We had a lovely vacation in Victoria, BC. Not a hiking trip per se, but we did a lot of walking and exploring, including a short hike to East Sooke Regional Park, Butchart Gardens, and the Victoria Butterfly Gardens. Getting there involved taking the Black Ball Ferry from Port Angeles into Victoria Harbor.
Victoria itself has a very European feel to it, and we enjoyed walking around taking in the sights. The Royal BC Museum is worth a visit, it’s between the Empress Hotel which is beautiful and the Parliament House, also beautiful. We topped off the trip with the AdrenaLine zipline, which is always fun!
Butchart Gardens is 55 acres of an estate that used to be a quarry, now turned into a beautiful series of themed gardens well worth a visit. There is a Sunken Garden, the site of the old quarry, Rose Garden, Japanese Garden (our favorite), many ponds and fountains, Italian Garden, the Piazza, and Mediterranean Garden. I could type for hours about all the plants (yes, I’m a plant geek to the core!), but I’ll just let the photos speak for themselves.
Next stop was the Victoria Butterfly Gardens, where we were enchanted by the plants and hundreds (if not thousands) of butterflies all around. They also take in rescue animals including a flamingo, parrots, macaws, tortoises, turtles, an iguana, a caiman, and finches. It’s a place to slow down and take notice of the small things, to walk slowly and quietly and just be with the animals, insects, and plants. Other than the frogs and caiman, all animals are free to move about through the large indoor area as they please. If I were a rescue exotic animal, this is the place I’d want to be.
We started our final day there by driving to East Sooke Regional Park and hiking the short Creyke Point trail, looking out over a wall of fog in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and across to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. The Madrona trees here are fantastic!
Last but not least, our family LOVES to go on ziplines. I’ve been on them in Idaho, Utah, New Zealand, and now Vancouver Island BC 🙂 So fun, and I got to do my usual flip upside-down several times.
