Goldstream Provincial Park

Numerous trails criss-cross through the dramatically different terrain of two distinct vegetation zones. The park is home to 600-year-old Douglas fir trees and western red cedar, mixed with western yew and hemlock, red alder, big leaf maple and black cottonwood. On the drier ridges visitors can find flowering dogwood, lodgepole pine and arbutus.

The arbutus, with its thick leathery evergreen leaves, red-dish trunk and peeling bark, is Canada's only broad-leafed evergreen and is found exclusively on Vancouver Island and on the southwest coast of British Columbia. In the spring and early summer, Goldstream overflows with colourful wildflowers, including the shade-loving western trillium and the calypso, a delicate orchid of the mossy forest glades. 

Trails range from easy, wheelchair accessible walks to strenuous hikes and track along creeks, through forested uplands and past abandoned gold diggings from the days of the Gold Rush. More adventurous hikers can climb to the top of one of the highest points in Greater Victoria - Mt Finlayson, a recent addition to the park in 1994. Another trail leads you to stunning Niagara Falls, which cascades 47.5 meters down a rock cliff into a crystal clear canyon pool below.

The park is also the site of an annual chum salmon spawning run, which draws thousands of salmon – and visitors - every year. Riverside trails and observation platforms provide extraordinary opportunities to view this natural phenomenon, which also attracts Bald eagles, who swoop down to devour the bodies of the spawned out salmon.

For more information, please visit the Goldstream website.

**Without a doubt, Goldstream is one of the top three things we tell visitors to the city that they must see.  The best part is it's absolutely free!