Hot Springs Cove Guide: What to Know Before You Go

Hot Springs Cove is one of British Columbia’s most distinctive natural hot-spring trips. Instead of driving to a roadside pool, visitors travel through Clayoquot Sound by boat or float plane, walk a 2 km boardwalk through coastal rainforest, and reach a series of natural geothermal pools beside the Pacific Ocean.

The destination is inside Nism̓aakqin Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The hot springs are known in ʕaḥuusʔatḥ culture as mux̣ʷšiƛa, meaning “steaming from rock”. This is a genuine natural hot spring rather than a commercial thermal pool, but its remote marine setting means planning matters. Tides, ocean swells, weather, transport arrangements, slippery boardwalk conditions, and park rules can all affect a visit.

For the full destination page, see Hot Springs Cove.

Hot Springs Cove

Hot Springs Cove

Hot Springs Cove is the familiar travel name for a natural geothermal soaking destination in Nism̓aakqin Park in Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. BC Parks identifies the springs by their ʕaḥuusʔatḥ (Ahousaht) name, mux̣ʷšiƛa (mahkw-shith-ah), meaning “steaming from rock”. The park itself was renamed from Maquinna Marine Park to Nism̓aakqin Park in 2025.

The springs are unusual because hot mineral water cascades through a rocky coastal setting into a series of natural pools that become progressively cooler as the geothermal water mixes with colder ocean water.