Beckwith Park

Walk-to score: 19

Transit to score: 37

Dogs permitted: off leash

Upper trails are wheelchair accessible

Beckwith Park is tucked in off the south end of Quadra Street, in what used to be some of Greater Victoria's prime agricultural land.  The park itself is a well equipped neighbourhood park, smack in the midst of residences that have sprung up as farmland was sold and rezoned.  It boasts one of Saanich's few waterparks during the summer, a newer playground equipped with a good variety of play structures, and has 2 tennis courts, washrooms open year-round and open soccer fields.

The pathways around the playground and fields are paved and smooth, and the trails surrounding the pond are smooth and mostly level for wheelchair accessibility.  Towards the eastern side of  the park, however, the trails become a little less level, and rougher.

Dogs are permitted off-leash everywhere except the playground area.  On any given weekend, there are groups of dogs romping around in the open fields, and dogs accompanying their owners on jaunts around the trail.  If your pooches are prey-driven (like our shiba inus are!) you may want to keep them on-leash in the area around the duckpond.

Beyond the standard neighbourhood park setup, there is a network of trails that lead around a pond, and into the Garry Oak meadow.  At the eastern side of the park, you can continue your walk along a designated bike route on residential streets that ultimately leads to Lochside Trail, and out to Blenkinsop Lake.  At the present time, it is not possible to do a loop around Blenkinsop Lake, so you will have to double-back in order to get back to Beckwith park.

History

This area was home to the farms of a number of Saanich pioneers at the turn of the century, and what is currently Lochside trail was actually a CNPR railway line out to Patricia Bay with a railway trestle crossing over Blenkinsop Lake. At that time the North Quadra area was occupied mainly by dairy farms - the Rogers Farm to the west side of Quadra, and the (current) Beckwith farm on the eastern side between Beckwith Avenue and Lochside trail.   Beckwith farm continues to be farmed today, dedicated mainly to blueberries.

Beckwith Park is named after J.L Beckwith, a Victoria city councillor and Mayor for a term in 1912. He is remembered not only for his years of public service, but also for saving Craigdarroch Castle from being torn down, and for establishing Victoria College in 1921. Strangely enough, J.L. lived on Fernwood road, not in the North Quadra area. I think further research is in order to determine what further connections exist.

Flora and fauna

Beckwith park itself is largely Garry Oak meadow, with an understory of grassy wildflower meadow. A springtime walk revealed not only the native Erythronium sp. (Easter lilies), chocolate lilies (Fritillaria) and a smattering of Camassia quamash.

 

Around the pond, and closer to Blenkinsop lake, the Garry oak trees give way to species that like wetter conditions - cottonwoods and alder, with elderberries closer to the edges.  As you walk along Lochside trail towards the lake, you will also encounter salmonberries and on a spring day, smell the skunk cabbage.

This park is a great birdwatching spot.  There are a variety of habitats within a short distance, and nesting boxes have been set up in strategic spots throughout the park. You will likely hear a number of different songbirds, hear and see Stellars Jays, see ducks in the pond, and perhaps even spy a turtle or two basking on a log in the lower part of the pond.

Connected greenspaces

In late 2013, the municipality of Saanich acquired just over 31 acres of farmland that borders Beckwith Park and surrounds Blenkinsop Lake.  This new parkland allows for a buffer between the active agricultural land and the Beckwith stream/Blenkisop Lake watershed, which connects to Swan Lake and Colquitz Creek.

Future plans for this new acquisition include creating trails that will connect Beckwith Park and Lochside trail to Valewood Park, on the south side of Broadmead.

Links:

Saanich parks info on Beckwith Park
Saanich acquires 31.4 acres of Blenksinsop land, Victoria News, Sept 27, 2013
Victoria heritage register, 1423 Fernwood Road.

All images © 2015 Janice Mansfield

Royal Jubilee Hospital Gardens

Walk-to score: 77

Transit-to score: 60

Wheelchair accessible

Metered parking and Parkade

This post is a little bit of a departure from the typical parks I've been visiting to date.  BUT it is a surprising little oasis of green and calm in an unexpected spot, and its a public space, which is what Pint-Sized Parks is all about - finding nature in the everyday.  Truth be told, I've had these pictures sitting in an album on my Google drive for a few weeks now, trying to pull together as much historical research as I could before sharing with you, but life has been busy ... and this is really a lovely little spot you should visit before the summer is done, so I'm sharing what I have with you now.

