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Sunny Galiano has long been a popular vacation destination. The island has an amazing number of parks and nature reserves, a vast network of hiking trails, scenic campgrounds and a dramatic coastline that teems with wildlife year-round. Kayaking, boating, fishing, scuba diving and golf are all popular outdoor pursuits there. Indoor activities include museum visits, art and crafts shopping, the annual Art Studio Tour and relaxing spa treatments.
Every Saturday from June to September, the Galiano Market offers locally produced art and crafts, home-made food, fresh local produce and occasionally, live musical performances.
Galiano has preserved the best of its natural environment by establishing a large number of parks and nature reserves. Most have hiking trails of exceptional beauty and a few allow some form of camping. Trails of note include the 311-m (1,020-ft) ascent to the summit of Mt. Galiano; the forested, 3-km (1.9-mi) hike around Gray Peninsula in Montague Provincial Park; and the mostly uphill 4-km (2.5-mi) route in Bodega Ridge Provincial Park that crests Bodega Ridge, passes through woodland and traces a cliff edge to the northern boundary of the park.
Drive-in and walk/cycle-in campsites are available at Montague Provincial Park. Wallace Island Marine Provincial Park, accessible only by boat, offers walk-in, wilderness camping. Its Chivers Point and Cabin Bay sites are ideal for kayakers. Another boat-access-only park, Dionisio Provincial Park, has two areas designated for walk-in camping.
Other, eco-friendly ways to explore the island include cycling and horseback riding. Bike rentals and repairs and guided riding tours are available. Galiano also has a scenic, nine-hole, 1,936-yd, par 32 golf course that offers lessons and equipment rentals.
The Galiano Museum has excellent exhibits, including an extensive photo gallery, on the area’s Aboriginal people and early European settlers. To see the final resting place of early pioneers, visit Galiano Cemetery.
Today, writers, artists and artisans make up a significant portion of Galiano’s population. Their work is widely available in shops, galleries and artists’ studios. The best time to visit studios is in summer, during the annual Galiano Art Studio Tour. Tour maps are available from the community bookstore and the Galiano Information Booth (both in Sturdies Bay).
Galiano is an ecologically rich place with a coastline that features a mix of sand and white-shell beaches, unusual rock formations, sheer cliffs, quiet coves and offshore islets. Inland, the topography tends to be hilly and thickly forested. Many parks and nature reserves have been created to preserve this natural splendour and to ensure that a wide variety of bird species and rare plants continue to thrive there. Montague Harbour Marine Provincial Park's famous white-shell beaches are the result of 3,000 years of Aboriginal shellfish consumption. Great piles of castaway shells were gradually broken down by wave action and redeposited on the shore. The waters around Montague Harbour attract flocks of wintering birds, as well as great blue herons, glaucous-winged gulls, black oystercatchers, northwestern crows, belted kingfishers and bald eagles. Dionisio Point Marine Provincial Park, accessible only by boat, is an excellent place to view intertidal life, such as starfish, nudibranches and chitons and bird species, such as bald eagles, Bonaparte’s gulls loons, grebes, scoters, golden eyes and mergansers. Black-tailed deer and raccoons are also common in that park. On a kayak trip along its coastline you’ll encounter rocky headlands, pebble and sand beaches and picturesque bays. Wildflowers bloom in the park from February to June. Bodega Ridge Provincial Park is a day-use-only park whose main attraction is a 4-km (2.5-mi) long ridge that rises 328 m (1,076 mi) above sea level. A hiking trail leads to the top of that ridge and a spectacular view of Trincomali Channel, Vancouver Island and the Strait of Georgia. Below the park’s high cliffs, where bald eagles, peregrine falcons and turkey vultures make their homes, are unusual sandstone formations that are covered in wildflowers in springtime. Picnickers favour day-use-only Bellhouse Provincial Park because of its lovely views of Active Pass, Mayne Island and the Strait of Georgia. From the parking lot, you can walk a short trail that passes through a Garry oak meadow on its way to a rocky beach where you can fish for salmon and cod, explore strange rock formations or observe marine mammals bobbing and diving offshore. Wallace Island Marine Provincial Park is located in the Trincomali Channel, between Galiano Island and Salt Spring Island. It’s a popular paddling, hiking and camping destination with limited facilities. Bald eagles, black-tailed deer, mink, harbour seals and river otters are common there.
Galiano has many serene and scenic white-shell and sandy beaches, so be sure to set aside some time for oceanside pleasures like picnicking, sun tanning and beachcombing. The island also has a variety of spas and wellness centres that offer everything from mini-facials to multi-day mind, body & spirit retreats.
Galiano has a scenic and largely sheltered coastline that teems with marine wildlife year-round. Kayakers of all skill levels will enjoy the sculpted sandstone cliffs and the many opportunities to circumnavigate tiny islands on the protected side of Trincomali Channel. Seals, Orcas, otters, and flocks of seabirds are common sights in that area. Experienced paddlers can challenge themselves in the strong tides and currents of Active Pass and Porlier Pass. Power boat charters, sail boat charters, eco tours and fishing tours are available. Chinook salmon fishing starts in March and lasts all summer. Halibut are plentiful in February.
Some of the best diving locations on Galiano are just off Dionisio and Wallace Island Marine Provincial Parks. They feature large reefs, sunken boats and a wealth of wildlife: wolf eels, Pacific octopuses, king crabs, sea lions, and more.
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