Castle on a Budget

Day 7: Hatley Castle & Prospector's Trail

Hatley Castle

Our first day in Victoria we drove over to see the Hatley Castle which is an old military college. There is now Royal Roads University with classes being held in surround building and inside the castle itself. We were planning on this being one of our "free" attractions but when we arrived we found out that because classes were in session we could only go on a guided tour for $18/person. There were also acres of gardens that we could tour for only $9/person. We decided to enjoy what we could outside. And we got the $2 special instead, which is what we paid in parking.

A fun fact about the castle is that it is the setting for several movies and TV series including X-Men.

Prospector's Trail

After our self-guided tour of the castle we drove a few miles to a trail head for a picnic and afternoon hike. Everything was GREEN. Even the tree trunks were green from all the moss. I kept getting distracted from keeping a good pace on the hike because I had to take a picture of everything. Every little stump or moss-covered rock looked perfect, like it was right out of The Lord of the Rings or something. I've spared you all and only posted a few pictures, although, none of them do the hike justice.

A cute little woodpecker we met along the way

I nearly stepped on this little guy who was sitting right in the middle of the trail. I think it was hurt because it wouldn't fly away but would only run ahead of us when we tried to move past it.

 

Some kind of mushroom/flower/thing. It was silver and seemed to be glowing.