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Published: October 4th 2009
Horse-drawn Carriage Rides
Touring Stanley Park in style -enjoy the views!Sensational Stanley Park
Stanley Park, a National Historic Site named after Lord Stanley, Governor General of Canada in 1888 when the park was officially opened, is the crown jewel of the city's 200 parks. Eight million visitors per year to North America's third largest urban core park (400 hectares/ 1,000 acres) makes Stanley Park one of Vancouver's top attractions. The cool, lush, evergreen second and third growth forest of Douglas Firs, Western Red Cedars, Western Hemlocks, and Sitka Spruce trees gives the park a more naturalistic look than most urban parks.
Three windstorms - one in the 1930s, one in 1960s and the last one in 2006 have resulted in large swathes of the park being deforested. On December 15, 2006, after two short hours of gale-force winds reaching 115 kilometers/71 miles per hour, over 60%!o(MISSING)f the western side of the park around Prospect Point was damaged with an estimated 3,000 trees lost. As a result, Prospect Point has been redesigned with viewing decks that provide picturesque views of the North Shore. It is worth a short stop to check out the Prospect Point Lookout. A memorial has been erected in honour of the trees lost and to recognize
View of the Prospect Point Lookout
Eat and shop at the Prospect Point Lookout and enjoy the views of the Lions Gate Bridge and Northshore from the highest point in Stanley Park. the contributors to the park's restoration.
The Hollow Tree, once the most photographed landmark by visitors in bygone years, is being restored after nearly being destroyed. Like most Vancouverites, the Travelling Canucks were also devastated by the devastation of Stanley Park. While restoration has been taking place over the past two years, it will take many more years for Mother Nature to restore the park to its former glory. It was and still is heartbreaking every time we visit the park to see those familiar trees gone and to know that the park will never be the same as it was when we were growing up. It reminds us all how Stanley Park is the heart and soul of Vancouver.
Over the years, a collection of monuments have called Stanley Park home. The Statue of Lord Stanley located at the main entrance and Lumbermen’s Arch are most notable. In addition to a wide range of plants, trees and shrubs, the Stanley Park Rose Garden, established in 1920, has over 3500 plants on display from the causeway up to the Stanley Park Pavilion, built in 1911. With mass plantings of spring bulbs, perennials and annuals, the Stanley Park Rose
Bill Reid's Bronze Orca
Bill Reid's First Nation's inspired Orca, titled Chief of the Undersea World, greets visitors at the entrance to the Vancouver Aquarium. Garden and the Beach Avenue entrance are most colourful from March to September.
Beaver Lake, home to fish, birds and a few industrious beavers, is becoming more shallow and smaller with the layering of logs and other natural debris. Water lilies and other aquatic plants have hastened the evolutionary course of the lake's extinction. One of Vancouver's few remaining free-flowing streams, Beaver Creek, joins Beaver Lake to the Pacific Ocean and is one of two streams in Vancouver where salmon still return to spawn each year.
Stanley Park, recognized as one of the great parks of the world, is definitely on our list of sights not to be missed! Here is the Travelling Canucks' list of top things to see and do at Stanley Park:
• Visit the Vancouver Aquarium
• Stroll or roll along the Seawall
• Learn about First Nation tales at Totem Pole Park
• Get lost at Lost Lagoon
• Tour on the Horse-drawn Carriage
• Pitch and Putt or Lawn Bowl
• Enjoy brunch, lunch or dinner at one of the fine restaurants
We recommend dining in the park at:
• The Fish House at Stanley Park for wonderful seafood in a historic setting, and
• The Teahouse at the
Is it a plane, a bird or Superdolphin?
Our favourite Pacific White-sided Dolphin shows off -way to go Spinnaker! Stanley Park. Great location to watch the setting sun over dinner or enjoying weekend brunch in a picturesque setting.
