"Like a band of Gypsies we go down the highway ~~ We're the best of friends ~~ Insisting that the world keep turnin' our way…" Willie Nelson – Johnny Cash
We embarked on a full day drive (180 miles) along the Pacific Marine Circle Route. This scenic drive took us north through the Cowichan Valley, inland to Lake Cowichan, through dense evergreen forests to Port Renfrew, and then home along the coast of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
We stopped at Lake Cowichan and saw a number of people preparing for a day of tubing along the creek. It seems to be a popular activity, as there were commercial vans to shuttle people back to the starting point with their tubes.
The drive from Lake Cowichan to Port Renfrew is very remote. There are no signs of human activity except for clear-cut logging in places. We stopped and walked around in a dense forest that contains some of the oldest and largest trees on Vancouver Island.
By lunchtime we were in Port Renfrew so we stopped at the Renfrew Pub. We had a waterside table on their deck, which was great on a warm day.
The drive back to Victoria was a bit of a disappointment. On the map the route appears to go right along the coast, so we were expecting lots of ocean views and views across the strait to the snow-covered Olympic Mountains in Washington. But in fact the forest is so dense that it obscures the ocean most of the way.
Map of the Pacific Marine Circle Route.
Large, moss-covered trees are close to the west coast near Port Renfrew.
Location of the second largest tree on Vancouver Island, Big Lonely Doug. https://thewalrus.ca/big-lonely-doug/ This map was on the back of a Subaru Forester.
Not Lonely Doug, but a huge tree fenced off to protect its roots and bark.
Ferns on the hike along the route. Lots of rain and fog here.
BC Ferries offers a day trip out of Swartz Bay (north of Victoria) on one of the local ferries that serves the Gulf Islands, a series of small islands located generally between Victoria and Vancouver. For only about $12 you get a 4-hour trip stopping at Saturna, Mayne, and Pender Islands, and then returning to Swartz Bay. We took the trip on a nice sunny and calm day. Being on the water helped us to avoid some of the heat wave.
We saw some beautiful island scenery along with waterbirds in the channel. It was interesting to stop at these isolated islands and get a glimpse of life there. Tourism is a major industry and we saw lots of nice looking vacation homes along the water. Other folks raise sheep or operate small craft businesses such as weaving or soap making.
Following the ferry ride we stopped for lunch at Sea Glass Waterfront Grill in Sidney. We had a window table by the water so we continued our nautical day. Sidney is a busy town, the center of commerce on the Saanich Peninsula north of Victoria.
We attended the Lavenderfest at Damali Lavender and Winery. Located about an hour up the island from us near Cobble Hill, Damali is in the Cowichan Valley, one of the warmer sections of the island. They grow lavender commercially to use in products such as soaps and scented oils, and they also grow grapes for their winery in the relatively warm climate.
Once a year, just prior to the lavender harvest, they hold their Lavenderfest, hosting local craft and food vendors and showing off their beautiful lavender fields. We were able to enjoy their fields, taste their lavender-infused wine, and get our lunch from a local taco truck. The chefs make their own fresh tortillas so the tacos were quite good, up to California standards.
We drove past Damali a few weeks later and indeed the lavender flowers had been harvested. We were fortunate to have seen them at their most beautiful stage at the Lavenderfest.
We were fortunate to have several provincial parks nearby. Vancouver Island is a very rural place and it doesn’t take long to get out of town. We enjoyed hiking in the parks and getting out into the forest. The most amazing thing is that everything is so lush and green, but the humidity is low and there are no bugs like mosquitoes or gnats!
Goldstream Provincial Park was only about a mile from our condo as the crow flies but it was a 10 minute drive because there was a big mountain in the way! We enjoyed hikes through the forest along the stream which contained salmon fingerlings born this season. The stream empties into a nearby estuary that leads to the open ocean. In a few years these fingerlings will come back to the same stream to spawn.
Farther away, near Butchart Gardens, is Gowlland Tod Provincial Park. Our favorite trail in this park led through a dense evergreen forest to Tod Inlet, where there is a small beach. At the end of the hike we would sit on a bench and watch the boats, the birds, and sometimes the jellyfish in the water.
Butchart Gardens is one of the most spectacular formal gardens in the world and one of the most visited spots in Canada. Located on the site of a former limestone quarry owned by the Butchart family, it was transformed into a floral garden by Jennie Butchart once the limestone was exhausted. The colors of the flowers are stunning, especially during the summer season.
