Points

I took this photo standing on Saxe Point looking east. The next point in view is Macaulay Point. On the upper right of this photo you can see some green meadows - those meadows are on Macaulay Point. Out of sight beyond Macaulay Point is the next point, Work Point, which marks one side of the entrance to the Inner Harbour.

Macaulay Point III

Yesterday's photo was taken from the top of Macaulay Point looking towards the northwest. Today's photo was taken from the tip of Macaulay Point looking towards the southeast and the city of Victoria. On the far right you can see the little red and white tower that is the light at the seaward end of the Ogden Point Breakwater. Just to the right of that, projecting out into the strait is another of my favorite photo locations, Holland Point.

Macaulay Point

Last week I posted a panoramic photo taken from Saxe Point Park. Moving eastwards along the coast, the next point is Macaulay Point. Above is the view of the city from the western side of the Macaulay Point.

Macaulay Point

The entrance to Victoria Harbour lies between two points, Ogden Point (where the cruise ships dock) marks the eastern side of the harbour entrance and Macaulay Point (above) marks the western side of the entrance. In the photo above we are looking at Macaulay Point from its western side. If we walked over the top of it we would see the harbour and the city spread out before us. I didn't go so far today because I got sidetracked by the rich profusion of Camas Lilies among the rocks.

Fleming Beach Rock Climbing and Boat Ramp

There are three parks I often visit along the Esquimalt shoreline of Greater Victoria: Macaulay Point, Fleming Beach, and Saxe Point. The first two are contiguous and are only separated from Saxe Point by small residential area. Fleming Beach is in the middle and as well as the Buxton Green picnic area and the breakwater visible in yesterday's photos, also features a large precipitous rock formation much used by local rock climbers for practice and a couple of docks where fishermen launch their boats for a day on the water. I often stop here and walk out on the dock because harbour seals seem to like this little cove and swim around and under the dock. Despite their proximity, the three parks have very different characters. Macaulay Point has its military gun emplacements scattered through dense thickets of low bush and very few trees. Fleming Beach is all about the rocks and the docks. Saxe Point is quite thickly forested with some very large trees though it also contains a nice little piece of Garry Oak ecosystem.

Looking Westward

Yesterday's photo was taken from Macaulay Point looking east towards the city. Today's photo is also taken from Macaulay Point but looking west towards Esquimalt Lagoon and Metchosin. In the foreground you can see the Fleming Beach Breakwater. A bit beyond that the red and white Canadian flag identifies Saxe Point. Beyond that and to the left you can see the Fisgard Lighthouse, also red and white.

Macaulay Point Autumn

Sorry gang - I'm having a busy day again so here's a photo from a few weeks ago when I went out to Macaulay Point. I like the colors in this, the leaves, the grass and the bright red old military building, one of several on this old point of coastal defense.

Gray Day

I went out to Macaulay Point today to see if I could spy some different kinds of birds. Tomorrow I'll post a few photos of what I saw but to set the scene here's what it was like today looking from Macaulay Point in Esquimalt across the Strait of Juan de Fuca towards the Olympic Peninsula. (For those not from this part of the world: those mountains are in the USA. The rocks in the foreground are in Canada.)

Hanging by a thread at 500 meters....

Did I say 500 meters? It's more like 5 meters as you can see in the photo to the right but I'd much prefer to learn rock-climbing like the young man pictured here, relatively close to the ground. In fact, I'd rather not learn rock-climbing at all and will happily leave it to younger more daring people. I am posting this photo because I mentioned in an earlier post on Fleming Beach that it has a rock face much favored by rock-climbing enthusiasts for training. I must confess also to a growing fondness for this Fleming Beach and Macaulay Point area. These are very quiet parks mostly used by locals to enjoy the splendid rocky seascapes. In the photo below, you can see the rock face and just below it in the center of the photo is the tiny Fleming Beach. To the right of the beach, the green fenced picnic area is called Buxton Green. The hill above the green is the Macaulay Point gun emplacements pictured in another earlier post.

Macaulay Point Sunset

I want to start using what photographers call the golden hour just before and after sunset and sunrise. I just came in from Macaulay Point in Esquimalt where I took the photo above. Here we are looking south towards the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula in neighboring Washington State, USA.

Macaulay Point

If you enter yesterday's portal and climb up and around a corner you come out to see this view spread out before you. There are gun emplacements to the left and, just out of sight, to the right. That's a bunker in the center foreground. These guns would have protected Victoria and Esquimalt from any seaborne attack. Macaulay Point is now a park where attempts are being made to protect and regenerate some of the endangered local Garry Oak ecosystem. That body of water is the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which is also the border between Canada and the USA here. The mountains are on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, USA.

Lookout

Here's another image from a recent visit to Macaulay Point. There's lots of old military structures there (as earlier posted) and here's another, the lookout on top of the hill. I have posted photos in the past that I took from up there.

Craigflower School

The Craigflower Schoolhouse (originally called Maple Point School), the oldest surviving school building in Western Canada, was built on orders from Kenneth MacKenzie. He came from Scotland with his family in 1852 to establish a farm for the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, a subsidiary of the Hudson's Bay Company.

A school was needed for the children of farm employees, as well as those of arriving settlers. The school was started to be built on August 21, 1854 and was completed February 23, 1855. Lumber and foundation bricks were produced at Craigflower Farm across the Gorge. Glass, hardware, and large bricks were imported from England. Total cost was about $4300.

