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This Greater Victoria Map contains many links to our
pages on Towns, Parks, Lakes, Ferry Terminals and Ferry
Routes. Click on a live area of the map to link to the
desired page.
Almost
half of Vancouver Island's population of 700,000 lives
within the Capital region district (CRD) around Victoria
at the southern end of Vancouver Island. There is a rich
diversity of landscapes within the cool Mediterranean
climate of the region, ranging from the Douglas-fir forests
along the coast to the drier, exposed conditions of the
higher, rockier elevations which support Arbutus (madrona)
and Garry Oak forests. Flowers bloom year-round in Victoria,
which makes exploring the outdoors here enjoyable in any
season. Ferns and lichens colour the forest floor throughout
the winter; come spring, an explosion of trilliums and
calypso orchids heightens the effect before giving way
to bushes lush with huckleberry, salmonberry, trailing
blackberry, salal, and Oregon grape. Such profusion is
a reward for migrating birds that make the Victoria region
a semi-annual stop-over point. Bald eagles, ospreys, turkey
vultures, herons, shorebirds, belted kingfishers, dippers,
winter wrens, and many species of migratory ducks, geese,
and swans flock to the delightfully benign environment.
Victorians display their love for the natural world by
cultivating flower gardens at every turn. As you'd imagine
in a region where a large urban population interacts with
such a delightful natural tableau, a vast network of walking,
hiking and biking routes leads through the many parks
with which the city is blessed. In fact, the very first
property to be donated to the provincial park system -
John Dean
Provincial Park - is located in the middle of Greater
Victoria's Saanich Peninsula. Throughout the 1990s, a
string of new parks have been set aside in the CRD, including
the almost 3,000-acre Gowlland
Tod Provincial Park and the 60-km Galloping Goose
commuter walk and cycle trail.
Although the mountainscape on the southern end of Vancouver
Island is not as rugged as the North Shore mountains that
rise above Vancouver, this actually mitigates in favour
of hiking, as the physical demands for reaching viewpoints
is not as great. On the other hand, the views are as panoramic
and breathtaking as anywhere in the province. It's easy
to imagine how sweet life was for Native Canadians who
once had this all to themselves. Beacon
Hill Park in downtown Victoria was the site of a village
that had been inhabited for thousands of years prior to
the arrival of the colonial settlers in the 1840s. A tangled
web of events since then has displaced the original dwellers,
but their history is evident in the petroglyphs that adorn
the shoreline and in the middens of seashells mounded
up beside the beaches on Strait of Juan de Fuca. Totem
poles new and old stand as proud reminders of this heritage.
To gain a fresh appreciation for the talents and skills
of First Nations people, combine a visit to the outdoors
around Victoria with a stop at the Royal British Columbia
Museum, a world-class repository of native artifacts.
With the enriched perspective that such a visit will bring,
you'll look at the landscape with new interest and appreciation.
The figures on the totems will no longer be static representations
from a mythological age. Instead, combined with the presence
of killer whales, seals, eagles, ravens, salmon, and other
species that are as vibrant in the landscape today as
they were in the past, you'll enter a timeless real and,
in the process, discover a new place in nature for yourself.
Getting
There
Victoria lies on the southern tip of Vancouver island
and is linked with the rest of the 450 km long island
by the Island Highway (Highway 1), whose southern terminus
begins at Douglas Street in downtown Victoria. Visitors
from the Lower Mainland travel to Victoria via BC Ferries'
Tsawwassen
terminal in Delta. Visitors from the United States can
journey to Victoria via ferry from either Anacortes
in northwestern Washington, from Seattle,
or from Port
Angeles on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. The Olympic
and Saanich Peninsulas are separated by the Strait of
Juan de Fuca, a 27 km stretch of (almost) open ocean.
By
air, visitors arrive at either Victoria Harbour, by
float plane, or at Victoria
International Airport on the Saanich Peninsula,
about 27 km north of Victoria.
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