Size: 151 hectares (373 acres) or 60 km long
Location: Sooke, Metchosin, Colwood, Langford, View Royal, Saanich, Victoria
Classification: park corridor
Activities: cycling, hiking, horse riding, inline skating
Facilities: parking, washrooms, trail
Acquired: 1987
Visitation: 100,000-150,000/yr est (1993)
Features: a rails-to-trails conversion, named after a 1920s gasoline powered passenger car that operated on this abandoned CNR line; now passes through urban, rural, and semi-wilderness landscapes.

Galloping Goose Trail
Galloping Goose Hiking / Biking Trail Victoria to Sooke

A History of the Goose

Part of the Trans Canada Trail which traverses the country, the Galloping Goose and Peninsula Trails form one of the most picturesque trail systems in Canada.

Dedicated in 1989, the Galloping Goose Trail is named for a gawky and noisy gas rail-car which carried passengers between Victoria and Sooke in the 1920's.

The first rail tracks were laid on Island soil in 1893, with the opening of the Victoria and Sidney line. That was followed by the Vancouver Island section of the Canadian National Railway dedicated in 1911, and by the B.C. Electric in 1913.

Built upon the abandoned rail beds and trestles of that railway legacy, the Galloping Goose and Peninsula Trails connect our transportation past with our transportation future.

You can travel for nearly 60 kilometers on the Galloping Goose Regional Trail. You can cycle, walk, or ride a horse along this former rail line past some of B.C.’s finest scenery.

Walk the Goose

You can spot bald eagles. Or turkey vultures floating on a thermal. You have time to watch a deer in the sword ferns.

Ride the Goose

Ride the Goose on horseback. You and your horse get into a rhythm. A low Broadleaf Maple brushes your shoulder. You ride past Nootka rose splashed with pastel reds.

Cycle the Goose

The scenery flows by in slow motion. A quiet cove. A dark, hidden lake. Rocky outcrops split by twisted Garry Oak.

From asphalt to rainforest to canyon... the Goose knows every landscape on Southern Vancouver Island. Starting in Victoria, it travels the back roads to Saanich. Then it slices through the urban setting of View Royal, Langford, and Colwood. Yet in a delightful surprise, ferns, shrubs, and rock outcrops shield you from much of the concrete. At Metchosin, the trail moves lazily past small farms surrounded by hills. Steep, rocky slopes march down to the trailside. Occasionally the Goose drops into a creek bed. You can stop on the bridge and watch cool water flow over igneous rock.