We like to adventure and spend a lot of time outdoors with the kids which is great because Victoria is home to some amazing parks. Goldstream is one of those parks. It is 477 hectares and home to small Garry oak meadows, arbutus, and Douglas fir trees – some more than 600 years old.

On a nice Sunday when we had no other plans we decided to get suited up and go hiking. We packed a lunch and drove to the park which is about 17km from town. It was a hot day so finding refuge in the old growth temperate rain forest was perfect! This park is a popular place for viewing the annual fall chum salmon spawning runs in Goldstream river. It is also popular because there are numerous trails for hiking including a rugged and steep one called Mt. Finlayson trail that goes to the top of Mt. Finlayson. We choose to hike to Niagara falls which was really more of a walk with some minor rock climbing which is a recent favorite past-time of Claire & Rhys’.

Niagara falls is 47.5m high and to reach it you have to walk through a dried up stream bed. In the winter months the stream bed is full of water and the waterfall has so much more water volume. It was still very pretty when we visited. We spent some time there climbing through a rock tunnel and skipping rocks into the water basin at the bottom of the falls. After we had our fill of the falls we walked along some paths towards the nature visitor centre. We found plenty of slugs and other critters along the way that we had to stop and watch things where we had a little picnic lunch amongst the grass reeds at the end of the Saanich Inlet.

It was a great day 🙂

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