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Walking the Spit

A natural breakwater in Sooke is a favourite place to take a stroll
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Whiffin Spit is a popular place for a stroll.

Whiffin Spit is one of the busiest places in Sooke on a nice day. Located at the end of Whiffin Spit Road, the breakwater extends into the mouth of the Sooke Harbour and helps to protect the inner basin. A leisurely stroll will take you 1.1 kilometres to the lighthouse at the end.  The seaside trail offers hikers grand views of Sooke and the open waters of Juan de Fuca Strait, framed within the Olympic Mountains of Washington State.

Whiffin Spit was named after a clerk on  the Herald, a British naval ship that surveyed the area in 1846. In 1855 the Muir family started a sawmill there and ships would navigate the channel around Whiffin Spit to pick up lumber. The official name Whiffin Spit is now spelled with an “i” rather than in someplaces with an “e”.