Kennedy River Recreational Panning Reserve

The Kennedy River Recreational Panning Reserve is located an hour’s drive west of Port Alberni on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island. It’s the only panning reserve located on the island.

The panning reserve covers a swath of land roughly 2 km by 1 km straddling the Kennedry River along Highway 4 (Pacific Rim Highway). This is heavily forested and west coast terrain. The highway gets you to there but exploration beyond that will require appropriate outdoor gear. You’ll also want to be bear aware.

One interesting characteristic of the Kennedy River Panning Reserve is that is includes portions of a few smaller creeks that feed into the Kennedy River. Furthermore, the panning reserve west of the Kennedy includes what appears to be an abondoned former channel of the river. It’s enticing land, though it would require some skill and hard work to get to it.

Online research hasn’t revealed much evidence for gold being found in this panning reserve. One Youtuber has a couple videos of panning on the Kennedy River, but it does not appear that they were in the panning reserve itself. They reveal a couple scarce flakes.

An historical blogger speaks of lode gold in the Kennedy River area but specifically states that early prospectors found no placer gold in the river. With no claims in the vicinity of this panning reserve, it may not be the best. That said, it’s also somewhat remote so who knows how hard it’s been tested.

If you’re making the road trip to Tofino, you’ll pass by this panning reserve. Perhaps plan to spend an afternoon exploring and testing it. If it proves fruitless, you’ll still have spent an amazing day in wilds of western Vancouver Island and that alone ain’t too bad.