This legacy site still works and is useful for detailed information that has not been transferred to the new website.

For the latest information, try the new site: qathet.prfhs.org/trail

The start of the historic Willingdon Beach Trail is located a five minute walk north of the Forestry Museum.

Just follow the beach until you come to this sign and a yellow gate by the creek.

The trail is approx. 1.2 km in length and takes about 20 minutes to walk each way through a forest of towering trees and along a beautiful oceanfront.

 The trail originated as a logging railway. Up to 1910, the Michigan-Puget Sound Logging Company railway dumped its logs at the site of the pulp and paper mill in the Townsite. When construction of the mill started in 1910, the railway grade was extended to a new dumpsite known as Michigan’s Landing.

On July 1, 1928, Michigan’s Landing was officially renamed Willingdon Beach after Lord Willingdon, the Governor General of Canada. The railway grade became known as the Willingdon Beach Trail.

When logging ended in 1918, the rails remained for about eight years, then Bill Fishleigh persuaded the Powell River Company to remove the ties so that the trail could be made into a cycle path. For 15 years, he kept the trail in shape without any remuneration because he liked to do it!

For many years before a road was built, this trail was the main access route to and from the mill for workers living in Westview. It is still used for this purpose today.

 As you walk along the trail, you are surrounded by a forest of majestic beauty, containing many different tree species, such as Broadleaf Maple, Red Alder, Douglas Fir, Grand Fir, and Western Red Cedar.

Some old growth trees survived the early logging and forest fires, and are a reminder of the great trees of our original forests.

Several of the trees and other vegetation have interpretation signs to help you identify them.

Several series of photos or the trail can be found here in the photo album

 You will also see a number of logging artifacts displayed along the trail. They have been placed there by the Powell River Heritage Society which also maintains the trail for the enjoyment of the public.

Enjoy your walk.

Along the trail you can also find historical evidence of the Sliammon Nation's life on the coast: shell middens, culturally modified trees, and remains of an intertidal fish trap.

Work Parties   

The trail requires regular maintenance. Volunteers from the Forestry Heritage Society clean up felled danger trees, keep the ditches clear, chip the windfall branches, empty the trash bins, add artifacts and signs; and rake the leaves.  More photos: