Gulf Islands National Park Reserve

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Narvaez Bay, Mount Warburton Pike and Lyell Creek areas.

Narvaez Bay is one of the most beautiful and undisturbed bays in the southern Gulf Islands. This area includes regenerating Douglas fir forest and Garry oak-arbutus ecosystems. Park at the gate at the end of Narvaez Bay Road, and walk past the gate and down the road to the bay. Be careful walking out on the rocky promontory, and stay well back from cliff edges: rocks may be slippery and the drop-off is significant. Stay on the main path to avoid trampling sensitive vegetation. Seven walk-in (1.7 km from trailhead) backcountry campsites are available.

The summit of Mount Warburton Pike provides breath-taking panoramic views of the southern Gulf Islands and the neighbouring San Juan Islands in the United States. At 397 metres (1,303 ft.), Warburton Pike is the second highest point of land in the Gulf Islands. The open, grassy slopes of the ridge are unique in the Gulf Islands, and the slopes and ridge itself are significant habitat for falcons and eagles. First Nations used this mountaintop for spiritual and sacred purposes. It was here spirit quest feathers (from eagles, owls and falcons) were gathered and people came for spiritual ceremonies and to camp. The road to the summit is unpaved, winding and narrow. The summit area is currently being rehabilitated. All vehicles (including bicycles) must remain within the marked parking area.

A trail descends from the Narvaez Bay Road to the mouth of Lyall Creek, passing through the forested heart of the island, and featuring a beautiful waterfall. Lyall Creek is one of the few remaining salmon-bearing streams in the Gulf Islands.

When a small group of volunteers began to restore a salmon stream on Saturna Island more than 10 years ago, no one could predict the future of the private land along the stream or the success of the group's conservation efforts.

Pacific salmon are remarkable for their ability to return to spawn in the streams where they hatched. A washed-out bridge and the culvert that replaced it kept the chum salmon from returning to Lyall Creek. Chum salmon—poor jumpers compared with the coho salmon and cutthroat trout with which they share the stream—simply couldn't make it to their spawning grounds. The chum salmon might have never had a chance to return without the efforts of Saturna Islanders. With support from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, they began in the early 1990s to incubate chum eggs in Lyall Creek and release the young salmon into the ocean each spring. By 2002, more than 400 salmon were returning to the stream. The volunteers helped by moving the adult salmon by hand across the still impassable culvert.

In 2003, the inclusion of the majority of the stream's watershed within Gulf Islands National Park Reserve brought additional technical and financial support for the restoration. That year, the Saturna volunteers, Parks Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Highways replaced the culvert and restored a damaged part of the streambed to a more natural state. More restoration work is planned for the future.