The Capital Regional District (CRD) is excited to open Sooke Hills Wilderness South Section. Sooke Hills Wilderness Regional Park (SHW) is the largest park in the regional park system, protecting over 4,000 hectares of regionally significant hills and forest lands, and providing a natural area buffer to the Greater Victoria Water Supply Area. The new South Section opened in 2020 and features a network of wilderness recreational trails and a connection to the Sea to Sea Regional Park.

The CRD developed a roughly 60 stall parking lot adjacent to the Sooke Highway, highway access lanes, a pit-toilet building, at least 20kms of trails, and a multi-use bridge over Veitch Creek.

The SHW park management plan identified a preferred location for a southern access into the park. This location was subsequently confirmed through environmental analysis of various options and a detailed design was finalized for the parking lot project.

Background

SHW consists of two separate land areas located on either side of the Goldstream catchment. The north section opened in 2017, and the south section opened late 2020. SHW is part of the Sea-to-Sea Green Blue Belt, a protected 10,200 hectare corridor stretching from Saanich Inlet in the east to the Juan de Fuca Strait in the west.

Opening the Sea to Sea and Sooke Hills Wilderness regional parks to the public was identified as a Board priority in the 2015-2018 CRD Corporate Plan. Since 2015, Regional Parks has undertaken a multi-year, phased approach to opening the two parks.