Dionisio Point Provincial Park, Provincial park on Galiano Island, Canada
Dionisio Point Provincial Park covers 142 hectares at the northwestern tip of Galiano Island, across Porlier Pass from Valdes Island. Its core is the namesake Dionisio Point, a headland joined to the island by a tombolo, plus the adjoining shoreline and intertidal zone. The forest is second-growth Douglas fir, with Oregon oak and coastal fir, regrown after logging from the 1950s.
The park was established in 1991 on land donated by MacMillan Bloedel, now a Weyerhaeuser subsidiary. Its name comes from Dionisio Point, a tombolo-linked headland named after Spanish explorer Dionisio Alcalá Galiano, who reached the Gulf Islands in 1792; the name appears on English charts from about 1859. The Penelakut First Nation used the area for fishing and settlement long before, leaving shell middens and house platforms found in 1971.
The park's name comes from Dionisio Alcalá Galiano, who reached the Gulf Islands on the ship Sutil in 1792; Galiano Island carries his surname while the point uses his first name, a form found on English charts from about 1859. Fenced archaeological sites of the Penelakut First Nation lie within the park, and shell middens and berms record at least 3,000 years of use.
The park is reached by ferry from Tsawwassen on the mainland or Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island, then by boat; it has no road access. Camping is allowed at two wilderness campsite areas, and facilities are very basic. Trails are laid out within the park, and the tide in the Strait of Georgia usually runs 2 to 3 metres, so time walks along the shore accordingly.
The park's core is Dionisio Point itself, a headland tied to Galiano Island by a tombolo, a sand or gravel bar that becomes walkable at low tide. The park also takes in the intertidal zone around it, where the Strait of Georgia's tide, usually about 2 to 3 metres, exposes marine life twice a day.
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