We purchased season passes to the gardens so we could go as often as we liked, and we eventually went a half dozen times. Butchart Gardens has live music outdoors every night at 8 PM and we attended twice, once for a musician from Senegal in West Africa and once for a bluegrass band from Vancouver. Who would have guessed that there is an excellent bluegrass band in western Canada?
Butchart Gardens also offers a boat tour around the adjacent Tod Inlet, which we took a couple of times. We saw a bald eagle, lots of small jellyfish, and a colony of purple martins that spend the summer in Canada before migrating to Brazil.
Hanging baskets at Butchart Gardens.
Owl totem pole by the fountain.
Charlie by the fountain.
Monkey Puzzle tree. Blast from the past for Carrie from when she was 6 years old and lived in Seattle.
Sunken Garden. Smoke stack from the quarry can be seen in the background.
Bog garden early July.
Bog garden late August.
Carrie’s new glasses match the pink and purple flowers.
Monkey Puzzle tree.
Sunken garden.
Sunken garden.
The yellow line marks the boat tour of Tod Inlet that we took while we were at Butchart Gardens. The blue dot is approximately where the purple martin birdhouses are located. The red line is a hike that we took from the road to the Inlet a few times, in Gowlland-Tod Provincial Park, just outside Butchart Gardens.
Jellyfish were seen on the boat tour of Tod Inlet.
Boat anchored at Tod Inlet growing weed.
Birdhouses in the shape of travel trailers and RV’s attract purple martin birds during the summer.
Back side of Butchart Gardens from Tod Inlet. The old cement stack can be seen.
More birdhouses.
Japanese Garden at Butchart, designed by the same man who designed the Japanese garden at Hatley Castle.
Matilija poppy in the Mediterranean Garden.
Succulents in the Med Garden early July.
Succulents in the Med garden, late August.
Yucca in the Med Garden in July.
View of the Italian garden from the Dining Room.
Charlie seated on the porch of the Dining Room where we had the Tea service.
We enjoyed our visits to Hatley Castle and Gardens, about a 10 minute drive from our condo. The castle and gardens were constructed in the early 1900s by James Dunsmuir, heir to a coal and lumber fortune and one of the wealthiest men in British Columbia. His children squandered the fortune and in 1940 the castle and grounds became a Canadian military college. In 1995 the military closed their facility and it became Royal Roads University, a part of the BC education system to provide advanced degree training for professionals.
We toured the castle and gardens but our favorite discovery was a series of hiking trails on the Royal Roads campus and in the nearby woods. Our favorite hike, about a mile and a half, began in an evergreen forest, transitioned to a deciduous forest with constantly running streams from local springs, moved on to a meadow covered with blackberry bushes (great for summer picking!), and finally to a seaside lagoon. We took this hike several times a week throughout our stay in Canada and we especially enjoyed the cool, shady walk on hot days. We both agreed that it was our favorite thing on the island.
Hatley Castle and Gardens
Hatley Castle
View from the front of the castle
Castle was built in 1908. Can you see those numbers in this image?
Charlie in the entry of the Scottish castle.
Beautiful window at the end of the hall.
Billiard table.
Queen Elizabeth II
Flowers in the rose garden at the castle.
Looking through the Italian garden to the castle.
Looking from the castle to the Italian garden.
A riot of spring flowers in the rose garden.
Japanese garden.
Prolific blackberry bushes.
A tiny slug.
A building on the castle/Royal Roads grounds.
Looking through the grape arbor to the pollinator garden.
Pollinator garden.
Jude the Obscure was so fragrant.
View of Mt. Baker in Washington from the start of one of our hikes at RRU.
Cruise ship spotted coming into Victoria on one of our hikes.
No boats could be seen in this shot of the bay shrouded in thick, choking smoke.
Springs provided running water throughout RRU gardens and property.
Looking through to a Japanese bridge in the Japanese garden.
This pink bush is Joe Pye Weed. Saw it everywhere.
Shady hike at RRU.
More blackberries.
Pond in the lower Japanese garden.
Fish ladder to help the fish get back to the pond to spawn.
Shady pines on the hike.
Lower pond again.
RRU sign.
New building at RRU features First Nations carving on the outdoor benches.
Recreation building at RRU.
Some other hikers said this young barn owl was awaiting his mother’s return.
