Cooper Cove and Goodridge Peninsula, Sooke

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Map of Sooke
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• Sooke is the gateway to the scenic West Coast Road (Highway 14), which winds 74 km along the coast to Port Renfrew and the starting point for the world-famous West Coast Trail. This is one of the South Island's most spectacular drives - it winds through coastal rain forest and along the jagged coastline, past bed and breakfasts and seaside cafes, leading to some amazing beaches and ocean viewpoints.

• The Pacific Marine Circle Tour is an excellent way to explore the historic West Coast of Vancouver Island. The wilderness route traces the coastline from Victoria through Sooke and Port Renfrew, continuing onto the Cowichan Valley and looping back down the Trans-Canada Highway via Duncan to Victoria.

• Sooke Regional Museum has many displays detailing the community's colourful past. Moss Cottage, built in the 1860s, sits alongside the museum building. Take a nostalgic stroll around the grounds and discover Sooke's logging and fishing history and First Nations culture.

• Log Rolling

  The Sooke Basin is the staging ground for much of the salmon fishing activity on the southwestern coast of Vancouver Island. Some of the world's best year-round saltwater fishing can be found in the Juan de Fuca Strait, just off Sooke Harbour. Stop in at one of the local marine businesses for the latest advice on where the fishing are running and biting, and what bait and lures they're attracted to.

• Vancouver Island's largest juried art show takes place in Sooke, featuring the works of many of the island's most acclaimed artists. Many talented artists and craftspeople open their studio and gallery doors each year for a glimpse at their beautiful works during the Sooke Studio Tour.

• Mountain bikers will be ecstatic over endless miles of excellent trails in the Sooke area. One of the most interesting rural sections of the Galloping Goose Trail runs for about 20 kms from Roche Cove Regional Park to the Sooke Potholes and Leechtown.

• Exciting diving at Race Rocks, where swift currents bring a continuous supply of plankton to the tiny islets, making the area a spectacular feeding ground for marine mammals.

• For those who have paddled only in sheltered passages, sea kayaking along the outside waters of Vancouver Island is another world, one where you go big or you go home. However, if you pick your time, particularly in summer months, you'll find that the Pacific can be as well behaved as a sleeping giant. The 60 km ocean route between Sooke and Port Renfrew, with its string of beaches to touch on, can be paddled in a lengthy summer day. Of course, you don't have to do the entire length of this coast to enjoy an outing.

• There is a hard-core clique of riders centered in Jordan River that live for the great surfing in winter. Storms originating in the Gulf of Alaska generate most of the tastier surf that lashes BC's coast from late September through March. Other swells come from Japan and more localized weather systems. This is in marked contrast to the summer, when distant Southern Hemisphere swells have a minimal effect, blocked entirely from the southernmost areas of Vancouver Island by Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

• Golf: Golfers can tee off at the 9-hole public John Phillips Memorial Golf Course in Sooke. Nearby courses include the Metchosin Golf Course, Olympic View Golf Club, the Royal Colwood Golf Club, and the Bear Mountain Golf and Country Club. Golf Packages in Victoria.

• Whether you enjoy hiking, cycling, roller blading, horseback riding, or just going for a stroll, the Galloping Goose Trail is the place to be. The 100km multi-use trail links the communities of View Royal, Colwood, Langford, Metchosin, and Sooke.

• The Juan de Fuca Marine Trail begins at China Beach and continues a tough but accessible 47-kilometre hike along shoreline and through forest to Botanical Beach near Port Renfrew. This ambitious trail has been open since 1995 and is intended to be an alternative to the increasingly popular West Coast Trail.

• The Kludahk Forest Recreation Trail runs along San Juan Ridge for 18 miles (30 km). The trailheads are located at the western terminus of the Galloping Goose Trail in Sooke and at Parkinson Creek Provincial Park on the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail east of Port Renfrew. The trail, much of which is composed of former logging roads, follows San Juan Ridge through the Jordan Meadows in a subalpine region dense with avalanche lilies in springtime and four varieties of blueberries later in the summer. Four cabins are located along the trail and are open to all. The trail is particularly popular in winter with snowshoers and cross-country skiers.

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