About the Broken Group: Forty years ago when kayaking was just beginning to become popular, the Broken Group Islands became known as the quintessential West Coast wilderness experience thanks to the established national park perfect for this new form of travel and recreation. Over time, the islands grew to become a victim of their own success, with crowded campsites and congestion. Over those years, however, the growing expertise of kayakers and the growing amount of information about other coastal destinations helped relieve much of the pressure here. This is providing a better opportunity to appreciate the Broken Group Islands for what they are: a trove of islands and passages perfect for kayaking with opportunities for viewing lagoons, sea caves, arches and a rich marine ecology. It will take more planning now, however, as a reservation system has restricted free access into the park.

The Broken Group is an appropriately small package for explorers of most skills levels. Most journeys begin at the Toquaht launch and campsite at Secret Bay. Ucluelet offers a more exposed route that is most often transited by water taxi to safely get paddlers to the protection of the archipelago and back.

About this mapsheet: This mapsheet packages the waters on the west shore of Barkley Sound from Ucluelet to Toquaht Bay including all of the Broken Islands and a portion of the Deer Group for a regional perspective. Those visiting all of Barkley Sound will want to ensure they have mapsheet #211 for the eastern extent of Barkley Sound including the Deer Group, Bamfield and approaches from Alberni Inlet.

The mapsheet layout: The layout is a regional overview on the full page of one side, and on the other side a detailed closer-perspective view of the Broken Group Islands and the approach from Toquaht Bay.

The mapsheet construction: The mapsheet is created by Wild Coast Publishing using some of the latest technology available to provide a high-quality printed image on waterproof/durable synthetic polymer stock. The stock is picked as the best for the purpose, and is significantly thicker than most papers at 10 mil weight.