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.
Other nearby hikes that we enjoyed were at Langford Lake and at the Galloping Goose Trail at the Sooke Potholes. Both are pictured below.
Goldstream Provincial Park
Ed Nixon Trail at Langford Lake
Galloping Goose Trail at the Sooke Potholes
Gowlland-Tod Provincial Park