Piney Woods at RRU
Carrie was enchanted by the cool woods and the lighting on different days at different times of day.
Peeking through this giant moss-covered pine to see a deciduous forest.
On July 4 we took a one hour boat tour through the Victoria Gorge, an inlet leading northwestward from Victoria’s Inner Harbour. The coast of Vancouver Island is very rugged and there are many inlets up and down the island. The Gorge has an urban feel as there are houses, bridges, and a public park all along it.
The boat tour was a good introduction to Victoria. We saw some of the neighborhoods and learned some of the history of the city. Many of the old buildings from the gold rush era in the late 1800s still exist along the shore. Today the Gorge is popular with boaters, fishermen, and even swimmers since the shallow water warms up in the summer.
The 4th of July is just another day in Canada; their big celebration comes three days earlier on Canada Day. But our tour guide’s wife is from the US so he had a small American flag at the back of the boat to celebrate the day.
The Gorge park extends for over a mile, beginning about a mile upstream from downtown. We enjoyed taking walks in the Gorge park along a trail next to the water. But we avoided the Gorge on hot days as there was little shade.
The Gorge is pictured here on the map as the blue line, running NW to SE.
A picture of one of the bridges across the gorge from our boat tour, the SE part of the gorge.
View of the gorge farther NW from the sidewalk where we walked.
Info on the gorge.
Victoria and BC are good about posting historic and ecologic information on large signs in their parks.
A beach on the north end of our walk, which extended a mile in one direction from the south.
Looking south.
There are many plants tucked into curves along the walk along the gorge.
We arrived in Victoria by ferry from Port Angeles, WA, on July 1. It was Canada Day, the 151st anniversary of the founding of the country, so there were lots of Canadian flags and red shirts all around. Festivities were underway at the Inner Harbour so it was crowded and very active. Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and the old parliament building dominates the Inner Harbour.
We drove to our new summer home, a condo at Bear Mountain Golf Resort, about 10 miles west of Victoria. We are not golfers but the condo looked nice, the mountain scenery was beautiful, and the price was right. Our condo overlooked the 18th hole so we watched golfers every day. We learned that much of the game involves tromping around in the bushes looking for your ball. The rest of the game involves riding around in little carts.
We chose Vancouver Island for the summer because we thought it would be cool, but we got fooled. It turned out to be one of the hottest summers on record, with temperatures often well up into the 80s in our hilltop neighborhood. Because it is normally much cooler our unit did not have air conditioning. To compound things, our unit was west-facing and the Canadian sun did not set until after 8 PM, so dinner time was the hottest part of the day. On the warmest days we went to the movies just to cool off.
We had lots of smoke from wildfires in mid to late August. At one point, there were more than 500 fires burning in BC, most started by lightning. On several days we could smell the smoke, it was so thick. We were not threatened by any fires nearby but there were big fires in the northern part of Vancouver Island and on the British Columbia mainland, all up and down the province. Parts of the Alaska Highway were closed due to fires.
Click on the first picture to see the pictures enlarged, then click the arrows to view the slide show.
The 90 minute, 22.59 nautical mile (42 km) trip between Victoria, British Columbia and Port Angeles, Washington is a scenic journey through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with spectacular views of the Olympic Peninsula.
Charlie in front of the Empress Hotel
Empress Hotel garden.
The BC Parliament building.
First Nations art painted on the outside of a building at the BC History Museum.
First Nations totem poles at the BC Museum.
First Nations people used drop spindles to spin their yarn for their bulky, warm sweaters. This statue is a nod to their art.
Blackberry bushes are everywhere. In early July, here, the berries were not ripe. But we saw and picked lots of dark juicy berries in mid to late August.
Fisherman’s Wharf in Victoria.
Lavender was blooming in early July at our condo, AKA Hogwarts.
A view of our condo from up the hill at the Westin Hotel.
Another view of our condo from the golf course.
Looking off our deck to the yard 4 stories below.
Hogwarts from the street.
Inside the condo.
Worm’s eye view.
A view of Mt. Finlayson from our neighborhood.
Creek and rushes ran through the golf course.
Beautiful landscaping at Bear Mountain. Lavender loves it here.
Looking north to our building.
Neighborhood walk. There was a golf green on the bridge.
Houses in the neighborhood.
The forest and Mt. Finlayson came right up to the golf course.
Plants on our deck.
Mt. Baker in Washington is visible on a very clear day.
