British Columbia

Vancouver, British Columbia

With a population of 737,216 people, Vancouver is Canada’s third largest city behind Toronto and Montreal. Long before the European arrival to the region, the area was home to Coastal Indigenous people since at least 500 BC. The region was explored by both Spanish and British navigators, with George Vancouver surveying the coast and lending his name to the area in 1792. The city was originally called Granville and grew rapidly in the 1870s when it became the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The City of Vancouver was incorporated in April 1886, but suffered a devastating fire just two months later. The city rapidly rebuilt and incorporated sturdier structures.

The opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 made it easier and more economical to export Canadian grain and lumber, further boosting Vancouver’s growth as a leading port. The city’s population grew significantly, and by the 1930s, it was Canada’s major Pacific coast port. Following World War II, Vancouver became a hub for trade with Asia and the Pacific Rim. Today, the Port of Vancouver is Canada’s largest port and the fourth largest in North America handling approximately $300 billion in trade annually. Its role as a major trade center with the world has contributed to Vancouver’s vibrant multicultural character, with a significant East Asian population. Modern Vancouver has become one of the world’s great cities hosting the Expo World’s Fair in 1986 and the Winter Olympics in 2010.

Established in 1888, Stanley Park became Vancouver’s first and premier urban park. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the land now known as Stanley Park was home to First Nations villages, particularly the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. The land was heavily logged prior to the establishment of the park which was named after Lord Stanley who was Canada’s Governor General at the time. And yes, this is the same Lord Stanley that the Stanley Cup is named after and awarded to the champions of the National Hockey League. The park’s setting combines forest, mountains, and ocean, including natural elements like old-growth forests and intertidal habitats.

Stanley Park offers diverse facilities including the Vancouver Aquarium, a miniature railway, sports fields, tennis courts, a golf course, restaurants, and a saltwater swimming pool. The park even offers sandy beaches for visitors to enjoy a day at the shore. There are over 27 km (16.7 mi) of trails within the boundaries of Stanley Park for walking and cycling. The most popular trail is the Stanley Park Seawall which is a 9 km (5.6 mi) loop trail which hugs the shoreline around the entire park. The Seawall trail has scenic views of Vancouver including downtown, harbor, bridges, mountains, and open ocean. The pathway is paved with separate lanes for pedestrians and cyclists, and was a wonderful way to spend a beautiful late summer afternoon.

Another popular attraction in Vancouver is the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park which is located across the Lion Gate Bridge in North Vancouver. The park’s namesake, the Capilano Suspension Bridge, was first built in 1889 with hemp rope and cedar planks as a tourist attraction. The modern bridge is constructed with steel cables and is strong enough to support a fully loaded 747 aircraft. This pedestrian suspension bridge spans 450 feet at a height of 230 feet over the Capilano River below. As you walk across the bridge, you definitely feel it wobbling and I found it necessary to hold the cables to help stabilize myself. The park also has a Treetop Adventure which is a canopy walk 110 feet above the forest floor. Guests enter the canopy walk from a tree house and then walk to a series of platforms via suspension bridges. The 700-foot-long Cliffwalk is a cantilevered walkway that clings to a granite cliff thirty stories over the Capilano River. The series of stairs, walkways, and viewing platforms of the Cliffwalk offer some amazing unobstructed views of the valley.

Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Vancouver Island is the largest island by area and most populous along the west coasts of the Americas. Part of the Canadian province of British Columbia, the mountainous island is 283 miles long, 62 miles wide at its widest point, and has an area of 12,400 square miles. There are numerous communities on Vancouver Island which had a population of 864,864 as of 2021. Indigenous peoples have inhabited Vancouver Island for thousands of years, long before the arrival of Spanish and British naval expeditions in the late 18th century. The Spanish and British conjointly named it Quadra’s and Vancouver’s Island in commemoration of the friendly negotiations held in 1792 between the Spanish commander Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra and British naval captain George Vancouver, during the Nootka Crisis. Once the British firmly laid claim to Canada, they dropped Quadra’s name from the island.

