Gowlland Tod Provincial Park

A 20 minute drive from our house is the amazing Gowlland Tod Provincial Park...

with Arbutus Trees   

   , the Cascade Waterfalls

sprouting fiddle-head like fern fronds...

Spectacular views over Brentwood Bay, the Malahat and North Island and as far as the Mainland snow-capped mountains!

 and of course wildflowers.

Stef and I had an amazing 4 hour hike - from the summit to the beach - what views!  

On the Right Edge of Mt. Finlayson

On June 15, 2014 I posted a blog about my daughter Stefanie and I getting lost while trying to hike Mount Finlayson, near Victoria.

Stefanie is visiting for Easter while on her school break. The weather has been better than predicted, warm and sunny. So today we decided to hike up Mt. Finlayson and find the real trail.

At the trail head we met a fellow who told us to turn left at the top of the stairs.  I realized immediately that was our earlier mistake, we went right.  We were never on the trail!

 Looking west and south to the Olympic Mountain Range

 Looking east to Mount Baker and Washington

Beautiful wildflowers at the summit

We made it, we conquered the mountain!  Now on to the next one! 

Island Diversity

This weekend I went 'up Island' with some of my work colleagues.

We met with our counterparts at North Island College and then enjoyed the scenery and recreation the north island as to offer.

In less than a three hour drive from Victoria to Courtney the mountains become much taller and are snow capped.

You can golf in the morning...

  and ski in the afternoon...

 or make snow people or snowshoe like we did!

 Returned home to Heather, Rhodendrons, Daffodils and Camelia in bloom.

 The first bloom of our backyard Camelia - spectacular!