In pre-Covid life one of our favourite winter activities on Vancouver Island was snowshoeing at Mount Washington. On our first trip, we had 100 cm of snow in 24 hours, on the second we had beautiful sunshine, and on the third we had slushy snow conditions. But every trip was its own adventure! Unfortunately, we didn’t make the trip in 2021 because we don’t own a car. Normally we would take the shuttle bus or hitch hike up the mountain, but those methods weren’t exactly safe with Covid in the air…
Trails
Mount Washington is primarily known for its downhill and nordic (i.e. cross-country) ski trails, but there are about 10-15 km of snowshoeing trails. Most of the trails take you out onto Paradise Meadows which is beautiful on a bright, sunny day, but the trails we liked the most was “Great Big View” and “Finger Glades”. They are more challenging because of the elevation changes, but are well worth it for the views of the mountains. The two trails combined took us a couple hours and helped to work up a big appetite.
To sum it up, the northern trails are on a hill while the southern trails or on flat grounds and are busier.
Rentals
Prepare for VERY long lines on a nice day. One day it was more than an hour, which really puts a damper on the start of the day. It is highly recommended to bring your own snowshoes or rent them elsewhere before heading up the mountain.
Getting There
It is about a 2.5 to 3 hour drive from Victoria to the base of Mount Washington. If you leave early in the morning, you can catch most of the green lights on the highway and get there much quicker.
You need chains to actually get to the lodges. If it doesn’t snow, you don’t need to put them on, but you need to have them in your car. Otherwise you can get ticketed.
“All vehicles on Strathcona Parkway to be equipped with good winter tires and have chains available to use if the chain-up light is on.”
Mount Washington Resort
This is a problem when you don’t own a car because, as we learned during our first trip:
- You can’t add chains to a rental car and can’t return unused chains;
- You can’t put chains on a Modo.
Shuttle Bus
There is a shuttle bus from the base of the mountain to the skiing / snowshoeing area, but there are a few things to note:
- The schedule is a little random and hard to read. When we called to ask about it on our first trip, the woman told us: “Don’t worry about it, the bus comes every 30 minutes”. WARNING – NOT TRUE
- The bus costs $20/person for the round trip. It’s expensive, but there aren’t any other options.
- If you park in the parking lot you are leaving from the ‘Base’ and you want to go to the ‘Raven Lodge’. The bus will first go the the Alpine Lodge and almost everyone else will get off. Stay on! And, it is probably good to confirm with the driver that you want to go to the Raven Lodge.
- Suggested schedule for a day trip: Catch the bus at 8:30 or 9:30 am. Catch the return bus at 3:45 or 4:05 pm. If you need an earlier bus, you would have to be picked up at the Alpine Lodge.
Hitchhiking
Because it’s hard to go to the resort when you don’t have a car, we ended up hitchhiking at the base of the mountain. We were surprised about how fast we got a ride.
Beware, though: you may easily find a ride up but have a hard time finding a ride down. This happened to us during a snowstorm when the shuttle was stranded. As it was getting dark, we wondered if we would have to spend the night at the Raven Lodge (some people actually ended up doing just that). Luckily, a nice employee was able to give us a ride (aah, pre-COVID times) back to the ‘Base’ parking lot where our rental car was parked.
Pictures
Three trips, three great adventures!
Year 1 – Snowstorm! 
Year 2 – Paradise Meadows 
Year 3 – The ‘Big View’