The two-storey building had one schoolroom, and six rooms for the teacher, his family and student boarders from the western communities. The school opened in March, 1855. That same week a ship's bell from the steamer Major Tompkins, that wrecked off Macaulay Point, was hung in the yard. The first Craigflower bridge was built the next winter linking the school to the Craigflower settlement. The building became a focal point for social and religious events. It was used as a school until 1911, when the new Craigflower School was built across the road (superceded by a third building in 1964).

The old school was vacant until it was converted to a museum which the Native Sons and Daughters of British Columbia ran from 1931 until 1975. The provincial Historic Parks and Sites Branch then acquired the property, restored it and reopened it as a museum too.

This simple structure is side-gabled and has brick chimneys both ends. There is a large fireplace in the schoolroom and another in the teacher's quarters. The fourteen-inch-thick walls are composed of sawn clapboard siding applied to diagonal sheathing over standard Hudson's Bay Company log construction. Hewn horizontal logs were slid down from the top between vertical uprights, the joists hewn and sawn, and the roof timbers sawn. The building was set on a concrete foundation in 1929. (From http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM2YHA)

Tomorrow we'll have a closer look at the schoolhouse and at nearby Craigflower Manor, home to many of the children who attended this school.

Saxe Point Park

Just a little westward along the coast from Westbay Marina are Macaulay Point and Saxe Point. There are small parks on both these points and they are lovely places to visit. They look so rocky and wild it is difficult to believe that they are only about a ten minute drive from downtown Victoria. I spent some time today at both parks and will be posting photos of them over the next few days.

*********************
I've been too busy lately to respond properly to all the kind comments left by visitors. I hope to remedy this over the next few days and hope everyone will bear with me and forgive my lack of response. Your visits and comments are very much valued.

My special thanks to Murcia Daily Photo for giving me an award. It's a very interesting City Daily Photo Blog from Spain, well worth putting on your list of sites to visit regularly.

One more from Saxe Point Park

Here's another from Saxe Point Park, looking southeast towards Macaulay Point with some more of those thunderheads on the horizon.

Postcard

While browsing through the archives I came across this photo of the MV Coho, the car ferry that operates between here and Port Angeles in Washington State, and was struck by how much it reminds me of a fifties postcard - something to do with the slightly washed out colors. It's also taken from an unusual vantage point - Macaulay Point. The rocky foreground is Work Point. Beyond it the Coho is moving through the entrance to the Inner Harbour.

Fleming Beach

Turning further to the right from yesterday's photo and facing west now, we are looking further up the west coast of the Vancouver Island. The cove immediately in front of us is Fleming Beach. It has a boat ramp and a large rock face much favored by local rock climbers for practice. The entrance to Fleming Beach is protected by a breakwater. There is also a quiet picnic area here called Buxton Green. Macaulay Point, though a park, belongs to the Department of National Defense. Fleming Beach and Buxton Green are contiguous parks. All are managed by the Township of Esquimalt. Saxe Point Park is visible a little further west and that small white tower you can see in the far distance is the Fisgard Lighthouse. Most of these features have been marked on the photo below.(You can't see Buxton Green because it is hidden beneath the brambles in the foreground.) There is also a nice satellite photo of this areaHERE.

Fisgard Lighthouse

On January 2nd I posted a photo taken from Macaulay Point with the Fisgard Lighthouse just visible in the far distance. Here from nearly the same vantage point but with a much more powerful lens is a closer look at my favorite model. To the left of the lighthouse one of the gun emplacements on Fort Rodd Hill can be seen.

Telephoto Fun

Lately I've been enjoying my longest telephoto lens. It's a 500mm reflex lens and is most useful for birds. Yesterday's posted photo of the Hooded Mergansers was taken with this lens. These birds were so far out in the water that with the naked eye I could do little more than guess at their identity. Yet thanks to modern technology I was able to capture the relatively sharp image I posted. Today's photos were both taken with the same super telephoto lens and I selected them to show the kind of distortion that comes about with long lenses like this. In the photo above, of course, the sun is about 10 times bigger than it appears in reality. It's a great effect- it makes it look like a blistering hot morning in mid-summer instead of a cold autumn sunrise. The photo below is more of a curiosity for locals to consider. In the foreground is the shoreline from Saxe Point (on the left) to Macaulay Point (on the right) with Fleming Beach and Buxton Green closer to the middle on the right. Where it starts to get weird is what's further back - many of Victoria's trademark buildings in apparently odd locations and looking larger and closer than seems possible. If you look carefully you can see Craigdarroch Castle, the Rocklands water tower, Christchurch Cathedral, the Empress Hotel, the Legislative Assembly Buildings, the Sussex Building and others.

Skyline

We'll start off the new year with a photo from a few days ago of the Victoria skyline seen from Macaulay Point, just west of the entrance to the Inner Harbour. The rocky area in the left foreground is Work Point. The two red and white ships are Canadian Coast Guard ships moored at the Coast Guard wharf. The tallest building near the center of the photo is the Sussex Building and below it can be seen the red brick towers of St. Andrew's Church, both on Douglas Street. If you click on the photo you can see a much larger version (3,000 pixels wide).