I was looking at the CRD's online zoning map, searching for public beach access lanes and I noticed one off Lockehaven Dr. near Telegraph Cove in the 10-Mile Point/UVic area. It's about 65 meters long and is between houses 5000 and 5010. This also happens to be the place where the 20-meter contour line on the marine chart comes closest to shore along this coastline (except for the 10-Mile Point dive site of course). From what I've experienced, this area can also have some ripping current so I had to wait a few days until the current table (Baynes Channel correction on the Race Passage table) showed a slack during a convenient time. This was on Jan. 21, 2011. The access trail is an uneven, rocky, muddy path that runs between the neighboring houses' fences. At the end, there's a driftwood-choked rocky beach with some small, exposed rocks just offshore. According to the chart, there's a flat, shallow area bulging out in front of the beach. The deeper, steeper area is off the right-hand point (when looking out from shore). I swam out from the beach and sure enough, there was a large flat area made up of large boulders and small rocky reefs topped with stalked kelp. I saw a few fish-eating anemones here, which is unusual for Haro Strait. Visibility was about 10 feet, which is usual for Haro Strait. This area (15-25 feet deep) was like a maze, with lots of sandy channels between the steep-sided reefs.  I swam out to the right to find the deeper area. I reached a slope of broken rocks and I followed it down to a flat bottom 65 feet deep. Some of the rocks were covered with whelks(?) laying eggs. There were also some larger steep-sided reefs here with clusters of urchins. I didn't see many fish. There were a few kelp greenlings and some small copper rockfish. There was a flooding current which forced me to struggle to swim against it. Eventually, I came to my senses and let it carry me back to where I started. I may come back to explore a bit more, but I wasn't very impressed overall. It reminded me of Spring Bay, but with less fish. I suppose that if this was a great dive spot, the road would be lined with "No Parking" signs anyway (this is an "exclusive" neighborhood).
Trail between fences
stalked kelp on small rocks
fish-eating anemone
fish-eating anemone
urchins on shallow reefs
sunflower star
stalked kelp in shallow area
urchins
stalked kelp
rocky slope and yellow whelk eggs
yellow whelk eggs 60 feet deep
looking down at sunflower star and anemone on flat bottom 65 feet deep
reef 60 feet deep
urchins on deeper reef
whelks covering boulder
whelks and yellow eggs
white whelks and yellow eggs
anemone 50 feet deep
urchins at base of slope 65 feet deep
fish-eating anemone
rocks in shallow area
California cucumber and pink coraline algae
cement mooring blocks
cement mooring blocks
cement mooring blocks and chain
chain running up reef
mooring chain
mooring chain
mooring chain and stalked kelp
stalked kelp on shallower reefs
red seaweed in shallows
anemone and red seaweed
Surfgrass! In Haro Strait!
loose rocks in bay
parking on road next to trail
begining of trail on right
trail
trail
trail
Trail
trail
end of trail
logs on beach
beach with exposed rocks in distance
exposed rocks in shallow area
beach
where the poor people live
beach panorama
satellite image lifted from CRD mapping website