A Long Day in Capilano

(Note: since my camera battery is dead, I will have to add pictures to this post tomorrow. Sorry!)

Yesterday, we decided to take a short drive upGrouse Mountain on Capilano Road and it ended up taking us all day. Our first stop was the Capilano Suspension Bridge, which is a tourist trap that has been in almost continuous operation since 1893. I thought it was just going to be a bridge, but there was actually quite a bit to the complex. The grounds were beautiful and there were a lot of historical information areas and employees in period costumes. On the other side of the bridge there was a temperate rainforest tour and walking eco-tours that took you through 7 acres of wooded land. I, however, did not make it to the other side of the bridge. It was a steel cable and wood structure suspended 275’ over a river gorge….and it MOVED!!!! I made it about 30’ across before deciding that this was not an experience that I needed. Scott was much braver and I so he took the camera and made the trip across while I enjoyed the view and the gift shop.

Our next stop up the mountain was at the Capilano Fish Hatchery, which is run by the Capilano Provincial Park. It was a really interesting area with some great information and some really neat views of salmon making the journey up the fish ladder around the dam. We took the time to explore a few of the near by trails and were able to get a peak at more of the river gorge from a much more stable foot bridge that did NOT move, thank God!

Stop number 3 took us to the Cleveland Dam and park. Not very much to do there, but see the dam and enjoy the gorgeous park. There were lots of people out picnicking and playing badminton.

Our final destination was the one that took the longest. We braved a large cable tram 2500’ up the side of Grouse Mountain, almost to the summit. In the winter this is a very active ski area, but during the summer it has quite a few other interesting things to do. There were several restaurants, a lumberjack show, a wild bird show, a grizzly bear habitat area, panoramic views of Vancouver below, and many other things that we didn’t even have time to try. We really enjoyed our time there but ended up spending more time there than we intended because although the wait to go UP in the tram was only 2 minutes, the wait to come DOWN was 1.5 hours. We figured it was easier to just check out everything else than stand in line all that time. We ended up eating dinner at a place called Altitudes Bistro, which had excellent food, and then watching the sunset over the surrounding mountains. Couldn’t ask for a better end to the day. All we could manage to do when we got back to the condo was collapse into bed. All-in-all it was a really nice day.