Why do the Victoria’s Hidden Gems Walk?
Do you want to see the most flower-filled small city in Canada? Vibrant red and purple flowers contrast with verdant green foliage. Flower beds and hanging planters adorn city parks, streets, and even buildings. And yet, there are places in plain sight that you may miss if your passion is flowers.
Once you have visited Victoria, the first thing you will associate with Victoria will be City of Flowers. This classic walk ambles 4.3 km (2.7 mi) one-way to Mile Zero then 1.7 km (21 mins.) more along the shoreline to Clover Point. The itinerary is shown on the CA Victoria Map.
Author & Photographer: George Mitchell
Our advice below is not based on a couple of tourist trips. Our recommendations are based on our extensive experience living in Western Canada. We are avid hikers, nature lovers and photographers (all photos are my own).
All of our recommendations are top-rated by Google Maps Ratings, which is based on everyone, not just tourists. Each place recommended in our custom CA Victoria Map is appended with a Google Maps Rating (G0 to G5).
Bard and Banker
The walking tour starts at this beautiful flower-decked building, which began life in 1885 as the Bank of BC and later the CIBC. It remained a bank for 126 years.
It is appropriate that they named this pub the Bard and Banker. Be sure to take a look at the gorgeous interior. You may want to come here after today’s walk.
One of the bank employees in 1903 was Robert Service, the famous bard of the Yukon. Standing above the gorgeous green Miles Canyon in “Yukon Green“, led Robert to write his famous poem, “The Call of the Wild“.
Empress Hotel Gardens
The post, Vibrant Victoria – Experience these Magic Moments and Hidden Gems, talked about the architecture and history of the Empress Hotel and BC Legislature. This walk highlights the flowers and gardens of Victoria. This open air garden is spectacular.
BC Parliament Flowers
Head to the south edge of the harbour for the beautiful Kwakiutl Bear Totem Pole carved by Tony Hunt (1966) to replace the original carved by Henry Hunt (1866). Colourful flower beds decorate this little piazza. In the background is the façade of the BC Legislature and its large dome.
This colourful red and green carving grabbed my attention before I even knew how significant it was. Totem poles are symbolic of northwest coast indigenous culture. The pole depicts a bear holding a plaque symbolic of a chief, which happens to be the crest of the Hunt family. Flower beds adorn the sidewalk. If you come here early in the morning you will have to the flowers all to yourself.
Centennial Fountain
A hidden gem can be found on the back (south) side of the Legislature. Here is another façade embedded with carvings of BC historical figures. In the foreground, Centennial Fountain (1962) symbolizes the nature of BC with bronze statues of a bear and sea otter prancing around and gulls flying overhead. In the background are more flowers and trees. Victoria is very serious about gardening!
Beacon Hill Park Flowers
One of the best places to enjoy the flowers and trees is Beacon Hill Park, just south of downtown Victoria. The gardens are free and easily accessible from any direction. Click this link to get a Beacon Hill Park Map.
I loved looking close-up at the orange-red Canna lilies and the purple Sweet william (Dianthus) seen in the flower beds above. These are located along Bridge Way, If you are walking south on Douglas Street turn left just after Michigan Street on the right side of the appropriately named Douglas Street.
The 75 ha (200 acres) park was set aside by none other than Sir James Douglas, governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1858. When gold was discovered in what is now called British Columbia (BC), he unilaterally declared mainland BC a British colony – it wasn’t! As it was being overrun by 25,000 American gold diggers, it was in danger of becoming a part of the United States.
Goodacre Bridge Flowers
Near the bridge over Goodacre Lake was another beautiful floral display above, which came with giant leaves. This plant is Taro and is also known as Elephant Ears. Taro is a major food plant in Polynesia and Asia.
The purple flower is the Cherry pie plant (Heliotropium), which originated in Peru. The yellow flower is Cape marguerite (Osteospermum), which originated in South Africa and has gained popularity worldwide.
The rustic stone bridge dates to 1889, the origin of the park. Continue over the bridge southeast towards the public washrooms for a major surprise…
We were enjoying another set of flower beds when out came a party of peacocks and their peachicks, which are native to India. Yes, they are not caged!
