Ask almost anyone who is living in Victoria to name a nearby provincial park and nine times out of ten they will answer with ‘Goldstream Provincial Park’. This spectacularly beautiful park is a world famous local treasure that has offered visitors the opportunity to experience west coast wilderness close to the city for many decades. The park lands were originally given by the Greater Victoria Water Board in 1958 with additional lands designated in 1994 and 1996 through the Commonwealth Nature Legacy and Crown Land additions.
The park consists of 477 hectares including a salmon spawning river that flows into the ocean, beautiful temperate rainforest criss-crossed with trails, a challenging climb to the top of Mt Finlayson culminating in an outstanding view and several gorgeous waterfalls.
Visitors can enjoy camping in the park year round, though services are limited during the winter months. The Goldstream Freeman King Visitor Centre offers programs to schools and other groups throughout the year, the most well-known happening during the fall chum salmon run. Children have been visiting and witnessing this amazing natural phenomenon for decades. A well-trod riverside trail with numerous viewing platforms bears witness to the generations of classes who have learned how the salmon come home to reproduce at the end of their lives.
Goldstream Provincial Park is home to and protects several red and blue listed species of flora and fauna, including rare wildflowers and plant species such as the Dense Spike Primrose and the Pacific Waterleaf.
How to Get to Goldstream Provincial Park
Take the Trans-Canada Highway (#1) north from Victoria, Goldstream Park is about 16 kms from the city and there are separate entrances for the main campground, group campsite and day-use area:
- Campground visitors must use Amy Road via Westshore Parkway. The Westshore Parkway intersection is just south of the old (now closed) Sooke Lake Road intersection and the first traffic signal after the Spencer Road intersection on Trans-Canada Hwy.
- Visitors to the day-use area may enter at the junction of Trans Canada Hwy and Finlayson Arm Road.
- The entrance to the group campsite is off the Trans-Canada-Hwy opposite the now closed Sooke Lake Road intersection.
