Mapping The Giant Sequoias Of Victoria, BC

This map is interactive - click on the tree icons and get more information about specific sequoias. View a larger version of the map here: "Giant Sequoias In Victoria".

The same mild climate that grows the fattest, tallest native trees in Canada, also nurtures some amazing exotic trees on south Vancouver Island. A case in point are the Giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum), many of which were transported here as seedlings over 100 years ago by settlers from California.

So loved were these California native trees that many made the journey north, and many were successfully planted. In just over a century some of these seedlings have reached, well, giant proportions.

The tallest and widest trees in Victoria are both sequoias which is not surprising considering this tree species is the largest in the world. Also not surprising is the fact that people are still loving these trees after 150 years of occupying their new home.

They are among the most photographed single trees in the area. My post on The Giant Sequoias Of Beacon Hill Park is the most viewed of all time on this blog. They are unique in this region and are far from their traditional range, making them of special interest.

The native range of the Giant sequoia is very restricted,
but they do grow successfully in Victoria, BC.

Giant sequoia occurs naturally only in California in a narrow band of mixed conifer forest, between 5,000-8,000 ft. elevation on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada. Climatically, the Giant sequoia prefers the "Cool Summer Mediterranean" (Csb) climate.

Giant sequoia in its natural California Sierra Nevada range.

Victoria has a Mediterranean climate, and although we are north of their northern limits, the sequoias have done well here.

This Giant sequoia at the residential intersection of Moss and Richardson is the
tallest sequoia in the Victoria area at about 50 meters tall.

I am in the process of mapping the sequoias in the Victoria area that I am familiar with from wandering about town. Many I have found simply by driving around and looking for the tallest trees on the horizon, then navigating to their base for photos. But there are always more trees to be found.

Lately I have been cruising around town using Google Maps instead of my truck to see if I can find more of these big trees. I figure that Google has the cash - let them pay for the gas. I can also get reasonable photos by taking screenshots while on Street View.

A large sequoia on Douglas Street across from Beacon Hill Park.

Using the above map one could set up a walking, cycling, rolling, or driving tour of interesting sequoias in the downtown area.

Not downtown? Chances are there is a Giant sequoia in a neighbourhood near you. Check the map.

This beauty is at the intersection of Jutland and Burnside Rds - I added it to the map
after a reader mentioned it in a comment below.

There is even a small sequoia down the street from where I live in Sooke. It is a mere baby only a few decades old and stands at a tiny 10m (30ft) in height. Eventually it could outlive civilization, and end up the tallest, fattest tree in the new coastal wilderness.

It is a treat to get a feel for the mighty California sequoia forests right here on the south island. If you can't make the 15 hour drive to the Sierra Nevada, this is the next best thing.

Do you know of a Victoria area sequoia that you don't see on the map? Please leave a comment below, like Bernard did, and describe the location of any notable sequoia that you know of. I would like to continue including new trees in this mapping project, and your participation can go a long way to filling in much needed information.

Thank you. Now go enjoy the trees, even if it is on Street View on the map above.

Urban Exotics: Victoria's Giant Sequoias

Giant sequoia dominate their surroundings at The Rise and Montrose, Victoria

One thing I enjoy about the Victoria region is that in addition to beautiful native tree species, there are also many introduced species that grow well here. Because of this, Victoria has an amazingly diverse urban forest. The urban exotics include two huge sequoia at the residential intersection of Montrose and The Rise (see map below).

Sequoia - big and tall

The trees are very tall and can be seen from a distance on the side of Smith's Hill while approaching from the south on Cook Street.



There are also many nice native species in this well-treed neighbourhood. Garry oak and Douglas-fir grow on the rocky hillside, interspersed with Arbutus.

Just down the street is this classic beauty - huge for its young age

Sequoias have a pyramidal shape, but when older can take on more individual characteristics. The trees have reddish-brown furrowed bark, and drooping branches with feathery needles. Giant sequoia wood is more brittle than that of the Coast redwoods, and therefore not as sought after. Sequoia are among the longest living trees and can thrive for thousands of years.

Massive trunk with branches as big as large trees

These fantastic Giant sequoias are probably no older than about 100 years or so, and already they have reached massive proportions. The trees at Montrose and The Rise are just getting started - they do not yet rival their monumental relatives growing in California. Maybe in 3000 more years.

Without taking a two day trip down south you can still get a hint of the majesty of Giant sequoia right here in Victoria, BC.

Getting There

Zoom in the map below to locate these trees.


View Urban Exotics: Giant sequoia at Montrose and The Rise in a larger map

More Beacon Hill Park Giant Sequoias

Looking past a big Douglas-fir to a Giant Sequoia next to Goodacre Lake

 Beacon Hill Park in Victoria, BC is a 154 acre park that encompasses both natural and human-created landscapes. One thing both have in common is trees. The park has a wealth of natural and exotic trees, and because of this huge variety, is a tree lovers paradise. A favourite of many visitors is the collection of Giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum), native to small parts of California.

