Adventure & Outdoors
Five-Hundred-Year-Old Firs at Francis/King Park
A Heritage Grove of Douglas fir around five centuries old, reached on a flat boardwalk that a wheelchair or a stroller can manage.
Francis/King Regional Park, Munn Road
More infoAdventure & Outdoors
A Heritage Grove of Douglas fir around five centuries old, reached on a flat boardwalk that a wheelchair or a stroller can manage.
Francis/King Regional Park, Munn Road
More infoFrancis/King is the answer to a grey Victoria afternoon. The Elsie King Trail is an 800 metre boardwalk and smooth gravel loop with six benched rest areas, genuinely flat and genuinely accessible, and it runs through a Heritage Grove of Douglas fir that has been standing for roughly five hundred years. Pair it with the Centennial Trail loop and you have a couple of hours of proper West Coast rainforest twenty minutes from downtown. It rates 4.5 on AllTrails from more than 800 reviewers. Be clear about what it is not: there is no viewpoint and no summit here. This is forest interior, and that is the entire point.
Park in the packed gravel lot on Munn Road, which has four accessible stalls and two pit toilets kept open year round. Start with the Elsie King Trail, an 800 metre boardwalk and gravel loop that is flat, wheelchair and stroller friendly, and has six benched rest areas plus a sheltered one. It runs through the Heritage Grove where the Douglas fir are around five hundred years old, and past the Arch Tree. On its own it takes half an hour, so add the Centennial Trail loop for another 3 km and a bit of gentle climbing. From November to March expect mud on the unpaved sections, and note the boardwalk gets slippery when wet, so stay on the wire meshed surface. The Nature Centre only opens weekend afternoons, so do not build the outing around it.
Been here? Share a useful detail from your visit, or ask what you want to know before going. Reader experiences are self-reported.