We don't normally associate parks with hospitals, but when construction began on the new Royal Jubilee Hospital there were plans to restore the old chapel (designated as a Heritage building), and the original Pemberton operating room.

Through a combination of fundraising by the Alumnae Association of the RJH School of Nursing and the Parks and Recreation Foundation of Victoria, the original Pemberton Chapel was restored and the Heritage Garden on the level just outside the Chapel and Operating Room was created, and opened in 2007.   As you can see in the photos, the Heritage buildings and Gardens have been preserved, and the new Hospital has been carefully built up around the site.

Plantings in this upper garden are formal in nature, but punctuated with plantings of native species, and surprising touches such as a "permanent" ladybug placed on the water fountain.

On the lower levels of this courtyard garden, is a Japanese garden dedicated to Dr. Inazo Nitobe.  He was a Japanese statesman and scholar who dedictated his life to "being a bridge" across the Pacific and spent much of his life promoting trust and understanding between North America and Japan.  In 1933, he fell ill and died at Royal Jubilee Hospital, and this park commemorates his life and life's work.  In this spirit, the garden itself was a collaboration between Paul Allen of Victoria and Takashi Fujimura of Morioka.

Funds for this garden were raised by the Victoria-Morioka Friendship society, and the garden was officially opened in 2013.  A commemorative stone with an inscription honouring Dr. Nitobe sits at the entrance to the garden, which then moves up the hill through a water feature to the Chapel.  

The gardens at RJH - before! (source http://www.rjhnursingalum.com/chapel-garden/)

The gardens on both levels were designed to be restorative and therapeutic, and on any given day you can find nurses, doctors and patients alike enjoying a quiet moment away from the hectic pace inside.  The days that I was there were the close of busy days, and it was a treat to bring a bag dinner and decompress to the sound of the waterfall in the Nitobe Garden.  I highly recommend stopping in here if you are visiting loved ones at the hospital, or even if you are just passing by!

Location:

Links:

Heritage Garden at Royal Jubilee Hospital Opened, Parks and Recreation Foundation of Victoria, 2007 http://www.prfvictoria.ca/heritage-garden-at-royal-jubilee-hospital-opened/

Pemberton Chapel Restoration http://www.viha.ca/NR/rdonlyres/860FB056-FDA2-414C-812F-9D26562CADFD/0/pembertonchapelrestoration.pdf

Who is Inazo Nitobe? http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/nitobe/inazo-nitobe

A New Nitobe Garden http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/jgard/msg0915584426077.html

Vantreight Park and Ferndale Forest

Walk to score: 13

Transit to score: 36

Parking:on Vantreight Dr.

Crushed gravel trails are wheelchair accessible

Dogs: permitted off leash (dogs mush be on-leash in the upper playground area)

Gordon Head is steeped in agricultural history, and parks such as Vantreight park are reminders of the many homesteading families that farmed the land in this part of the city in the early days of Victoria.

We spend a lot of time at Vantreight Park, as it is just down the hill from us and on the regular dog-walk route. It is also part of a set of interconnected greenspaces throughout Gordon Head, where one can walk partly through trails and partly through lower-traffic neigbourhoods, right from Arbutus Cove, through to Glencoe Cove, to Vantreight Park, to Margaret's Bay and on towards Mount Doug Park.

History 

In 1884, John Vantreight purchased a fair chunk of Gordon Head - a farm stretching inland from the bluff of Glencove Cove (also called Deadman's Cliff, or North Bay) - as far inland as Tyndall Road behind the large family home that still stands today.

Vantreight Farm at North Bay circa 1890, Saanich Archives

Through the years, this property has gone through a few bouts of development, and during the subdivision of what is now Leyns Road, this piece of parkland was deeded to the municipality.

