This is one of those spots that I've only been to once before several years ago. At the time I said I wouldn't bother coming here again, but I wanted to give it another try with a bigger tank so I drove down to the end of Salmon Rd. on Sept. 25, 2015. Years ago, the Land Title Act's public right-of-way at the end of Salmon Road was the only one in the area (North of Henderson Point) that had a cleared trail. This time, I drove down the other nearby roads (Nimmo, McPhail, West View) to see if the rights-of-way there had been cleared, but I still couldn't see any way for a diver to get to the water there, so it was back to Salmon Rd. As I mentioned last time, the trail here is a bit shorter than the trail to the popular McKenzie Bight entry, but steeper.
parking at the end of Salmon Rd.
trail
trail
end of the trail
end of the trail
the shore looking North
the shoreline
the end of the trail
Visibility in the shallows was about 20'. The water was full of stringy globs of plankton. Up close, they looked like they were made of strands of fine hair or fiberglass. I could feel them brushing against my face as I swam through them. The bottom sloped gently out from shore and was made of small broken rocks.
plankton
plankton
plankton
plankton
plankton
plankton
plankton
sargassum and other seaweed
I swam out and a bit to the left (South). At 40-50' deep I started to see some small, low rocky reefs. There wasn't much marine life around them, even for Saanich Inlet.
rocks
rocks
nudibranch on barnacles
Below 100' deep, visibility had improved to at least 50'. There was a slightly-larger rock reef here that bottomed out at about 115' deep. There weren't any sponges or anemones on it, but there were a few rockfish (quillback, copper, yellowtail). I continued swimming South at these depths and there were a few more solid rocky areas (again, with no sponges or anemones), but mostly it was a slope of small rocks.
rocky reef
rockfish
rockfish
tube-dwelling anemone
barnacles
baby California cucumber
small broken rocks
solid rock at 115' deep
plastic chair
lion's mane at 100'
I started to swim back up the slope and saw some more low rocky reefs at around 50-60' deep. These ones had a bit more life around them. There was a school of small yellowtail rockfish and an octopus den.
tube-dwelling anemone
yellowtail rockfish
longfin sculpin
crab shells at an octopus den
octopus den
crab and octopus
helmet crab
painted greenling
painted greenling
copper rockfish
old sunken boat
school of herring?
oil drum mooring
nudibranch
tunicates
pipe fish
gunnel
some kind of wheels and axle
Back in the shallows I had a look at the area around a dock to the South. There was a pile of riprap stones with some pipes leading out of it. These pipes ended in a coil, covered with wire mesh. I think it was for some kind of heat-exchange heating/cooling system for the house on shore.
near shore
plankton and riprap
riprap
pipes
coil of pipes
coils of pipes
coil of pipes
seastars under the dock
crab
dock near shore
cement structure
dock structure
sculpin
crab
crab
dock
shallows
shallows
My opinion of this place is the same as it was last time, years ago. I don't think I'll bother diving here again (although like last time, maybe I'll want to give it another chance in a few more years).
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