Before You Go
- Parking costs $2 for 2 hours or $5 until sunset. Your pass works across all three lots, so you only need to pay once, no matter how much of the park you cover.
- Getting there from Victoria takes about 30 to 40 minutes. Head west on Highway 14 through Colwood, continue into Sooke, and then follow Sooke River Road up into the park.
- You need a car. There is no transit to Sooke Potholes.
- There is one road in with three parking lots. Lot 1 is closest to the entrance and steps from Crescent Beach. Lot 2 is the most useful lot if you want to explore the trails. Lot 3 is the furthest up and closest to the potholes viewpoint. The distance between the lots is short, but the climb on foot from Lot 1 to Lot 2 is a real uphill, so if you know you want to be up at the trails, it is worth driving up rather than walking.
- Know the rules. Conservation officers are active here, and they do enforce them. While we were there, we watched a local get a $500 fine for having his dog off-leash. The most commonly ticketed things are dogs off-leash, unpaid parking, smoking, and alcohol. We also saw people with beers and dogs running fetch on the beach, so the enforcement isn't perfectly consistent, but the risk is real, and the fines are not small.
- The potholes and the fast-moving river sections are not for swimming. This needs to be said clearly. The water at the potholes moves fast, the undercurrents are strong, and the drops are serious. Go see it, because it is worth seeing, but stay back from the edge and don't get in the water here.
Where to Stay (Before It’s Fully Booked)
A Bit of History
The park gets its name from the large circular holes carved into the bedrock of the Sooke River, and the story of how they formed goes back about 15,000 years to the end of the last ice age. As the glaciers melted, massive boulders were carried along by the rushing meltwater, got lodged against the canyon walls, and were slowly ground into circles by the force of the current until they carved out the deep, smooth-walled potholes you can see in the rock today.
The Sooke River running through the park is also a significant coho and chinook salmon spawning river, and in the fall, you can watch the salmon run from inside the park, which is a pretty special thing to stumble across if you happen to be visiting at the right time.
Crescent Beach: The Main Event
Most of the cars in that parking lot lineup are headed to Crescent Beach, and Crescent Beach deserves every one of them because it is one of the best swimming spots on the South Island.
It is a big riverside beach with wide sandy patches and rocky sections where people set up for the day, and when we visited on a warm Saturday in early June, there were people of every age and description spread out along the shore reading, eating, wading, floating, jumping off rocks, and generally having a proper BC summer afternoon.
The river is cold mountain water, but it warms up in summer to a very swimmable temperature, and while it is shallow enough to wade along the shore, it gets deep enough further out that a pair of goggles makes a real difference. The river widens at this point, and even though the water is technically moving, you barely feel the current while you're swimming. There are reportedly some caves further upstream that you can dive down and look into with a basic pair of goggles, which we have not personally done but have heard about from enough different people that we believe it.
The main beach is spacious, and there are two smaller beaches to the left that are worth checking out if the main one is packed. My personal favourite spot is the rocky outcrop to the right of the main beach, where you get a clear view up and down the river, and there is usually a bit more room to spread out.
Sand Pebble Beach: The Quieter Alternative
Further up the road, closer to Lot 2, is Sand Pebble Beach, which is exactly what it sounds like: more pebble than sand, less busy than Crescent, and better suited to a quiet afternoon than a family swim day.
The water is the same clean river, but shallower here, which means it is better for wading and dunking than for proper swimming. You are not going to do laps, but lying down in the shallow water for a cold soak is very much on the table and on a hot day, it is amazingly refreshing.
This beach tends to pull a different crowd than Crescent. When we visited, it was mostly older couples with camp chairs soaking their feet and a few people reading in the shade, which is a perfectly good afternoon and sometimes exactly what you want. If you are travelling without kids and want somewhere calm to post up, this is the better choice.