Through the 1970's and 1980's it contained some playground equipment - swings, and teeter totters - and had baseball diamonds set up where a local baseball league practiced.  As the neighbourhood evolved, baseball was moved to Lambrick Park and Majestic Park, and the diamonds removed leaving the large level field on the lower level of the park.

Park highlights

Today, the park has new playground equipment installed at the upper level, and has a few strategically placed trees and a picnic table.  It remains a popular gathering spot for larger parties looking for a quiet picnic spot, or families looking for a space to kick the soccer ball around.

The lower field is a popular off-leash space for neighbourhood dog owners looking for a place for their pooches to stretch their legs and play.  During warm summer evenings, you can hear bats flitting about, and see swallows swooping and diving across the field, and occasionally see the eagles that nest further down the beach at Margaret's Bay.

Beyond the playground on the upper level of the park, there is a stretch of small forested area, containing Douglas Fir and other native species.  There have been a few fir seedlings planted in this area, to replace a few larger, older trees that have gone down in recent windstorms.  Across Vantreight Road, you step into the more heavily forested area known now as Ferndale Forest.

A few years ago, the municipality created a wheelchair-accessible pathway on one side of Vantreight Park, leading past the playground and onto Leyns Road at the other end. This has become a popular walking route in the neighbourhood year-round.

Kimiko loves to birdwatch in the forest

The Forest portion of this park is currently undergoing rehabilitation and re-wilding.  Volunteer crews working with Saanich Parks staff, are spending time pulling ivy and other invasive species in order to allow the native understory plants to re-establish themselves.  As you walk through the forest, despite the strangling influence of the ivy, you can still see thimbleberries, chokecherries, red huckleberries, wild rose, salmonberries, spirea, trailing blackberries, salal and the occasional saskatoon bush. Expect to see these burgeoning in the next 1-2 years as the volunteer crews work their way through this stretch.

Saanich Parks info on Vantreight Park
History of land ownership in Gordon Head, Saanich Archives http://www.saanich.ca/discover/artsheritagearc/heritage/pdf/ttwalkingtourweb.pdf


All images © 2014 Janice Mansfield

Bow Park

Walk-to score: 67

Transit-to score: 49

Parking on street

Wheelchair accessible trails in Bow Park area, steeper gravel trails towards Mackenzie Avenue

Dogs permitted: on leash

You might have driven down Mackenzie Avenue around Braefoot Park and idly wondered about that pedestrian overpass - wondering why anyone would put an overhead walkway to seemingly nowhere.

But the fact is, that overpass does lead somewhere! Right off the overpass, you find yourself on Ferndale Trail, heading up the hill towards to Bow Park, a superb example of how the hard work of volunteers working with the municipality can help preserve and restore natural ecosystems in suburban Victoria in a very short space of time!

Bow Park is also accessible off of Cedar Hill Road via Hopesmore Drive, and with Brodick Park is a habitat reclamation area smack-dab in the middle of a residential area that has rise up around it over the years. Its somewhat unique in that its Garry Oak groves sit in the midst of a boggier area, rather than the rocky, camass-covered outcroppings we typically see. There is small pond right in the middle of Bow Park (complete with ducks and frogs!), surrounded by Cottonwood, and the the understory of this Park is largely chokecherry, salmonberry and some Rosa Nutkana.

Park Highlights:

The stroll around the pond itself is a lovely walk, with benches placed strategically at a couple of spots.  If you go in late spring/early summer, you might be able to spy a nesting duck, or ducklings sunning themselves by the edge of the pond.  A number of residences back right onto the park by the pond, and then the trails make their way deeper into the forest, which is teeming with birds.

History:

Brodick and Bow Parks were first established around the time of the first round of subdivisions in the area.  One end of Bow Park opens up onto Brodick which is an open field area, with a small playground with an "old school" slide and swings.

More recently though, with its commitment to connected greenspaces, Saanich began more intensive work on the parks in this area, including Bow Park.

