This Saturday, on Halloween day, I went for a beautiful morning hike at Royal Roads University in Colwood with my mom, my grandfather and our family dog, Grizzly. We parked on College Road in front of John Stubbs Memorial School and started from there. My grandfather does a 5 kilometre walk everyday with Grizzly, and this is one of his favourite routes, even though it isn’t quite 5km. When doing this particular hike, he often tells my mom & I that him & Grizzly are off to get their “higher education”.

My dog Grizzly admiring the view of Esquimalt Lagoon

Overall, we covered 3.36 kilometres and 66 meters of elevation. This took us 44 minutes.

AllTrails Hiking Statistics

The route that we did on this particular hike was fairly short and pretty easy. However, you can easily make this hike much longer and more challenging if you are interested! Back in March 2020, I did a longer route that was 7.7 kilometres with 108 elevation that took me 2 hours to complete. So keep in mind that there is TONS to explore at Royal Roads and your hike can be as long or as short as you want it to be!

Map of Royal Roads’ Trails (https://www.colwood.ca/discover-colwood/parks-trails/royal-roads-forest)

If you do check out Royal Roads, I would definitely recommend hitting up Charlie’s Trail. It’s a really beautiful forested nature trail with several waterfalls and a majestic creek.

Why you should do this hike: Beautiful views, varied terrain, the chance to explore Hatley Castle, free parking in numerous locations outside of Royal Roads (on College Rd by John Stubbs and the Galloping Goose parking lot on Aldeane Ave, to name just a few). This hike is also very accessible via public transportation (the #50, #39, #51 and #52 will all get you there).

Drawbacks/be aware of: There is slight gradual elevation in parts (especially when you’re going up University Drive). Also, there is very little signage on the trails. If you’re heading into some of the more deeply forested areas of Royal Roads, it’s worth it to have AllTrails on your phone to orientate yourself in the right direction.

Photo by me.