Visiting Vancouver Aquarium The Vancouver Aquarium, established in 1956, was Canada’s first public aquarium and remains Canada's largest with over 300 species of fish, 30,000 invertebrates, 56 species of amphibians and reptiles, and around 60 mammals and birds. Our favorite exhibits are: the Pacific White-Sided Dolphins, Belugas, Sea Lions, Harbour Seals, and Sea Otters.
Besides its leading role in research, conservation and rescue operations, it is rated as one of the top aquariums in the world. With two to three hours to spare, you'll have time to enjoy many of the exhibits, including:
• Treasures of the BC Coast and Exploration Gallery
• Tropic Zone and Amazon Gallery
• Marine Mammals exhibited outdoors with shows and underwater viewing areas, including the Arctic Zone
• 4D Experience, a 15 minute cinematic sensory-packed adventure. The stunning visuals are enhanced with dramatic lighting and sensory effects, like wind, mist, and scents.
• Frogs Forever?
For families with young children (under 8 years of age), check out Clownfish Cove, a child-friendly play zone with fun displays.
While the Vancouver Aquarium is one of the Travelling
Travelling Canucks Touristas!
Photo op at the Vancouver Aquarium. Canucks favourite destinations because it is as educational as it is entertaining, we miss the Orca aka Killer Whale exhibit which was a highlight of our visits in the past when it wasn't so politically incorrect. We usually spend about 3 hours to get our money's worth. Food services, gift shops and aquarium experiences, such as the Planet Earth: Shallow Seas 4-D Experience, are worth the pricey admissions. For locals, we recommend taking advantage of the annual memberships since your membership is paid for on the third visit! We did - so we are looking forward to touring the new Arctic Zone exhibit and taking in a new 4D experience this winter.
Spectacular Seawall The Stanley Park Seawall, which took over 60 years to complete, is the most scenic and popular destination for locals and visitors to walk, jog, or bike around. Construction of the 8.8 kilometers/5.5 miles seawall around the park began in 1917. Over the years, the park's seawall became part of the 22 kilometer seawall starting at Canada Place in the downtown core and continuing along the famous park seawall to English Bay, around North and South False Creek, and finally arriving at Kitsilano Beach.
Coal Harbour Marina
View from Stanley Park seawall. From Kits Beach, a trail continues 600 metres to the west, connecting to an additional 12 kilometers of beaches and pathways which terminate at the mouth of the Fraser River. This waterfront walkway is the world's longest!
As you make your way along the seawall, you will discover boat marinas, city, water and mountain views, and a small island off Stanley Park. Now the site of the naval reserve unit, HMCS Discovery, Deadman's Island was formerly a burial site up to the 1880s and a "pest house" for quarantined victims during a small pox outbreak. Other landmarks include: The 9 o'clock gun installed in 1894 so that mariners could set their chronometers and fishers could be warned of closings; Brockton Point Lighthouse; the North Shore and its mountains; the Lions Gate Bridge, and Siwash Rock. Siwash Rock, an Aboriginal landmark whose legend has it that the 15m/50ft high jagged rock is a tribute to an unselfish tribe member who turned to stone, can be found as you approach the first of three beaches, Third Beach.
With comfortable footwear, it takes about two hours to walk the park's seawall at a steady pace. If biking or rollerblading is your
Totem Park
One popular stop in Stanley Park for tour buses! thing, rentals are available outside the park off Denman and West Georgia. Remember to check the park map since bikers and rollerbladers have to travel in a counter-clockwise direction! You will be surprised and delighted by the many man-made and natural monuments along the route!
Totem Pole Tales The Totem Pole Park at the Brockton Point Visitor's Centre is not only one of the most visited tourist attractions, it has an interesting history. In the early 1920s, Vancouver leaders wanted to construct an Indian Village near Lumbermen's Arch since it was the location of a massive midden, or cultural mound, resulting from years of habitation by the native aboriginal peoples from the Squamish and Musqueam Nations. After four poles from the Alert Bay region on Vancouver Island were purchased, more Totem poles from the Queen Charlotte Islands and Rivers Inlet on the central coast of British Columbia were acquired in celebration of Vancouver's Golden Jubilee in 1936.
