We visited with our family of 6 and all loved it. Our boys aged 6-12 were fascinated by all of the animals while we got to immerse ourselves in the history and stories behind all of the pieces. Well worth the visit and nice to see Jim while there. Will definitely be back.

Definitely worth the visit, something for everyone. We learnt and seen so many things I would have never known about even as a traveler myself. Exploring all the rooms and listening and reading about so many unique beautiful objects, fossils , crystals , rocks, beads, skeletons, some I couldn’t even guess what they were so the tablet is so helpful. Will be back again. Thanks for the adventure!

We brought our 8 month old, and he loved it! It was way bigger than we expected. So much to see. Recommended.

This place surprised me, but in a good way! We were expecting a small place that we'd be done exploring in 30 minutes. We spent around 3 hours in there browsing through all the artifacts. I'm from Pakistan and got to see photos and pieces collected from there during the owner's travels - it was unexpected and made me so happy to see! The owner's travel experiences and seeing them incorporated in the museum, along with his family story, was heartwarming. Amazing place and well worth stopping at.

Thousands of artifacts from around the world. Very informative. Great system of providing information at your own pace (and interest) through a tablet they provide upon entry. You could spend anywhere from 1 hour to most of the day, depending on how much you decide to look up. Suggested entry donation is $20/adult or $15/senior (over 60). I forget the suggested price for children.

40 years of collecting by Jim Shockly while filming outdoor TV programs. It's an amazing eclectic groups of collections: gems, African art, taxidermy. Dinosaur bones, native American baskets and so much more.

I found this to be a really unique and almost overwhelming collection of things that follow a unique loose group of genres, from curios to international natural history level natural artifacts. But it is clearly centered around themes relevant to the cowichan valley indigenous culture, African tribal cultural artifacts, modern classics of western culture, paleontology... And a lot of taxidermy. A... Lot... Of taxidermy. But it is almost entirely museum level taxidermy, and very impressive, if you appreciate that particular craft. There is a very unique personal narrative loosely woven through the whole experience as well, and you feel like perhaps you've spent some time listening to a really genuinely interesting individual. How one person managed to actually amass such a collection, is really quite a feat unto itself. It's a great use of the building, and a very worthwhile excuse to drive out to Maple Bay. I happened to have also visited the Royal BC in Victoria a few days prior (under heavy renovation unfortunately)... At least for now, this was more interesting to me, and more worthy of the donation.

Very cool museum to check out! It's lime nothing I've seen before. You pay by donation, which is nice and there is so much to see. Not the easiest location to get to, but you drive, you'll be fine. Staff are nice and there is a cute gift shop at the end of it.