Victoria in late winter: who needs the sun?

We just got back from a week in Victoria, British Columbia to visit our daughter. Daytime highs were in the 40s, nighttime lows in the mid-30s. And except for our last day, we never really saw the sun, just caught brief glimpses.

But when you’re surrounded by so much natural beauty, who needs the sun? In fact, brooding skies with towering clouds amp up the drama. We spent a couple of days on Pender Island, and on the ferry ride there and back, the spectacle was positively operatic.

Victoria is only 75 miles from Seattle, and the flight is so short that there’s no beverage service on the plane. You’re in the air for just 30 minutes, but the views are spectacular. You can see the San Juan Islands, the Olympic Mountains in Washington, and of course Vancouver Island:

View of the eastern shore of Vancouver Island as we’re descending into Victoria International Airport

Victoria is spectacular place to live, and real estate is pricy, with houses right on the water costing many millions:

This was one of the few times we had a clear view of the sun:

As I mentioned earlier, we did some exploring on Pender Island, one of the Southern Gulf Islands in the Salish Sea that separates Vancouver Island from the mainland of British Columbia. The 45-minute ferry ride was spectacular, in spite (or maybe because) of the moody weather:

Aboard the Salish Raven

Arriving on Pender Island

Pender Island – technically two islands, North Pender and South Pender – is 13 square miles and home to a permanent population of about 2,200 souls. Early March is definitely not tourist season so we were able to enjoy the island in peace and solitude.

Port Washington

Gowlland Point

Colorful pebbles on the beach at Gowlland Point

Rock face at Gowlland Point

We had a fantastic meal at HUB at Hope Bay...

....which offers the best views of any restaurant...

...I’ve been in this side of Hawaii

Hope Bay dock at dusk, after we’d finished our dinner

This is what happened later that evening: it started to snow!

Red alders (Alnus rubra) are everywhere on Pender Island

Red alder

More dramatic skies on the ferry ride back to Vancouver Island:

On the drive back from the ferry terminal to our Airbnb, it started to hail and snow, adding drama of a different kind:

The next day, we drove out to Hatley Castle, featured in many movie and TV productions, including X-Men and The Killing, and were blessed with more moist goodness from the sky – “wintry mix,” the weather report called it.

Our flight back to Seattle, short and sweet as mentioned earlier, was not without drama: spectacular views of the snow-covered Olympic Mountains.

Since I love maps, here are a few showing the lay of the land. Victoria, the capital of the province of British Columbia, is located at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, a massive island 456 km (283 mi) in length, 100 km (62 mi) in width at its widest point, and 32,100 km² (12,400 sq mi) in total area (thank you, Wikipedia).

To the consternation of many visitors, the city of Vancouver is on the mainland of British Columbia, not on Vancouver Island:

Pender Island (see white arrow) is one of the Gulf Islands off the east coast of Vancouver Island, very close to the border between Canada and the USA as indicated by the solid line in the map below:

Because of its location in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, Victoria receives only about half the precipitation of Seattle and Vancouver. That, coupled with its spectacular scenery, makes it a major destination for tourists and retirees. Sharp tongues call it “the city of the newlywed and nearly dead.” True, there is a large gray- and blue-haired cohort in the city of 100,000, but the 22,000+ students at the University of Victoria make sure things don’t become too staid.

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