On March 1, 2025 Rob and Michelle from Port Alberni joined George, Sandy and I for a tour in the eastern Sooke Hills. Our goal was to look for wildflowers. We were a bit disappointed that no Satinflowers were seen, but we did get some lovely Spring Gold and even a few open Shooting Stars.
We started off from the Sooke Hills Wilderness parking lot off Sooke Road. Our route took us up Alan’s Alp and Tony’s Triumph in the Amigos. We stopped to look for Satinflowers in all the right places, but no blooms were out yet. Lots of stems though. I expect the recent spate of cold weather has delayed things somewhat. We did see our first Spring Gold of the trip here.
Spring Gold - Lomatium utriculatum.
We stopped for elevenses on Tony and then headed up to Stick Bump / John Peak via the Amigos Carriage Way. On our way up we saw the first Shooting Star of the year.
Shooting Star - Primula hendersonii. Just starting to emerge.
From Stick Bump we headed over to Malcolm and came down the Heavenly Trail. The cliffside route didn’t disappoint with lots of Rusty-haired Saxifrage in bloom and gardens of moss, ferns, and liverworts - all glowing green.
Rusty-haired Saxifrage. Micranthes rufidula. Lots more of this to come out.
At the bottom of the Heavenly Trail we headed back down the Amigos Carriageway again - this time turning off it using the Canada Day Trail to David’s Delight. A lovely afternoon biscuit break was taken on David, and then it was down to the Veitch Creek crossing.
Happy to report we were all feet-dry as we crossed over to the Veitch Carriageway and the short trip back to the cars.
It was Michelle and Rob’s first trip in the Sooke Hills - I wish we could have provided more wildflowers, but it was still scenic and serene - we had the entire place to ourselves. The weather was pleasant - no rain and not at all cold. I think the local area showed well for our Port Alberni visitors.
Map of the route. Approx 9 km and 700m elevation gain. Left the parking lot at 9am and were back by 2:50pm.