Just a walk in the parks

As I've mentioned before, Greater Victoria is made up of a number of areas and cities of varying sizes. Sometimes it's difficult to figure out where one ends and the next begins. At times, I get help with this from my phone's camera, but today it wasn't so obvious. From what I can gather, today we walked in Esquimalt, Colwood, and Saanich. I'll just leave it at that.

Yesterday, Greg mentioned that Fanci had four walks that day. Today he was aiming to top that, but I think we stopped at four. It continues to be lovely weather for walking - lots of sunshine and temperatures that allow for t-shirts, which is great.

Here's a map at the entrance to the first park. The bright blue line denotes the river running through the park, but you'll see from the next photo, water levels are low. It's been a particularly dry summer here, from what I've heard.

What appears to be the banks of the river is actually just caked mud, which I assume gets covered in water when the river flows more. Further down, we saw a small boat tied up, but it had no chance of floating from its location, given the water was so shallow.

Back to the first photo. The other reason I took it is to show my walking poles - bottom right corner. For those of you who follow the blog and recently read about my walking poles, I just wanted proof that I'm using them. This is my third day of using them, and I think they're a good investment.

Greg and Fanci at the entrance to the park. As you'll see from the first photo, there are many marked trails. We also noticed a sign near where they're standing.

It caught our attention because it explained that they'd be removing ivy in an area of the park to allow for restoration of the native vegetation. I was also surprised that they welcomed input from park users as to which trails should be closed. Although it makes sense to ask users for input, most of us know that doesn't always happen in life.

With the help of Google, I learned that the lagoon in this park is bordered by some of the oldest Coastal Douglas Fir forest remaining in the Victoria area. This park was a good discovery, thanks to the mapping system in our vehicle.

I tried to take a photo of the forested area, but it just didn't do it justice. Then I remembered a trick I'd been taught in an Apple iPhone class - to use the panoramic setting on its side. It was a good time to try out the idea, and here's the result.

Much better, I think. Remember you can double click on any of these photos to enlarge them.

On to the next park - Highrock Park. Greg's logic was that a park with that name would likely give us a good view. He was right. Once you hiked to the top area, there were great panoramic views. No, I didn't take a normal panoramic photo, as this blog (or my skills with it) just don't do them justice.

On my way down I noticed this arbutus tree, which is native to this area. It has the telltale peeling bark.

Next we went to McCauley Point Park, which - as you might guess - is at the waterfront.

There was a fourth stop along the way, but I don't have any photos or details to share.

As much as Fanci loved the time outdoors, especially being off-leash and able to run and snoop around, she was happy to curl up and sleep afterwards. We fed her, and then went out to feed ourselves. A great Chinese meal finished off a good day. It's great when homeowners give you good recommendations for places to eat too; what a bonus.

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Location: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Weather: warm & sunny - just lovely

Note: We have the pet owner's approval to post photos on this blog.