Avatar Grove and Canada's gnarliest tree is an amazing thing to see and finding it is half the fun. The cute little town of Port Renfrew, know for it's logging, amazing fishing and home of one of the trailheads to the world renowned West Coast Trail, is now reworking it's image to include this fantastic wonder. Dubbed Canada's gnarliest tree this mammoth cedar will surely leap from the unknown to the feature of millions of tourist photos in the coming days and years.
Bear Hill Regional Park is a nice hill trail, just north of Elk/Beaver Lake in Saanich. It is an easy 2k hike to the summit where the views are sensational. From the trailhead to the summit only takes about 20-30 minutes. High up on the Saanich Peninsula you can see the Gulf Islands and even the San Juan Islands in the United States. The technically active, and alarmingly close volcano, Mount Baker in Washington State is very visible as well on a clear day.
East Sooke Regional Park is a convenient and easily accessible way to experience the wild, west coast of Vancouver Island. Weather blasted rocky cliffs, sandy beaches and deep coastal forest trails run throughout the park. Wonderfully remote feeling, East Sooke Park is so large as to have three access points and many worthwhile destinations. Every few minutes along the coast you come to another startlingly desolate ocean vantage point, followed by dense coastal forest, then a hidden beach, then forest again.
The Elk & Beaver Lake Trail is one of many beautiful lakeside trails in Victoria. From the convenient parking lot the trail is mostly flat, gravel or dirt, densely forested at times and runs around both Elk and Beaver Lakes to complete a 10k circuit. The park is very popular for swimming, picnicking, windsurfing, boating, fishing and rowing. Though it can get busy the large size of the park disperses people quite well.
Esquimalt Lagoon is a wonderful stretch of beach that extends two kilometres, separating the lagoon from the ocean. The beach is made up of wonderful, powdery sand and driftwood logs. Looking out from the beach you as you sit on a massive and ancient, driftwood tree, with weathering that makes it dry, smooth, gleaming white. A perfect seat to take in the view.
Fort Rodd Hill is astonishingly beautiful and incredibly interesting as a tourist attraction in Victoria that most never see. This fact is amazing as it is wonderful and unquestionably, or at least arguably, as good or better than any other attraction around. And at $8.50, what a phenomenal deal. You can crawl all over all the real pre World War I era defensive structures and even play with, and all but fire a genuine World War II Anti-Aircraft Gun... which astonishingly is in the parking lot.
The wilderness hiking trails in Francis/King Regional Park take you past massive, old-growth Douglas Fir trees. Some estimated to be as old as 500 years and the Elsie King interpretive trail gives beautiful descriptions of the forest and creatures around you. The park is an educational walk through a remote and secluded feeling park just 20 minutes from downtown Victoria.
The Galloping Goose Regional Trail developed from a disused railway line begins at the Johnson Street bridge in downtown Victoria and goes in two directions. One direction goes to the Vancouver ferry terminal at Swartz Bay, 35km away. And the other 55km through the Western Communities, out past Sooke ending near the ghost town, Leechtownl.
Goldstream Provincial Park and Mount Finlayson are beautiful places that are definitely a must-see on any visit to Victoria. Huge coastal rainforest trees everywhere. An impressively golden river, an abandoned gold mine and one of the highest mountains in Victoria. As soon as you leave your car you can feel the wonderful forest alive around you.
Gowlland Tod Provincial Park is a beautiful park running along the Saanich Inlet just a short drive from downtown Victoria. Accessible from Goldstream Park at one end and Brentwood Bay, near Butchart Gardens at the other. From beautiful ocean views of the inlet to wonderful mountain views from Mount Work, this park has a great variety of characteristically Victoria hiking.
Grass Lake(aka Grasse Lake or Grassie Lake) is a moderately difficult trail to a beautifully remote lake far in the wilderness of Sooke. Popular for swimming and escaping the world, it is a lovely escape from the busier, more well known trails around Victoria. There are a couple of lakeside clearings that are perfect for camping, south facing and sunny all day. If you don't mind the tough hike in, you will be in paradise.
Huge Douglas-fir trees and tremendous views are the highlights of this beautiful Provincial Park just 30 minutes from downtown Victoria, near Sidney. Located high up on Mount Newton near Victoria, John Dean Provincial Park looks across Saanich Peninsula, the Gulf Islands and the distant Cascade Mountains. There are five main trails that wind through the park to various wonderful viewpoints and places of interest.
The Juan de Fuca Trail is a beautiful wilderness trail that hugs the west coast of Vancouver Island between Jordan River(north of Sooke) and Port Renfrew. Established as a provincial park in 1995, the Juan de Fuca Trail traces its origins to the 1889 telegraph line that connected Victoria and Bamfield. The telegraph line connected Bamfield to the British Empire via a transpacific cable.
Lone Tree Hill Regional Park is a wonderful, hidden bit of paradise deep in the hills of Victoria has a beautiful panoramic view from its summit. The hike is fairly short and relaxing at just 1.6k trailhead to summit. Expect to hike for under 30 minutes to reach the viewpoint. The views for such a short hike are quite amazing. You can see the distant Malahat, Victoria as well as the very distant Olympic Mountains in the United States.
Mill Hill Regional Park is a well hidden though wonderfully short hike to amazing views of Victoria, Esquimalt and the Western Communities. The hike is only 15 minutes to the summit with a branching trail that leads to Thetis Lake Park. This is a remarkably seldom hiked park in Victoria. It is rare to see anyone on the trail or at the beautiful summit. The views are amazing.
Mount Doug as it's locally known is a remarkably easily accessible park with both 360 degree mountain views as well as a beautiful beach. The beach and mountain are connected both by trails and roads allowing for a quick and beautiful visit by car or a longer, interesting and varied hike on foot among the huge Douglas Fir and Cedar trees.
Mount Tolmie is another beautiful, easily accessed mountain in Victoria with 360 degree ocean and city views. On a clear day you can spot Mount Baker far off in the distance in the US. There are some short trails, several picnic tables with million dollar views, and a huge, flat topped water reservoir to walk on. The trails are very short and the park is almost entirely visited by car.
Sooke is a wonderful coastal town with amazingly deep and beautiful forests, lakes and rivers. The Sooke Potholes is an extraordinary example of this. Over thousands of years, swirling water have created amazingly deep pools in this otherwise, massive and crashing river. This has created an astonishing river-world fun park of sorts. Cliffs, fallen trees, rock outcrops over the river.
Spectacle Lake Provincial Park is popular with hiking, fishing, canoeing and swimming. Located north of Victoria, the drive to get there is very beautiful and well worth the drive just for the great stops on the way. Thetis Lake Park and Goldstream Park are easily combined with Spectacle Lake in a one day hiking/sightseeing adventure.
Thetis Lake Regional Park is a very popular Victoria park that contains several lakes. Lower Thetis Lake, Upper Thetis Lake, Prior Lake and further out, McKenzie Lake are all within this amazing park. A wide, spider web of hiking trails run in between and around these lakes in the midst of a beautiful and secluded forest.
Witty’s Lagoon Regional Park is a wonderful coastal park overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Located in Metchosin, a scenic and largely rural community that is part of the Western Communities. If you are driving from downtown Victoria, you are just a 30 minute drive away and much of that drive is quite nice. Fort Rodd Hill and Esquimalt Lagoon are definitely worth visiting on the way to Witty’s Lagoon.
