East Sooke Park: Partial coast

10.0 km loop.

Terrain: Moderately smooth

Approximate Elevations (in meters)

Start End Minimum Maximum Gain

10 10 0 30 30

Alyard Farm Trailhead: (37 km from Saanich Hall). Take the Trans Canada Highway (CA#1) west from Victoria, take the Langford exit (exit 14 - 8.8km) and take the Veteran's Memorial Parkway (highway 14) south to Sooke Road (4.2km)). Turn right and continue to Gillespie Rd (13.2km). Follow this south 5.6km to East Sooke Rd, turn left and drive about 2km to Becher Bay Road. Turn right and folow the road to the Aylard Farm parking lot.

Facilities available at the trailhead include:

Picnic tables
Toilets and/or outhouses

Uses

Dayhike

2 boot (easy to moderate).

4 hours for the loop.

Suitable all year.

Description

This route follows the Coast Trail from Alyard Farm out via the petroglyphs at Aldridge Point (2km) past Beechy Head to Cabin Point and returns via the Interior Trail.

On the interior trail there are three important junctions to note, the first, unmarked junction is with another trail leaving from near the Beechy Head area, continue to your left, the next junction, also unmarked has a trail going slightly to the right with the interior trail continuing to the left and up. The final junction is marked with signs, the majority point along the trail you are on (including a sign for Alyard Farm), for the interior trail, however, take the trail that intersects this other one, it is also marked "Alyard Farm", this takes you off the old logging road into some less travelled country.

Approximate timings:
- Alyard Farm to Beechy Head: 1:15
- Beechy Head to Beach Access 1:00
- Beach Access to Alyard Farm (inner route): 0:45

Features

This trail features beaches, birds (Bald eagle, Turkey vulture), forests (Arbutus and Douglas fir), Petroglyphs at Beechy Head, historical artifacts (Petroglyphs) and marine mammals (Harbour seal, Orca).

Hazards

some scrambling is required

View trail condition reports for this trail.