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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
