Explore Victoria: Island View Park
Victoria has some wonderful beach parks, but none can match Island View Beach for its dune ecology. While not a particularly large park, at just 42 hectares, it does offer one of the largest oceanfront recreation areas on the Saanich Peninsula. It also protects a rare sand dune ecosystem including yellow sand verbena, contorted-pod evening primrose and fleshy jaumea.
A good time to visit is the spring or fall when migratory birds use the eelgrass beach at low tide for feeding.
The park is split into portions; the south end is most popular as a boat launch, central is the campground and north is open parkland. The seasonal campground has 18 beachfront RV sites, five treed tent trailer sites and 24 treed tent sites.
Cordova Spit: If you continue your walk north of the park along the beach, you will enter the East Saanich Reserve of the Tsawout/Tseycum. The northern extent of the beach walk is a spit and Capital Regional District's Tixen/Cordova Spit Park, another example of unique shoreline geology and a home to rare plant species. There is more than you would think in those sand dunes!