The Sooke Potholes Viewpoint
The namesake of the park is a 3-minute walk from Lot 3 or about 10 minutes from Lot 2, and it is not what most people picture when they imagine a park viewpoint. There is no boardwalk, no interpretive signage, no railing. It is a series of rocky outcrops and cliff edges above the Sooke River, where you pick your spot and look down at the fast-moving water and the potholes carved into the bedrock below.
It is worth seeing. The water moves fast and runs a deep, clear green through the canyon, and the potholes themselves are a strange geological feature that is hard to fully picture until you are standing above them looking down. The scale of the canyon is also bigger than you expect from the road.
Be careful here, especially with kids and dogs. The drops are long, and the water below is dangerous. There are no barriers.
Mary Vine Falls
A 15-minute walk from Lot 2, Mary Vine Falls is an easy add-on if you are already parked up at the higher lots. The trail is flat most of the way with a short, steep section right at the end, well-signed, and straightforward terrain, though it is too rooty and uneven for a stroller or a bike.
One honest thing to know about the falls before you make them the centrepiece of your day: if it has not rained recently, they may be just a trickle. We visited at the end of May and were underwhelmed. The South Island does not get snowmelt feeding its waterfalls the way the rest of the province does, so the falls respond directly to recent rainfall rather than following a seasonal pattern. Visit after a wet stretch for the best experience, and manage your expectations if it has been dry.
The trail continues past the falls to Peden Lake, and further to Empress Mountain if you want a longer day, but if you are visiting BC for hiking, there are many more rewarding hikes elsewhere on Vancouver Island and on the mainland. Strathcona and the Sea to Sky corridor will give you a more satisfying experience than the trails past Mary Vine Falls. These are better suited to locals looking for a familiar mid-week hike.
The Todd Creek Trestle
The Todd Creek Trestle is a wooden railway trestle on the Galloping Goose Trail that a lot of cyclists roll straight over without stopping, which is a shame because it is worth a proper look. It is a smaller version of the Kinsol Trestle further north, and if you have not seen the Kinsol, this gives you a good sense of what those old rail trestles look like.
There are two ways to reach it. From Lot 2, follow the bike path near the Mary Vine Falls trailhead, and you will reach it without much effort since you are already at a higher elevation. From Lot 1, walk along the road to Todd Creek, cross the bridge, and look for a small unmarked path on the left side of the road leading into the forest and heading steeply uphill to the bike trail.
This approach is faster but steeper, not officially maintained, and a bit of a scramble in places. Going from Lot 2 is the easier and more sensible option.
How to Plan Your Day
- If you just want to swim: Park in Lot 1 and walk straight to Crescent Beach. Set up and stay as long as you want. This is the right call for most people, and you do not need to make it more complicated than that.
- If you want to see everything: Park in Lot 2. Walk to Mary Vine Falls first, then make your way over to the potholes viewpoint, then head down to Crescent Beach or Sand Pebble Beach for a swim in the afternoon. You can move your car up to Lot 3 for the potholes if you want, since your parking pass covers all three lots, but the walk from Lot 2 is short enough that it is probably not worth the hassle. What is worth the hassle is driving up from Lot 1 to Lot 2 if you plan to spend time in both areas, because that uphill on foot is a grind.
- If you want quiet: Park in Lot 2, skip Crescent Beach, and head to Sand Pebble Beach with a camp chair. Add Mary Vine Falls if you feel like a walk first.
- If you are on a bike: The Galloping Goose Trail and the Todd Creek Trestle are your main draws. Park at Lot 2, and you are right at the trailhead.
Final Thoughts
Sooke Potholes is an easy half-day or full-day trip from Victoria and works well combined with a stop in Sooke for lunch on the way out or a visit to East Sooke Regional Park if you want to make a bigger day of it. Crescent Beach alone is worth the drive, and if you add the Potholes viewpoint and the falls, you have covered the best of the park without needing to rush anything.
If you're in the area for a few days, I would definitely recommend spending at least half a day relaxing at the potholes, and then giving another day to exploring Highway 14 between Sooke and Port Renfrew. There are at least a dozen worthwhile stops along the way, and the drive itself is quite the adventure.
FAQ
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