In the 1960s, the Totem Poles were moved to their current site. Since several of the original poles were carved in the late 1880s, time and the elements took their toll so they were sent to various museums for preservation
Lord Stanley's Statue
Welcoming visitors since the 1880s! and display, such as the Museum of Anthropology at The University of British Columbia.
Over time, the original poles have been replaced with replicas and new ones have been commissioned. Two interpretive pavilions and the Legends of the Moon Gift Shop offering light snacks, film and gifts are located at the Brockton Point Visitor's Centre where the all important public washrooms are situated. Public Washrooms are few and far between, so be warned!
Fun Things to Do • The Stanley Park Horse-drawn Carriage Rides are fun, relaxing and educational. Learn about Stanley Park and its surroundings on the one-hour tour that departs every 30 minutes, daily, rain or shine, from March 15th to October 31st, from the Horse-Drawn Tour kiosk beside the Information Booth, just off the Georgia Street entrance.
• Besides walking, jogging, cycling, or inline skating the seawall, sport clubs have long been a tradition in Stanley Park since the late 1890s. The Royal Vancouver Yacht Club established in 1905 and the Vancouver Rowing Club's heritage Tudoresque floating structure, built in 1911, was floated from the south shore of Coal Harbour to the entrance of Stanley Park in the 1930s.
Brockton Oval Athletic Fields at
Vancouver Rowing Club
1911 floating Tudoresque building on pilings at park's Georgia Street entrance. Brockton Point, first opened in 1891, are the site of outdoor track and field events. The Brockton Clubhouse, built in 1927 and restored in 1984, serves the rugby and cricket communities.
Lawn Bowlers are invited to bowl at the Stanley Park Lawn Bowling Club. For those that would prefer to sweat, there are charity-driven walks, runs and marathons that incorporate the seawall or roadway around Stanley Park every month throughout the year. So sports enthusiasts and runners out there, join in the fun or just watch others sweat!
• The Pitch & Putt Golf Course and Putting Green, located close to the Beach Avenue entrance, is the prettiest 18 hole par 3 golf course. Surrounded by the spectacular Ted and Mary Greig Rhododendron Garden, you can golf and enjoy the beautiful landscape and horticultural highlights, including a collection of 4500 hybrid rhododendron and azalea plants beneath the towering magnolias and evergreens. Next to the course, you will discover seventeen public tennis courts. Check out the huge Great Blue Herons' nests that crowd the trees lining the courts - it's quite the sight, just watch out for droppings and stray tennis balls!
• Theatre Under the Stars has been entertaining
summer theatre goers at Malkin Bowl since 1934, although the bowl was rebuilt after a fire in the 1980s. Seated under the stars, this semi-professional theatre company presents two productions over the summer, usually those familiar Broadway musicals that we all can sing along with!
• Lost Lagoon, a freshwater pond with a bio-filtration marsh near the Georgia Street entrance, is surrounded by a 2 kilometre trail around a lit fountain that was erected to commemorate Vancouver's Golden Jubilee. As a bird sanctuary, it is a nesting ground to many species of birds, including Swans, Canada Geese, Ducks and Great Blue Herons. We recommend a short visit to the Lost Lagoon Nature House, operated by the Stanley Park Ecology Society, which will provide information on the park's flora, fauna and social history.
• The Lions Gate Bridge, aka the First Narrows Bridge, is a National Historic Site and iconic Vancouver landmark. The Lions Gate Suspension Bridge was completed in 1938 by the Guinness family of Irish beer fame to connect Vancouver to the North Shore. Named after the Lions, a pair of mountain peaks on the North Shore that overlook Burrard Inlet, over 60,000 vehicles cross the suspension bridge
Views of Lions Gate Bridge
and Northshore from the seawall. per day. Walking or biking over the bridge is not for the faint of heart. We recommend viewing the bridge from the Stanley Park overpass and Prospect Point Lookout for some spectacular sights of Burrard Inlet, the North Shore Mountains and its communities.
