Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Park

Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Park was a tourist magnet with as many as six million visitors annually, but it was about time for another visit starting with the rose garden. The park was established back in the 1930s after a mountain had been quarried for rocks for road building. To cover the eye sore left from quarrying, two sunken gardens were established. 

False Creek Hiking/Biking Trail

With several hours to kill between movies at the Vancouver International Film Festival, I took off along the False Creek Trail under a sunny fall sky. Heading for Grandville Island, a four-kilometre one way hike, I followed a paved route by shimmering water.

Stanley Park

This is my daughter’s favourite park in the world. I get the attraction. It’s a huge 400 hectare site with nearly nine kilometres of walk/cycle/roller blade trails that skirt the park plus internal trails. The view of the sea and surrounding coastline is to die for and I’m impressed too. I hiked the ocean view trail and liked the two paths—one for walkers and a separate for the faster cycle users. For me, it’s an impressive park but far from my favourite. 

Pacific Rim National Park

Near Tofino on the very west coast of Vancouver Island, I stayed at Esowista, a First Nation village, halfway between Tofino and Ecluelet right on the beach at the northern end of Long Beach. I hoped for surf, but it had been flat for about a week. I swam anyway but the water only came up to my waist. I slushed my way to a mini-island where cedars clawed their way between boulders to take root.

A city by the sea

The Trans-Canada Highway runs right across Canada from Victoria where I was headed on the west coast, to Newfoundland on the east coast, nearly eight thousand kilometres. Not surprisingly, it’s the longest national highway in the world. I had been to its eastern extreme so was keen to visit the highway’s starting point. (featured image)

Glacier National Park

Further east than Mount Revelstoke National Park was Glacier National Park established in 1886. Tall hemlock and cedars lined the path of Hemlock Grove Boardwalk, a setting made perfect because no one else was there on that early morning.

Mount Revelstoke National Park

My destination was Canyon Hot Springs, forty kilometres east of Revelstoke, but I wanted to visit Mount Revelstoke National Park first. Situated in the Selkirk Mountains, the park covered two hundred and sixty square kilometres and was established in 1914.

Pinnacle Provincial Park

Although Quesnel, situated at the junction of the Fraser and Quesnel Rivers had walkways along the rivers, I was keen to head six kilometres out of town to Pinnacles Provincial Park. Along the two-kilometre circuit were hoodoos which were not a patch on Drumheller’s, but still strange land formations.

Nairn Falls Provincial Park

This small provincial park stretched parallel to the Sea-to Sky Highway. Located just north of Whistler and one hundred and fifty kilometres north of Vancouver, the trail by the Green River was an easy three-kilometre hike. 

Joffre Lakes Provincial Park

Joffre Lakes Provincial Park was situated under two hundred kilometres north of Vancouver and east from Pemberton. It had only been designated a provincial park about twenty-five years ago, though much earlier the lakes had been named after a French general from World War 1.