"In the spring of 2011 Saanich Parks began a project to reduce the grade of a connector trail that travels through Feltham Park and Bow Park to connect Mckenzie Avenue with Cedar Hill Road. Throughout the summer and early fall, Saanich Park staff along with Pulling Together volunteers, removed invasive species such as Himalayan Blackberry and English Ivy within a stand of Garry Oak, Bitter Cherry, Indian Plum, and Black Hawthorn trees. On Tree Appreciation Day Saanich staff and more than 50 community volunteers planted hundreds of native trees and shrubs along the portion of the trail from Livingstone Avenue to Bow Road. This area will be an ongoing restoration area and support from the community for maintenance is required." Our Backyard, a Newsletter on the Natural Environment in Saanich, Vol 11 Issue 4, 2011, pg 5

You can see signs throughout the park highlighting the areas where trees have been planted, and can see evidence of the invasive species removal crews at work.  It is amazing to see the effects that just 3 years of focussed work has had to move this area to a more naturally balanced mix of flora.  In the lower parts of the trail that connect to Mackenzie Avenue, you can see the return of horsetail, skunk cabbage and wetlands species in the understory of the cottonwoods and alder, and in the upper areas closer to the pond, the chokecherries and salmonberries are thriving.

Final note: If you take the time to stroll through the park on a warm evening, make sure you come armed with mosquito repellent!





Links:
Saanich Parks info on Bow Park
Our Backyard, A Newsletter on the Natural Environment in Saanich, Volume 11, Issue 4

All images © 2014 Janice Mansfield

Outerbridge Park

Walk-to score: 25

Transit-to score: 39

Parking, Wheelchair accessible trails

Dogs: on leash 

The first thing thay hits you when you get out of your car in the parking lot at Outerbridge Park on a late May day, is the smell of cottonwoods! That sweet smell that fills the air along with the fluff from the cottonwood seeds.

Outerbridge Park is one of Saanich's more recent park acquisitions, having been deeded to the municipality in 2005, and is a sanctuary of quiet serenity steps away from one of suburban Victoria's busier arterial roadways.  The park is approximately 3.8 hectares in size, with a main entrance off of Royal Oak Drive, and a secondary entrance off Blenkinsop Road.

The history

Joan Outerbridge began creating a bird sanctuary about 20 years ago, and we first encountered the property when my daughter Nicole was riding, and took over a "freelease" of a thoroughbred who was living in the barn on the Outerbridge Property (those of you with horse experience know I use the word "free" somewhat liberally ;)).

At that time, the area where the barn stands had some paddocks for the horses, but was well and truly fenced and gated off from the rest of the property - ostensibly to keep the deer out! The gate between the two sections of the property was only opened on those occasions when the gardeners helping Mrs. Outerbridge with the property came to fetch barrow-loads of composted horse manure.  All we knew at that time was that Mrs. Outerbridge was creating a bird sanctuary by buying up parcels of adjoining land as they came available, and was crazy about maintaining the flora to support bird habitat.  We were told leaving the gate open was a grave offense indeed!

Since those years it has been wonderful to see this little oasis turned into parkland accessible to the community at large.  The cultivated areas of the garden are being restored and enhanced through a contract with the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, and with each year, the gardens become a little more complete.  What has been especially fantastic about this space, is that Joan Outerbridge was able to see much of this progress.  She passed away a few months ago (February 2014), leaving a legion of people whose lives she touched through this little park.

Park highlights

Within the park, there is a figure 8 pathway that is wheelchair accessible through the more formal plantings, with a water feature, a small bridge over the pond, and some more formally planted beds. Towards the eastern side of the park, the landscape becomes more naturalized, with cottonwood trees, fir and some meadow that is being replanted with Garry Oak and Camas. Nesting boxes for birds are strategically placed throughout the park, and even on a rainy day, there are plenty of birds to see and hear.

The old barn structure still stands in the same location, but has been refurbished on the inside as a space for volunteers who help maintain the gardens.  The pathways continue through to the barn, but become a little steeper and rougher towards the Blenkinsop end of the park.

Dogs are welcome (on leash, and please pick up after them!), and on most days, you are likely to encounter a few other people taking a break and soaking in a little serenity.

(map location is approximate, there is clear signage to the parking lot and entrance)
 
Links:
Saanich Parks info for Outerbridge Park
Gardens at HCP, Outerbridge Park Memorial Walk

All images © 2014 Janice Mansfield