Family Friendly Activities and Childhood Memories Water Fun The Variety Kids Water Park is Vancouver's largest outdoor water park that over-looks the North Shore and the Second Beach Pool offers beach-front swimming in a fresh-water heated tank with great views.
Stanley Park has two bathing beaches, one at Second Beach and the other at Third Beach. Vancouver's swimming season runs from Victoria Day in late May through to Labour Day.
Miniature Railway The Stanley Park Miniature Railway opened in 1964, 4 years after the Senior Canucks were born. Following the devastation created by Typhoon Frieda in 1962, which packed winds up to 129 km per hour, the horseshoe-shaped 20" gauge track travels over trestles and through tunnels along a mile and a quarter of picturesque settings. One of the miniature trains is a replica of the Canadian Pacific Railway #374 steam engine, famous for pulling Canada's first transcontinental passenger train
into Vancouver in the late 1880s on display in a pavilion at the Roundhouse in Yaletown.
The Miniature Train has become one of Vancouver's most popular attractions with 200,000 passengers per year by running the “Ghost Train” at Halloween and “Bright Nights” over the Christmas Holidays. Both fundraising events are fun for all ages. Stanley Park's Hallowe'en Ghost Train, since 1999, has become an annual tradition for our family that craves thrills and excitement! Every year, new themes, sets, costumes and surprises are conjured up which makes the Ghost Train a uniquely wonderful and fun experience every trick-or-treat season. At Bright Nights, more than a million twinkling lights transform the forest, train and Children's Farmyard with enchanting, animated displays and holiday sounds. A Christmas family tradition for over 15 years, the train winds its way through the forest past Santa's workshop, an international village and the much loved Moose in the middle of the glistening waterway. The aroma of hot chocolate, fresh popcorn and roasted nuts brings back childhood memories.
Wildlife Viewing Lots of animals call Stanley Park home, including over 200 bird species, such as Canadian geese, ducks and swans. Raccoons, skunks, coyotes, rabbits (descendants from
Glorious Trees Galore!
Windstorms in December 2006 left 90% of the trees standing, but 10% of the trees were damaged. A staggering 3,000 trees, mostly around Prospect Point, were lost. abandoned pets) and a thriving Grey squirrel population descending from eight pairs given as a gift from New York's Central Park in 1909 means that children are bound to discover feathery and furry creatures along the way. If not, there is always the Children's Petting Zoo to visit!
At low tide, rocky beach areas reveal tidal pools, where shellfish, starfish and birds can be spotted along the shores. If you are lucky, you'll spot Harbour Seals in Burrard Inlet.
Our childhood memories of running around the park, park drives on Sundays, stopping at the Nine O'clock Gun whose boom can still be heard all over Vancouver, great times at the Stanley Park Zoo and Aquarium are reminders of growing up in Vancouver in the 1960s and 1970s....20 years later, we enjoyed the park through the eyes of our baby Canuck!
Today, the Travelling Canucks enjoy spending time walking the seawall, visiting the aquarium and photographing the scenery. Getting To and Around Stanley Park Two routes link Stanley Park to downtown Vancouver: the seaside bike route accesses the park from English Bay and the Coal Harbour route offers pedestrians connections to transportation links, such as
the SeaBus, SkyTrain and Canada Line. If you want to escape the crowds on the seawall, walk or bike the park's 27 kilometers of designated trails.
In summer, getting around Stanley Park without a car is easy with the Stanley Park Shuttle bus service which runs daily from 10am to 6:30 pm from July 1 to Labour Day. Every 15 minutes, a shuttle bus stops at 15 specially signed stops hitting the park's most popular attractions and natural highlights. For a nominal fee of $2 for adults and $1 for kids ages 2 to 11, park visitors can ride all day, getting off and on the shuttle at their leisure.
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Joanne
non-member comment
Just an FYI, the dolphins are called Pacific White-Sided Dolphins : )