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The Cathedral Grove is very impressive, reminiscent of California redwood forests, with many of the Douglas fir trees over six feet in diameter and two hundred feet tall. The forest owes its structure of well spaced, exceptionally large trees, to a fire some 350 years ago. Between the giants are smaller, but still large, trees, primarily western hemlock and western red cedar, up to a hundred or so feet tall. There is yet a third, lowest, tree layer, composed mostly of Vine Maple.

Of the millions of acres of old growth Douglas fir forest that once covered all the lower elevations of Vancouver Island, only this one prime grove has been preserved in a park. The province's largest lumber company, MacMillan Bloedel, set aside this spectacular example, right on the major highway from Nanaimo to Port Alberni, as MacMillan Provincial Park. It is only a few hundred acres in extent, and all around is clearcut and tree farm.

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