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.
The Nuu-chah-nulth (aka the Wickaninnish Trail), has the amazing distinction among all the other beach hikes in the Tofino-Ucluelet corridor, in that it is flanked on one side by the amazing, and historic Florencia Bay. And on the other side by the unexpectedly, extraordinary and beautiful, Kwisitis Visitor Centre. The Kwisitis Visitor Centre(previously called the Wickaninnish Centre) is in fact a pretty impressive little museum.
They have taken a very small space and filled it with jaw dropping murals, carvings, exhibits and an amazing full sized native whaling expedition in mid-attack. Fantastic! You certainly don't expect such a well designed exhibition to be so understated.. and free. And if that wasn't enough there's more. The Kwisitis Feast House(previously the Wickaninnish Restaurant) is excellent. Reasonably priced and good food.. and every table has a million dollar view of the wild Pacific beyond and below. The restaurant juts out, over the ocean, and the waves crash here as you dine, loud, big and beautiful. You would be hard pressed to find a more amazing view for lunch or dinner, at such a reasonably priced restaurant, anywhere. But enough about the great restaurant, back to the great trail. The Nuu-chah-nulth is an interpretive trail that gives a glimpse of the local First Nations culture as it meanders 2.5 kilometres through the rainforest from Florencia Bay to Wickaninnish Beach. Certainly a good way to hike this area is to park at the Florencia Bay/Nuu-chah-nulth parking lot and take the short hike to Florencia Bay.
Take a look at the view from where the Florencia shipwreck memorial plaque is, with a beautiful view out to the island that the Florencia wrecked near. Go down and see the beautiful beach at Florencia Bay, then backtrack up the trail to where the Nuu-chah-nulth Trail branches off toward the Kwisitis Visitor Centre and Kwisitis Feast House. And then finally walk back to your car at the Florencia parking lot. Give yourself about an hour to enjoy the Nuu-chah-nulth Trail (each way), plus an hour at the short side-hike to Florencia Bay, and however long you take at the restaurant and Visitor Centre. Maybe five hours total for this roundtrip hike and museum/restaurant tour. But an amazing five hours immersed in the native history, shipwreck history and natural history of Clayoquot Sound.
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