After a great experience in Burns Bog, Billy remembered that there’s another one right in Pacific Spirit Park: Camosun Bog. We’ve been to Pacific Spirit Park many times in the past, but we never explored this corner of the large park. We soon found that walking around the Camosun Bog is truly a fun and educational experience.
Trail Condition
The whole loop trail we completed is stroller friendly (except the long flight of stairs towards the end of the loop). The trail head starts at a residential area on Camosun St, with clear sign indicating the way to the bog. You will be on boardwalk right away, which leads you into the main bog area. With only 300m of boardwalk trail surrounding the bog, it is quite small but good for a slow stroll or to admire the different bog plants. You can check out the bog trail here.
When compared to Burns Bog, the boards on the boardwalk here are much nicer and have been very well maintained with no sign of rotting or holes. They are perfectly laid with no gaps and felt very solid. They are also surrounded by guardrails all the way around.
Junior had so much fun on the boardwalk, that he went around the small loop several times on his balance bike. However, the boardwalk is closed to cycling, but his speed is the same as us walking so we figured it’s passable.
After looping around the bog several times, we decided to continue down Camosun trail through a forested area. Once we left the bog, the boardwalks gave way to gravel trails.
The compact gravel road goes through a section of residential area and after a small uphill, it opens up to Crown St, where there is a city park nearby with a spray park and a grassy field.
After just a short stroll on Crown St, the trail continues back into the forested area through Top Trail. This part of the trail can get loud sometimes with construction noise as you will pass through a BC Hydro Substation where an expansion project is currently taking place, but will soon enter back into the forest where the noise will die down.
After a long stretch of tree shaded Camosun Trail, you will soon see a long flight of stairs leading back down onto the boardwalk bog trail. If you brought a stroller here, you would have to either navigate down these stairs or continue north to Camosun Park and Queen Elizabeth Elementary. We managed to carry everything down those stairs.
We came to visit again in the winter, and used the northern exit instead of the stairs. Soon after heading north, we emerged from the woods onto the grassy field of Camosun Park. Turning right and walking through Queen Elizabeth Elementary School, we found our way back to our starting point on Camosun Street.
Camosun Park 
QE Elementary 
Activities
Other than hiking on this trails, you can also learn about different bog plants and wildlife animal species here at the bog. There are educational signage available on many sections explaining the different plants you see. Like in Burns Bog, there are a few bog laurels and laurel tea inside this bog, but much fewer of them in comparison. We also saw some bog blueberries and cranberries which made our toddler very hungry.
Throughout the trail, there are also signs warning of increasing coyotes activity here. Be careful especially when hiking alone or with young kids.
Other than wildlife sightings, you can also picnic here in the forest area. There are two picnic tables available on the top of the long flight of stairs. This is a well shaded and quiet area, perfect for a nice day of picnic.
Breastfeeding
There are a few benches on the boardwalk section surrounding the bog. In the forest section, there are no other benches available other than the two picnic tables mentioned above.
Traffic
There was only light pedestrian traffic when we came on a weekday afternoon. Cyclists cannot use the boardwalk.
Pets
Dogs must be leashed at all times on this loop trail.
Washroom
There is one single washroom by the picnic area close to the stairs. There are no other washrooms on the trail.
Parking
There are free street parking avaliable on Camosun St. close to the trail head. You can also park around the park or at the residential area and enter from the other side of the bog.
Overall, this is an educational walk learning about the bog and its wildlife. We will come again to learn more about bogs but we will have to go on proper bike trails soon when Junior starts to gain speed.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Foot traffic: light
- Pet traffic: light
- Facilities: pit toilet available, picnic tables and spray park close by.
- View: average forest and bog view
- Overall score: 7/10