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 Wild Pacific Trail is a must see on any visit to Pacific Rim National Park, Ucluelet and/or Tofino. Located in Ucluelet, the Wild Pacific Trail is actually a set of three trails that connect into a wonderful 8.4 kilometre route. The Lighthouse Loop trail is a great place to start is wild meandering 2.6km trail that has endless amazing ocean views and an amazing array of twisted, weather beaten, and endlessly interesting trees along the trail.
There are several great access points to the ocean where you can clamour over the rocks and see all sorts of sea life lurking in the pools and crevices where the ocean pours in and out of.The Wild Pacific Trail is wide and leisurely with numerous viewpoints to the ocean and guides you in and out of the forest on a constantly interesting route. The Lighthouse Loop takes less than an hour to walk, though considerably more if you explore. You can continue walking along Peninsula Road and Marine Drive to reconnect to the trail or a good idea is to drive to the parking on Marine Drive near Browns Beach. This positions you in the middle of the other two section of the Wild Pacific Trail, Big Beach and Brown's Beach. Big Beach has a large picnic area and a great ocean viewpoint. There are three beach access points. Browns' beach begins near Black Rock Resort and runs through a section of forest then three kilometres of beautiful ocean views until reaching Peninsula Road. If you turn right here you can follow the bike trail to Forbes St and connect back to Marine Drive or simply retrace your steps to your car.
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 ...
Lone Cone is the wonderful cone shaped mountain that dominates the skyline in Tofino. It is just 6k from Tofino on the north-western end of Meares Island. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
East Sooke Regional Park is a convenient and easily accessible way to experience the wild, west coast of Vancouver Island. Weather blasted rocky cliffs, ...
Goldstream Provincial Park and Mount Finlayson are beautiful places that are definitely a must-see on any visit to Victoria. Huge coastal rainforest trees ...