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Goldstream Trestle
Located across the highway from Goldstream Park, just North of Victoria, Goldstream Trestle and Niagara Falls are both sights I'm glad I've seen and something I'm sure to come back to. Starting off in Goldstream Park, following the trail to the North and immediately under the highway will bring you to the bed of Niagara Creek. Flowing seasonally, walking through the tunnel was dry when I came to this hike but other times of the year it doesn't seem to be. Shortly after the tunnel there are two ways to go, the first is to follow the creek bed for roughly 100m until reaching the stunning 47.5m cascading waterfall, flowing with icy cold water even in Summer. The sides of the creek being too steep, continuing to the trestle means a quick 180 is in order. Upon reaching the tunnel back to the other side of the highway, the trail continues up to the left of the creek (facing the tunnel, I made this mistake going up and took a right thinking the directions were facing the other way.) A quick hike up the steep trail, first crossing the top of the same waterfall flowing into the creek, then a few switchbacks until the top of the trail reaches the base of the gigantic trestle. Running across the creek, walking on top brings a great view of sections of Goldstream Park, Mount Finlayson and the highway, as well as a clear view to the creek below. The trestle is high above the creek and not for anybody terribly scared of heights, having 4 inch gaps between each beam from end to end of the trestle. This bridge here holds the tracks that were part of the old Nanaimo to Esquimalt route which is now permanently decommissioned, hiking further North along these tracks will bring you across the second trestle which is close to the same as the first and then a short tunnel the train used to run through a brief 2km down the tracks. From parking lot to Trestle the hike under 2km, continuing to the tunnel is just short of 5km and we did this round trip in 9.2km reaching the falls, the trestle and the tunnel.