There is something beautifully desolate about Comber’s Beach in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. The wind constantly moves the sand to form ripples and low dunes. Large pieces of driftwood block sand movement and hollows form in the lee of the logs. Hardy beach plants struggle to survive in this harsh environment at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

At first glance, the arrangement of logs looks chaotic and random, discarded and stranded in the sand. Then patterns emerge and the work of the wind to shape sand in relation to the driftwood becomes clearer. This desolate beach is always changing as the constant wind moves the sand to cover or reveal the weathered logs left behind by ocean waves.

Water flowing out of Sandhill Creek also shapes this desolate landscape. At Comber’s Beach, the water level changes with the tide and season and consequently the course of the creek continuously alters the landscape. Over time, new views are revealed. Shorebirds come, feed and move on.

At first glance, Comber’s Beach may appear to be a desolate and empty place. The wind is constant and whispers the essence of this landscape. Ripples of sand and arrangements of stranded driftwood create a simple beauty. When you leave, moving sand erases any tracks you’ve left behind.