Map Of Beacon Hill Park by Ken Lajoie

Giant sequoias are located on Circle Drive across from the Children’s Farm, near Park Way, as well as three more on the north side of Goodacre Lake near the Stone Bridge. These unique conifers are hard to miss as they tower above most other trees in the park.

One of the Circle Drive sequoias with bark worn smooth by climbers

The sequoia across from the Children's Farm is a park favourite due to the massive, low-reaching bottom branches which provide a scaffolding for curious climbers. This giant, gnarled tree, which would not be out of place on a fantasy movie set, was planted here in 1913, making it only 98 years old. It could still be here in 5511.

Another Circle Drive sequoia (we call it "Kite Eater"), framed by Garry oak

A short walk from downtown, and fronting the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Beacon Hill Park is a tree lovers treat, and a great place to have a picnic, rest, and enjoy nature.

Local Big Tree Sights

Big Douglas-fir, Francis King Park

With gas prices at record highs, we have been taking fewer back country and longer distance field trips to see trees. Luckily, from pretty much anywhere in the south island area it is possible to ride a bike, walk, or drive a short distance to see beautiful specimens. In the rich, mild coastal environment big trees grow everywhere.

In this post I will share some of my favourite local big tree tours that I return to often to experience the sensation of being in a lush, and rare, old growth forest, or just to stand next to a single big tree left over from the old days.

Note: this information, and more, is available in the See Them page.

So save gas (and the atmosphere), and be with some of the biggest trees around, right here on southern Vancouver Island.

Victoria Area

Native Tree Species

    1.    Francis King Regional Park (some of the biggest trees closest to Victoria, including one on the B.C. Big Tree Registry - largest Douglas-fir in the CRD)
    2.    Beacon Hill Park (designated Heritage Tree Status)
    3.    Thetis Lake
    4.    Royal Roads/DND Lands (Urban big trees in Colwood, including the 2nd and 3rd largest Douglas-firs in the CRD)
    5.    Goldstream Park (very accessible old growth 16 km from downtown Victoria)
    6.    East Sooke Road/East Sooke Park (along East Sooke Rd. is one of the biggest Western red-cedar in the CRD)
   7.     Ardmore Golf Course (Saanich - massive Douglas-firs)
   8.    Witty's Lagoon Beach parking lot (Metchosin)
   9.    Royal Colwood Golf Club (has the most extensive collection of varied-age Douglas-fir and Garry oak forest in an urban setting)
  10.   Victoria Area Arbutus (Arbutus are coast-hugging, broad-leafed, evergreen trees. They are abundant in parks and urban areas. The largest is found on Thetis Island, one of the Gulf Islands)

Non-native Tree Species

   1. Beacon Hill Park (Heritage Tree Site: many exotic trees such as Giant sequoia)
   2. Victoria Area (Urban Giant sequoia of huge proportions)

Sooke Area

Fat Douglas-fir, Phillips Road, Sooke

    1.    Sooke River Road/Galloping Goose Trail
    2.    Sooke Potholes Park 
    3.    Sunriver Park - Phillips Road
    3.    Matheson Lake Regional Park
    4.    Humpback Road (near Goldstream Park in Langford, a nice addition to a drive or hike in the park)
    5.    Muir Creek (threatened by logging) - west of Sooke
    6.    Roche Cove Regional Park (the map in this post has directions to big Douglas-fir and Arbutus in a shore line area of this beautiful park)
    7.    Juan de Fuca Provincial Park - China Beach 
    8.   French Beach - nice, older second growth forest with lots of Sitka spruce
    9.   Chin Beach Trail Lone Cedar - grows on the Juan de Fuca Rural Resource Lands west of Sooke, 13 km past China Beach parking lot.

Enjoy our local trees. See them, save them.

Urban Exotics: Monkey Puzzle Tree

A fine specimen of Monkey-puzzle tree in Sooke, B.C.

The mild climate of Vancouver Island allows gardeners to grow exotic trees that would struggle elsewhere in Canada. The Monkey-puzzle (Araucaria araucana) is one such non-native tree. To see one is to understand how a monkey, or anything else, would be puzzled trying to climb its branches. Although beautiful, this is one spiky, prehistoric tree that you might want to view from a couple steps away.

Detail of branches and spiked leaves

The monkey-puzzle is native to South America. It colonizes disturbed areas after they have burned. In its natural environment at lower elevations of the Andes, the monkey-puzzle is well suited to grow on the slopes of dormant volcanoes.





Monkey-puzzle are either male or female and seeds are not produced until the trees are 30 - 40 years old. The cones are large spiky spheres that take two years to mature. Mike Dirr, author of Trees and Shrubs for Warm Climates, says that monkey-puzzle cones are "about twice the size of a hand-grenade and hurt even worse".

New cone emerging next to a mature cone

Monkey-puzzle leaves cover the branches entirely, as well as parts of the trunk, and are plate-like and rigid with spined tips. Trees have long spidery branches, densely and symmetrically arrayed on a straight trunk. The BBC Plant Finder says that "the all too rare perfect mature specimen, with branches intact right down to ground level, is one of the most handsome, graceful and noble of all trees." On the other hand, some people intensely dislike this prickly tree. Still, like all trees, it is very useful to humans.

