Canada 2025

Saturday27September

We are leaving Vancouver Island. We are not taking the Victoria ferry by which we arrived, but the one from Nanaimo.

The arrival in Vancouver gives us a masterful view of Canada's third-largest city with 2.8 million inhabitants, after Toronto and Montreal.

First stop after docking, the Lighthouse Park lighthouse.

The hexagonal concrete lighthouse that we see today was built in 1912 to replace an initial wooden structure dating from 1875. The first keepers of Point Atkinson lived in total self-sufficiency on this granite spur. Isolated from everything, the first keeper, Edwin Woodward, even ended up resigning because his wife could no longer stand the extreme solitude of the place!  

The Lions Gate suspension bridge watching over the coming and going of ships in Burrard Inlet.

We now arrive at Capilano, a mini-park where you can wander high in the trees via walkways, as well as a large suspension bridge spanning the Capilano River. Before becoming a global attraction, the Capilano bridge was the story of a pioneer family. In 1889, engineer George Grant Mackay built an isolated cabin in the forest and suspended a first hemp bridge over the canyon to connect his estate, where he settled with his loved ones and faithful companions.

The site honors the memory of Chief Joseph Capilano (S7ápelek), an Indigenous leader and defender of First Nations territorial rights, famous for leading a historic delegation to King Edward VII in London in 1906. His wife Mary Capilano, nicknamed the Princess of Peace, embodies the historic alliance between the Squamish and Tlingit nations. A polyglot and living memory of her people, she dedicated her life to preserving the genealogy and oral traditions of Indigenous families in the Vancouver area.

Suspended 70 meters above its canyon, the Capilano bridge is 137 meters long.

Here we are on the other side of the canyon.

You can follow a whole path of walkways to go from tree to tree.

Back over the canyon on the suspension bridge.

Crossing the "Cliffwalk" where the walkways are fixed to the cliffside.

Improvised concert by The Dead Beats, all dying of laughter apparently...  

Change of course, 10 kilometers from Capilano, to another bridge, that of Lynn Canyon. Inaugurated in 1912, the footbridge is less frequented than its famous neighbor, but is, as a result, quieter and immersed in nature.

The falls of the Lynn River.

Short walk on the Lynn Trail.

That will be all for today. All that remains is to join the Airbnb house we booked for the next three days. Tomorrow, we will stay in nature by joining Grouse Mountain.