Victoria has a staggering number of hiking trails that almost always reach something amazing.. and radically different. From Goldstream Park's spawning salmon to the marvellous Goldstream Train Trestle. You can hike dozens of beautiful, coastal kilometres in Juan de Fuca Provincial Park and East Sooke Regional Park. Victoria is a hiker's paradise.
TheWestCoastTrail
The West Coast Trail traces a route along a 75 kilometre section of Vancouver Island's hostile west coast. The trail looks over the Graveyard of the Pacific, home to hundreds of shipwrecks over the centuries. The Graveyard of the Pacific necessitated the construction of the West Coast Trail to save lives from the frequent shipwrecks.
Meares Island was the centre of dispute in the 80's when the Nuu-chah-nulth protested Macmillan Bloedel's intent to log the island. The Nuu-chah-nulth together with environmental groups blockaded the island and fought in the courts. The court ruled that until the Nuu-chah-nulth's land claim to the island was settled, no development can occur on the whole of Meares Island.
This tremendous victory enabled the creation of the Big Tree Trail and its breathtaking star feature, the Hanging Garden Tree. This monster of a tree. A Western Red Cedar, estimated to be older than 1500 years, is enormous. 18 metres around and magnificently tall, it easily is included among Canada's greatest trees. A nice boardwalk takes you from the trailhead to the Hanging Garden Tree.
Most people return from there the same way. You can however, continue on and do a circle route taking in some more of the amazing, and unexpectedly pristine forest, that was the centre of such a chaotic battle not so long ago. If you walk the circle route, expect to take over an hour though, as the huge trees take a while to look at. The Hanging Garden Tree is particularly interesting as, like many other ancient cedars, is hollow on the inside. In fact you could fit five people inside quite easily! Tofino Water Taxi can ferry you to the trailhead from Tofino for a pretty good price ($30 return), and often at a moments notice.
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