A few weeks ago I was looking for some new locations that I could visit while stuck inside due to poor weather. One of the places I found was Pazant Falls on the Juan de Fuca trail near Port Renfrew. After putting it off for a number of weeks due to more poor weather I finally made the trip out to the falls with fellow photographer Daniel Byrne. The first challenge was actually finding the trail head which was not signed well at all (which seems typical for parks here). After finally finding the correct trail we set off in a light drizzle which slowly progressed into rain. The hike out was really nice once you accepted that you would be slogging through large puddles and deep mud. Once getting to the falls all of the difficulties finding the trail and then hiking it seemed more than worth while as we where greeted by a extremely tranquil location that is going on the short list for place I will make a return visit too.
Really good photos.
My surname is Payzant and the person the creek was named after is my ancestor.
I spoke to Allen Payzant Jess about this creek.
The Payzant the creek was named after was from Nova Scotia is where the family started in North America from France.
Our name was originally spelt Paisant is Old French.
Family was from Caen, capitol of Calvados in the province of Normandy is quite close to Notre Dome Cathedral was used in the movie, ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dome’.
The family moved to Jersey Island off of France in 1740.
Then to Covey Island off of Nova Scotia in 1753.
Frederick Payzant came from Nova Scotia to British Columbia and didn’t do too well in the Gold Rush.
He then tried ‘Homesteading’ on Vancouver Island hence the Creek is named after him.
This didn’t work too well for him either as he tried to clear the land on his own.
He eventually left and moved back to Nova Scotia.
This would have been around the 1900s or so.