And then an East-Indian couple in traditional dress came strolling by. We must be in India! Or were they Indian-Canadian? Of a population of 326,000 in Victoria, 14% are of Asian origin.
One Victorian citizen saw me photographing the birds and brought me to see owls nesting in the park. She retired here after living all her life in Vancouver. When she found out our son lives in Vancouver, she immediately started to sell Victoria as the place we should retire. By the time we finished our week here, we were ready to agree.
Calling Beacon Hill a hill is a bit of an exaggeration, but the little rise on the Beacon Hill Loop road near the south edge of the park is a great place to have your picnic lunch with a view across the sea of the Olympic Mountains in the State of Washington.
There are many more gardens and parks to see in the Victoria area. For spectacular sculpted floral displays, be sure to visit one of the top three botanical gardens in the world, described in our post, Butchart Gardens, which is 21 km north of the city.
Emily Carr House
The title of this blog could have been From Florists to Painters. This is the home of Emily Carr, one of Canada’s most famous artists. The home of the affluent Carr family was built in Italianate style (1863). Actually, it was moved from its original site at 44 Carr Street.
Emily Carr was one of the first painters who captured the spirit of Canada in a modern, post-Impressionist painting style. In addition to nature, Emily Carr specialized in paintings about First Nations. But Carr did not receive widespread recognition for her work until after she was 52 years old.
She was invited out east to meet Lauren Harris and his painting friends. Harris immediately declared her part of the Group of Seven, the most important Canadian painters. They had a big influence on Carr in terms of landscape painting and the use of bold colours and lines.
Here are two murals adorning the exterior walls of buildings in Charming Chemainus, just 81 km (50 mi.) north of Victoria. A copy of Carr’s painting is in the inner frame. Carr is most famous for her paintings of northwest First Nations, capturing totem poles and other cultural themes. The one above shows the totem poles of Blunden Harbour.
The principal character in many of the First Nation origin and season myths is the Raven. In some tribes, the Raven is considered a trickster and symbolizes change or transformation. The Raven combined the characteristics of good and evil, and for his mischief, he was turned black forever. The Big Raven painting depicts waves of vegetation contrasted to the dramatic diagonals of the proud raven. The original Big Raven is hanging in the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Terry Fox at Mile Zero
At the start of Douglas Street bordering the west side of Beacon Hill Park is a marker for mile zero of the 7,821 km Trans-Canada Highway, the longest national highway in the world. I guess it should be called kilometre zero now.
It is also the location of the One Leg One Dream statue. Terry Fox, who was battling cancer, started the Marathon of Hope to run across Canada to raise awareness about cancer. After 18 months running 2/3 of the way across Canada, he succumbed to lung cancer. He did not make it to Victoria. In just one year, $24 million was collected for cancer research. This started the Terry Fox Runs around the world. Today, there are over 9,000 Terry Fox Runs just in Canada. The Terry Fox Foundation has also organized runs in 25 countries.
Clover Point
If you are walking, you could just go to Finlayson Point and then return to downtown. Clover Point is one km past Mile Zero. That is not much, but from there you will need to return 5 km (3 mi) to go back downtown.
Almost every night, we drove to nearby Clover Point, where all the tourists are led like lemmings to watch glorious sunsets. The Olympic Mountains are 72 km away in Washington state. There is a ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles. The only way this could be better is if the chef had put some snow icing on top of this mountain cake.
Other Places to See Flowers
There are three other top places to see flowers from south to north:
- Government House in the Rockland area;
- Finnerty Gardens at the University of Victoria;
- Playfair Park in the Quadra area.
Final Comments on this Itinerary
This is a relaxing itinerary where you can experience the sights in Victoria.
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Itinerary Map & Resources
Google Maps Ratings
Google Maps provides a rating from 0 to 5 for all sights, hotels and restaurants (but not cities). All of our recommendations are appended with the rating (prefixed with a G) from Google Maps. As it is based on feedback from tourists and locals, it is much more reliable than travel booking websites. We consider a score of 4 to 4.39 to be Very Good; 4.4 to 5 to be Excellent.
Other Places to Add to Your Itinerary
Victoria, the capital city of BC, has the best climate. This is the city of flowers and gardens, views and volcanoes! It’s one of our favourite places. Victoria may just be the best small city to visit in all of North America.
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