Victoria Small Dog Walk and Play Group

The Victoria Small Dog Walk and Play Group returns to Government House this year for our very popular walk around the beautiful manicured gardens, native woodlands, and heritage buildings of this jewel of Victoria.

Rose season is blooming right now, and the fragrances are wonderful. The irises are displaying their beautiful drooping petals, and the late rhodos are still showing their colors. It's always a bit tricky to pick the exact weekend when we can see roses, irises and rhodos all blooming together, but my visit today gave me hope that this will be the year!

For those who may not know ... Government House of BC is the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of BC (Wendy Cocchia), and it's a National Historic Site of Canada. It is the "Ceremonial Home of all British Columbians." It stands on a 36 acre estate at 1401 Rockland Avenue.

I love walking around the beautiful gardens with Tidbit, and I've changed our route this year, so if you've attended this walk before, perhaps you'll see something different walking this year's route.

As usual, we'll start by walking through "The Woodlands", a 22 acre Garry Oak habitat that is home to a tapestry of wildflowers, and a variety of woodland fauna.

Next, we'll go up to the "Terraces" to enjoy the spectacular views over the Woodlands, the Salish Sea, and the Olympic Mountains. We'll walk the lower Terrace trail, and then head past the old Chauffeur's Cottage (and washrooms!) on our way over to the Iris Garden.

A loop around the Orchard brings us to the Rotary Garden, and there's a relatively new path around here so we'll take it and get a good look at the flower beds.

Our route continues along the North section of the property, past the Duck Pond, and on through the English Country Garden. Having now reached the Sunken Rose Garden, we'll slow down a bit and enjoy the wide variety of beautiful roses, designed around a tiered fountain.

After our short break, we'll walk by the front entrance of Government House and take the shady path to the Bruce Pavilion, a great place to sit and have your coffee on another day! This leads us to our second rose garden of the walk, the Victorian Rose Garden. Queen Elizabeth II herself opened this garden in 1994, and it's based on the plan for Warwick Castle in England. The roses were chosen to have as many different colours, varieties, sizes, flower shapes, and scents as possible.

As we near the end of our walk, we'll take a trip through the Rhododendron Garden, past the washrooms again (!!) and then one last jaunt through "The Terraces", doing the upper terrace this time, before heading back down to our starting place at Cary Castle Mews.

This is not a long walk. It's only 2.58 km with a minimal elevation gain of just 42 meters.
The trails are either forest-like trails, garden paths, or concrete. There are some areas where we have to negotiate steps - ie: into the sunken Rose Garden, around the Terraces. We'll deal with that as necessary.

It's not appropriate for our pups to be running free on this walk, with the possible exception of the Woodlands Trail, so this is a leashed walk.

So - our meeting place - is easy to find if you follow my directions...

Drive along Rockland Avenue in the Rock Bay neighborhood of Victoria. Turn into the Government House grounds at the grand main entrance at 1401 Rockland Avenue. The main entrance has 4 stone columns and is slightly recessed from Rockland Avenue. This is the best way to drive into the grounds. There is no access to the Government House grounds from any of the nearby streets.

Drive into the grounds and continue for 150 meters to the front entrance of Government House itself.
Don't park here!
Continue past Government House for another 60 meters. To your right, you'll see a sign pointing to Rudi's Tea Room. Turn right, and follow the road down to the lower part of the estate. After about another 70 meters you'll see a small parking area off to your left. Don't park here either!
Continue driving straight for another 80 meters and you'll see the road open up into a large parking area for 60+ cars. This is Cary Castle Mews, and it's our meeting place for this walk.

Give yourself a little extra time if you're not sure where you're going. Look for my Victoria Small Dog Walk and Play Group signs.

In the Photos section of this event, I've posted a number of photos to help you find us.

(PS: Note that the pin on the Google map associated with this event points to Cary Castle Mews, not Government House itself. We are meeting in the parking lot at the far SE corner of the estate. See the maps I have created, and posted in the photo section of this event.)

This site has a good map of the grounds.
https://ltgov.bc.ca/interactive-map/

PS: I've tried using my GPS to help guide me here, but it never works. Follow my directions instead.

