South Pender Island Travel Guide

While searching for the ever-elusive "Poet's Cove" (a place that many locals suggested we check out for boat rentals), we stumbled upon Craddock Beach quite by accident. We drove down along South Pender Island, taking Canal Road to the southern end, until it zigzagged across the island and left us on a tiny little gravel road. We turned down a side street only to find a dead up, but discovered a sign saying "Beach Access". I parked the car and we got out and walked down the trail's staircase to one of the most beautifully remote beaches we saw on either of the Pender Islands.

The first thing I noticed at Craddock Beach was how despite being rocky, all the rocks were made of polished gemstones like agate and jade. The nearby cliffs were made of a peculiar conglomerate material of cobbles - the source of the beautiful rocks found on the beach.

Amid the sun-bleached driftwood and barnacle-covered shale, were random boulders of bright yellow sandstone. This sandstone had been eroded in such a way to give it a look of bubbles, which, according to one of my physical geography professors, claims that it's a unique type of erosion which is mostly found along Gulf Islands and isn't fully quite understood.

At low tide, Craddock Beach is great to explore because there are large shallow areas where tidal pools can be explored, where you can find barnacles, star fish, sea anenomes, sand crabs and hermit crabs. Watch out for the large crimson lion's mane jelly as it is poisonous and can often be found stranded on the beach.

You can do this anywhere on Pender, just have a little walk around, if you are staying at a hotel it's probably best to leave the immediate area as the deer tend to stay away from noise!