Seeds are edible

 Monkey-puzzle cones produce 3-4 cm long edible nuts when mature. They are best roasted, and are harvested for food in Chile. The tree's long, straight bole makes them valuable as lumber, but these trees are now at risk in their native habitat. They have been fully protected from logging since 1971. Araucaria araucana grow to 40 meters, and can live for up to one thousand years.


Since this unique conifer was discovered by Europeans in the 1800s, it has been introduced to warm, wet climates across the globe. They can be found in gardens across England, the Mediterranean, and up the west coast of North America all the way to Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands). Some excellent examples can be found right here in the Victoria region, including the one in Sooke pictured above.

Google Mapping Heritage Trees: Victoria's Albert Ave. Giant Sequoia

The Albert Ave. sequoia is towering over the neighbourhood on the right. Note the sizable native Garry oak on the left side of the street.

Recently I attended a doctor appointment at the Royal Jubilee Hospital, and ended up discovering another of Victoria's amazing Giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum). Actually my tree hunting partner, Linda, was the one to spot it in our on-going game of 'find the big trees' that we play wherever we go on Vancouver Island.

Now, I have discovered another way of visiting the big trees - at least those that can be seen from roadways. I have been exploring using Google Street View on Google maps to see if I can do some virtual big tree hunting in the greater Victoria district. I started with the Albert Avenue Giant sequoia, and was pleased with the results. See the map below for details.










The ten story tall sequoia grows magnificently beside a large older home half a block east from the hospital. It is on a nice urban street unusual enough to be interesting. This narrow dead end lane is only accessible from Shelbourne Street, and contains not only the sequoia, but also a big native Garry oak.















This heritage tree most likely came to Victoria as a sapling from California around 1900, making it about 110 years old. In that time it has attained great height, and girth. The canopy of feathery needles is supported by graceful reddish-barked limbs as big as tree trunks themselves.

Imagine this tree in 2000 years, three times the height and as wide as the house next to it.




The three tallest Sequoia sempervirens in the world are:

Hyperion	Redwood National Park, California	115.55 m (379 ft)
Helios	Redwood National Park, California	114.34 m (375 ft)
Icarus	Redwood National Park, California	113.11 m (371 ft)

Getting There

The map below shows the location of the Giant sequoia in this post. The area is serviced by public transportation, and is a nice place for a bike ride.

Or you could do a virtual visit to this location by clicking on the link below the map which will open a new, larger map. Then click and drag the tiny person icon on the left down onto Albert Avenue. A window will open that will allow you to manipulate the location and picture in Street View. Good luck on your virtual tree hunting.


View Victoria's Giant sequoia: Albert Avenue in a larger map

Exotic Big Trees: The Sequoias of Gorge Road

The Robin Hood Motel on Gorge Road in Victoria - reasonably priced, free WiFi, and a massive Giant sequoia in the parking lot. I have had my eyes on Giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) since May of this year when I posted here about sequoias in Victoria's Beacon Hill Park.






Since then the sequoia post has been the most viewed on VIBT. I happened to be driving Gorge Road the other day on my way back to Sooke after a day in the city, and thought I would get pics of more of these beautiful exotic big trees.








Driving west on the Gorge you can see the sequoias before you drive by them - they are the tallest trees in the hood, and stick up over everything else, condos included. Also, the conical shape in their perfect form is hard to miss. It is classic conifer for this most ancient of trees - fossils of Dawn redwood, a relative of sequoias, are from trees that lived 250 million years ago.








The first big sequoia we stopped at was at the Robin Hood Motel at Gorge Road and Carroll Street. This tree dominates the entire lot. Most likely it came north from California as a sapling riding along with an American pioneer around 1900. Many of Victoria's Giant sequoias are over one hundred years old now, and have grown to vast heights and widths.













The tallest tree in Victoria may be one of the imported sequoias. Still, all of them are mere infants compared to their relatives growing on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada range in central California. These trees don't reach maximum cone/seed production until they are 150 - 200 years old, and can live up to 3500 years.










The next sequoias are at a residential address at Gorge Road and Gorge View Drive. There are twin sequoia at this address that make the surrounding cars and houses look like miniatures.






The wide trunks of these trees have a distinctly red coloured bark that looks similar to our native Western red-cedar. Large twisted red limbs can be seen throughout the large canopy of the trees. The frilly foliage droops almost to the ground.







Sequoias can grow to 300 ft tall and 32 ft wide at the base. As big and beautiful as Victoria's sequoias are, they have a long way to go. Forward thinking people have seen them through the past 100 years. I wonder how many more hundreds of years they can survive in a rapidly changing city.

Getting There


View Larger Map

The Gorge waterway would make an excellent paddle in a kayak or canoe, and would be a nice way to see the big sequoias as well as the numerous large native trees in the area. There are many parks along the waterway and a person could stroll or bike along winding trails while enjoying the view. Or if you are returning home drive along Gorge Road and enjoy the beauty.

(On the map above you can switch to satellite view, zoom in, and see the trees I am referring to. These giants cast long shadows. Check them out.)