Coastal Walking trails in the Comox Valley - Kye Bay to Air Force Beach

By Keith and Heather Nicol

     With the summer temperatures returning we decided to check out another sea side walk in the Comox area on September 13. This one goes from Kye Bay to Air Force Beach and is one of the few mostly sand beaches in this area. We parked at a medium sized parking lot at the end of Windslow Road (coordinates 49 42.456 N, 124 52.615 W) in Kye Bay. We headed to the left along the beach and even though the tide was relatively high (4.1 meters), there is plenty of room to walk. We saw a few people that had walked part way along the beach and were relaxing with a book or sun tanning. We found the best walking to be on some firm sand just above the high tide line and since we were walking in the mid afternoon much of the trail was in shade. If you want to walk route this in the sun then opt for a morning walk since the beach faces east. 

Heather walking toward Air Force Beach in the distance

     The beach has patches of gravels and cobbles but generally it is easy walking. The back shore leads up a steep cliff to the Comox airport so you hear planes landing and taking off. It is about 1.8 km to the parking lot at Air Force Beach so this makes a nice 1 hour or abit more for a return hike. (Another option is the park at Air Force Beach and walk this route in reverse- coordinates are: 49 43.333 N, 124 53.144 W for this parking lot).  

Heather walking back toward Kye Bay along the sandy shore

There is lots of drift wood to sit on along the way and the views of Georgia Strait and the mountains beyond makes this a scenic walk when you have good visibility. We ran into one woman who told us that it took her 2 years to find this beach. “For the first 2 years we lived in Comox we would drive to Parksville so our kids could play on the beach” she told us. “Then we discovered this beach and wondered why we hadn’t discovered it sooner”.  

Keith walking back on the wide sandy beach