Probably the most popular way to arrive on Vancouver Island is on one of the numerous auto ferries that depart from Vancouver daily. The vessels operated by BC Ferries are enormous with multiple auto decks and easy straight through loading and unloading. I took the ferry from the Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal in Vancouver over to the Destruction Bay Ferry Terminal in the community of Nanaimo which is on the east coast of Vancouver Island. My plan was to camp and explore the island before returning to Vancouver on the ferry out of Victoria ten days later. Following my stay on Vancouver Island, I scheduled a ferry out of Swartz Bay (Victoria) that sailed to Tsawassen which is south of Vancouver and closer to the Canada/US border for my return to the lower forty-eight.

My first stop was Miracle Beach Provincial Park on the eastern shore of Vancouver Island. Located between Comox and Campbell River, the park includes a foreshore area in the Strait of Georgia, much of the Black Creek estuary, and a forested area. Miracle Beach is named after an ancient Indian legend about the local Cape Mudge Indians being saved from a besieged state by a miracle. The provincial park features a large campground as well as day use area that features a long beach lined with plenty of driftwood. There is a large coastal shelf off the beach which allows guests to wade far offshore when the tide is out and see what creatures can be found in the tidal waters.

About 2.5 hours north of Miracle Beach was my second stop at the coastal community of Port McNeill. I stayed at the Cluxewe Resort which sits on First Nation land and is ran by tribal members. My campsite was oceanfront with the ocean just feet away. The shoreline was rocky with lots of driftwood and large kelp forests could be seen offshore with harbor seals a frequent sight. Unfortunately, it was foggy and rainy for most of my stay there, but I did enjoy the sounds of the fog horn coming from the Pultency Point Lighthouse across the water from me on Malcolm Island.

A two-hour drive south to the community of Campbell River took me to my third stop of Elk Falls Provincial Park. This is the most popular provincial park on Vancouver Island probably due to its central location and world-class fishing. The day use area is a popular spot for hiking with a trail that leads out to the 75-foot-tall Elk Falls and a pedestrian suspension bridge which spans 180 feet over the Campbell River. While at Elk Falls, I stayed at the Quinsam Campground which is only 1.5 miles from the community of Campbell River and has numerous trails through the dense tempered rainforest following the Quinsam River. My campsite was very peaceful nestled up against the forest with the sound of flowing water from the nearby river.

The southern part of Vancouver Island and some of the nearby Gulf Islands are the only parts of British Columbia or Western Canada to lie south of the 49th parallel. The southeast part of the island has one of the warmest climates in Canada, and since the mid-1990s has been mild enough in a few areas to grow Mediterranean crops such as olives and lemons. Nearly half of the island’s population live in the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria on the southern tip of the island. Named after Queen Victoria and founded in 1843, Victoria is the capital of British Columbia. It is known for its “Garden City” nickname due to its natural beauty, colonial architecture, and a vibrant arts and culture scene. While in the Victoria area I stayed at the campground at Goldstream Provincial Park which was a very peaceful site in an old-growth Douglas fir forest.

Robert Butchart made his fortune on Vancouver Island supplying Portland cement to construction projects around Victoria. When the quarry that supplied the limestone to his plant stopped producing and was closed, it was his wife, Jennie Butchart, who came up with the idea of beautifying the worked-out quarry. The Butcharts spent years collecting plant specimens during their world travels and consulted with some of the leading landscape architects on their gardens. The hospitable Butcharts named their 130-acre estate where the gardens reside “Benvenuto” – Italian for “welcome” – and has been welcoming guests to the gardens since the 1920s. Today, Butchart Gardens is still owned and operated by the family with a dedicated staff of fifty full-time gardeners maintaining the horticultural excellence and welcoming traditions of Jennie Butchart. Now visited by close to a million visitors per year, Butchart Gardens celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2004 and was designated a National Historic Site of Canada.