The two Goldstream Falls are incredible, the upper Goldstream Falls and the lower Niagara Falls. First-growth forests, incredible waterfalls, rushing rivers, flowers, birds, and spawning fish are but a few of the reasons to visit Goldstream Provincial Park. Goldstream’s numerous trails are another good reason to come to the park. Here you can see first-growth douglas fir trees, western red cedar, mixed with western yew and hemlock, red alder, big-leaf maple, and black cottonwood.
On the south-facing areas, you can see flowering dogwood, and lodgepole pine mixed with arbutus. The arbutus, with its thick leathery evergreen leaves, red-coloured trunk, and peeling bark, is Canada’s only broad-leafed evergreen and is found exclusively on Vancouver Island and the southwest coast of British Columbia. In the spring and early summer, Goldstream Park has a huge variety of wildflowers, including the shade-loving western trillium and the calypso, a delicate orchid that grows only in old-growth forests.
The park is the site of an annual chum salmon spawning run that has thousands of salmon returning every year. Riverside trails and observation platforms provide good opportunities to view this natural phenomenon, which also attracts bald eagles, who swoop down to devour the bodies of the spawned-out salmon.
When we travel to Victoria, we always stop at Goldstream Park and relax before heading into the busy city which is just 16 km further along the road. It prepares me for the fast pace of the city, and after we leave, we always stop again if it’s early enough.
The Goldstream Falls are just incredible to view, in the spring when the stream is running full, they are quite beautiful, I would suggest to you all that you should get out for a walk, visit the park and see these falls.