Gonzales Bay, Ross Bay and Clover Point

This is the view from Gonzales Hill looking the same direction as Saturday's photo. In the foreground is Gonzales Bay and beyond that is Ross Bay, bounded by Clover Point. There were patches of the luscious purple Camas Lilies blooming in all the rock crevices atop the hill.

Ross Bay Cemetery

On the eastern side of Clover Point is a large semicircular bay called Ross Bay. It's named after one of the early factors of the Hudson's Bay Company who had a farm on the shores of the bay. That farm became the Ross Bay Cemetery after the death of his widow and it contains the graves of many Victorians who were prominent in the early days of the city. Next week we'll look at what I saw when I recently spent an afternoon there.

View from Gonzales Hill

While the Gonzales Observatory (pictured here yesterday) is itself worth a trip to the top of Gonzales Hill, the view is spectacular. Here, with the observatory behind us we are looking out over Foul Bay (left foreground) with Ross Bay beyond. The mountains barely visible on the left are the Olympics across the strait in the USA. The dark blue hills on the right background are in Metchosin, further along the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Best Beach Fort EVER

On a drive along Dallas Road today we came upon this monumental structure built on the beach in front of Ross Bay Cemetery. I don't know how long it's been there or how long it will last but hats off to the builder of this incredible driftwood creation. - Fern

Beaches 6 - Ross Bay

Victoria is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island so it has two coastlines, one facing roughly north and east and the other facing south and west. This may account for the different characters of the city's beaches since those facing east (Cordova Bay, Cadboro Bay, Willows and Gonzales) seem generally more sheltered from the prevailing winds and are sandy beaches whereas those facing west are windy shingle beaches covered with pebbles. The photo above is of Ross Bay, a beach that is both windy and pebble covered. Click HERE to see this bay in a high wind. A much larger and more detailed panorama of this bay can be found HERE. The dense green area in the center of the photo is the Ross Bay Cemetery.

High Winds

In the last month we've had several days with very high winds. The most recent one was Monday when I was down on Dallas Road. I must confess that there was so much salt spray in the air that I was a little chary of exposing my camera to it. However, the image above of Ross Bay, if compared to the one below taken on a more normal day, will give some idea of the kind of wind and waves we experienced.

Ross Bay Panorama 2

Here's another panorama of Ross Bay that is more inclusive although it is smaller and less detailed. The previous Ross Bay Panorama was shot with a 90mm lens and is composed of about 8 or 10 separate photos. This panorama was shot with a wide angle lens at 10mm and is composed of 3 separate photos. I think I like it better since it encompasses all of Ross Bay with the tip of Clover point just visible to the far right.

Ross Bay Panorama

The shoreline that defines most of Victoria is a scalloped in a series of "bays" with "points" separating them. Here I am standing on Clover Point and looking towards Ross Bay. The large green area on the left is the Ross Bay Cemetery. The Island on the far right is Trial Island. Click the above photo to see the large version where you can scroll from side to side. You may have to click the large version also in order to see it full size.