a boat launch, and the Ship and Shore Restaurant & Marine Fuelling Station. Deep Bay got its name from its deep, steeply dropping coastal shores but was once named Hare Bay. The name was changed to avoid confusion with other Hare Bays.

Lighthouse Country Regional Trail does not have a lighthouse view, but it is an accessible, almost flat, wide path through a lush forest. There are Sitka spruce trees, creeks, and lots of fungi due to the damp environment.

Lions Community Park is a neighborhood park with a parking lot, a playground, picnic tables, benches, a water fountain, and the Lighthouse Community Center. There is also access to the Lighthouse Country Regional Trail.

The waterfall can be reached by easy walking trails that wind through the lush forest and past rapids. The park is named after the pioneer who built the earliest sawmill in Port Alberni. One of the park's main attractions is the annual migration of thousands of Pacific salmon that circle in the pool below Stamp Falls before ascending the fish ladders on their way to the spawning grounds. Viewpoints along the river offer excellent views of the salmon battling their way up the falls. This natural phenomenon occurs every year, beginning in late August with sockeye salmon and continuing with coho and chinook salmon through December. Salmon are also the reason black bears come to the river.