Here is the link to AllTrails so you can run the preview of the route.

https://www.alltrails.com/explore/custom-routes/custom-route-e2b9fce

UPDATE Mar 25, 2026. I walked our route yesterday, folks, and it's still really wet and mucky. So we'll do this walk later (not sure when - that's why the date now says Dec 31st), and we'll do a different walk up in North Saanich instead. I have a tentative route planned in and around Green Park, but I have to check it out first before I post it. Stay tuned! There will be a walk on Saturday in North Saanich - you can count on that.

It's always my intention to spread our walks throughout the entire CRD in order to occasionally ease the driving required by our more far-flung members. To that end, our next walk will be up at the North end of the Saanich Peninsula at the Vancouver Island portion of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve. The Reserve, you may remember, is a huge area that covers sections of many Gulf Islands including Mayne, Saturna, North and South Pender, Sidney, Prevost and other islands. However, the Vancouver Island portion is mostly contained within McDonald Campground, just to the NW of the Town of Sidney.

The campground doesn't open until May 15th, so on the day of our walk, we can stroll around undisturbed by cars or people. It's quite lovely in there, with majestic cedars and mature Douglas firs towering over the rustic campsites. The campground roads (such as they are) are covered with tree sheddings making them seem less like roads and more like wide trails.

Our route then takes us south into Blue Heron Park, featuring many wonderful outdoor sports facilities, including a forested trail system. We'll wander past the soccer fields and the new running track and on to the trails at the south end of Blue Heron Park. The trees and bushes are shorter here, allowing us to see the sky and (hopefully) the sun. These are forest trails and it's easy walking.

We'll exit Blue Heron Park at McDonald Park Road, cross the street, and head into Lillian Hoffar Park, named for the prominent Hoffar family who willed the land to the District of North Saanich in 1978. This very picturesque little park features great views of the Gulf and San Juan Islands (see attached photos), and on a clear day, Mt Baker is easily discernable in the distance. Be sure to stop and take in the mature Western Red Cedar at the north end of the park. It was designated a National Historic Site in 2005.

This is the point where we turn around and head back. One of the great features of our route is that there are many places where your dog can get some off-leash time, so if your dog likes to do the zoomies, this is a good walk for you to attend.

This is a fairly flat walk, with just a small rise in the campground to negotiate. (See the attached map in the photo section if you want to see more details.) If you do the whole walk, you'll have done 4.07 km. We'll endeavor to keep up a modest pace so we can do the walk in just a bit over an hour.

Last year, some members made our event part of a larger plan that included heading over to Sidney for brunch and a wander down Beacon Street and along the waterfront. Tidbit and I and a small contingent headed over to the The Roost Farm Winery Bakery and Bistro for some locally grown food and wine, and we invite you to join us there again this year.

Our Small Dog Walk starts at Blue Heron Park. Take note of the directions and parking info below. Directions to The Roost will follow if you'd like to tag along.

Driving instructions

• Go up the Pat Bay Hwy (Hwy 17) as if you're going to the ferries at Swartz Bay.
• About 1.5 km before you get there, turn off the highway at Exit 31 (McDonald Pk Rd, Wain Rd, Deep Cove).
• Go STRAIGHT on McDonald Pk Rd. DO NOT GO TO WAIN ROAD/DEEP COVE!!!
• About 400m along McDonald Pk Rd, on the right side of the road you'll see a Parks Canada sign for Gulf Island National Park and Smonecten Campground.
• Stay on McDonald Pk Rd for another 80m.
• On the right side of the road, you'll now see a sign for Blue Heron Park.
• You should also see my Victoria Small Dog Walk and Play Group signs.
• Turn right and follow the road into Blue Heron Park.
• 120m into Blue Heron Park, you'll encounter a parking lot on your left, next to the Peninsula Soccer Association soccer fields. We're not parking there this year.
• Continue straight for another 150m, follow the road to your left, and continue for another 100m.
• Park here. (The soccer field is booked for referee training on the day of our walk, so we want to park where we won't be in the way.)

If you're using your smartphone to navigate, be sure you've set it to guide you to "Peninsula Soccer Ass'n, 10714 McDonald Park Rd, Sidney, BC."