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.
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.
As you get closer to the summit of Lone Tree Hill you will see several short trails to various rock outcrops before the summit. Each one is a hidden world of its own, far removed from the next rock outcrop by the always hilly terrain. If you encounter others on the trail, which is actually fairly rare, you can find one of these side-hills and have your own panoramic view. Dogs are welcome in the park, however, bikes, camping and fires are not. In the springtime you will see spectacular swaths of wildflowers. The original, lone tree that gave the park its name is now just a weather-beaten tree stump. It was a 200 year-old Douglas fir. There is another lone tree a the summit, however, an Arbutus tree just a few metres from the original, lone tree, now dominates the hilltop. Lone Tree Hill Regional Park is just a short, 30 minute drive from downtown Victoria, and driving there is half the fun. Winding country roads take you will into the wilderness around Victoria. Goldstream Provincial Park is not far from Lone Tree Hill, and just a short 10 minute drive away via a very narrow and wonderfully winding road.
Directions to Lone Tree Hill Regional Park
Lone Tree Hill is a bit tricky to find as it involves driving several kilometres of very winding, country roads and there is only one, easy to miss, sign for "Lone Tree Hill Regional Park". The good news is that aside from the winding roads, the directions are actually quite straight forward. From Victoria take Douglas Street and continue to the Trans Canada Highway as if driving to Nanaimo, after 12 kilometres take the Millstream Road exit on your right. Follow Millstream Road and soon you will come to the junction of Millstream Lake Road. Turn left, keeping on Millstream Road and you will see the sign at the entrance to the parking lot on your right(8.2 kilometres from the Trans Canada Highway turnoff). Lone Tree Hill Regional Park and Goldstream Provincial Park are connected by another cute, narrow and very winding country road(Finlayson Arm Rd). Seeing both parks in one afternoon is very convenient to do.
More Victoria Trails Near Lone Tree Hill
Gowlland Tod Provincial Park is a beautiful park running along the Saanich Inlet. Accessible from Goldstream Park at one end and Brentwood Bay, near Buchart 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. Mount Work is a popular hiking trail in Gowlland Tod and the most challenging trail at 5k from trailhead to summit. Gowlland Tod Provincial Park is quite large, spread out and the trails so varied, that you feel far from the city. The trails and views to and along Finlayson Arm are amazing and breathtakingly serene. Goldstream Provincial Park and Mount Finlayson are beautiful and shouldn't be missed on a trip 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. Goldstream Park is home to the annual salmon spawning run every fall and the rest of the year is just a wonderful world of centuries old Douglas Fir and Western Red Cedars. Trails run all over the park, but the Mount Finlayson trail takes you up to beautiful views of Victoria. It's a relaxing trail that only gets a bit steeper and challenging near the end. The beautiful wilderness hiking trails in Francis King 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 around you. The Elsie King Trail is a self guided, 800 metre loop trail, named after a leader of the Victoria Girl Guides and wife of the Victoria naturalist, Freeman King. There are over 11 kilometres of trails in Francis/King Park, and the park connects to Thetis Lake Regional Park. Thetis Lake Park then connects to the beautiful Mill Hill Regional Park, combining these three beautiful parks into one, massive, interconnected hiking paradise. 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.
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 ...
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