There are photo opportunities scattered throughout the Vancouver’s 52-hectare Queen Elizabeth Park. At 152 metres above sea level, it’s the highest point in Vancouver and makes for spectacular views of the park, city, and mountains on the North Shore. Photos abound of its gorgeously landscaped quarry garden, the arboretum with its collection of exotic and […]

The Abbotsford Tulip Festival is in full bloom, an hour east of Vancouver along Highway 1. I had the opportunity to visit yesterday, and the spectacularly colourful array of 2.5 million petals is definitely worth witnessing. Abbotsford Tulip Festival Photos Just off the main parking lot you’ll find a picnic area and family games, along […]

There’s something quintessentially “West Coast” about flying to and from your destination in a seaplane. Gliding across the water in an aircraft where almost every position feels like a window seat, lifting up above the bay, cruising over bridges and byways, you see the world from a whole new perspective. Touching down in another city […]

Vancouver has had a few city hall buildings; the first was a draped tent at the old Granville Townsite (1886) at the foot of Carrall St after the Great Fire. The first real structure was a building on Powell St, followed by a building on Main St just south of the Carnegie Library. The Holden […]

Hollyburn to Fromme, The Needles to The Lions, our rugged North Shore mountains provide recreation and stunning views all throughout the year. In winter, they give the city a snowy-white backdrop, even when it’s 15C in February, and they remind us how close to the vast wilderness our city lies. Thanks to those who shared […]

On the first sunny morning after a string of rainy days, my sister and I set out for a brisk morning hike from our home base at Tigh-Na-Mara Seaside Spa Resort in Parksville. Little Qualicum Falls was our destination, just 20 minutes away up Inland Island Highway with a turn onto Highway 4 towards Port […]

Michael Schmidt‘s photography has been on my radar for years, while curating my weekly Vancouver photo roundup or while composing the monthly guest post contribution from the Stanley Park Ecology Society, his urban, nature, and wildlife photography always stands out. You can now check out some of his prints this month at the West End […]

The most frequent photos I see that have been taken at Porteau Cove include the Milky Way and the Northern Lights, which says something about this Provincial Park, located along the Sea to Sky Highway. When “Porteau” (porte d’eau) is translated from French into English it means “Water’s Gate”. This name dates from 1908 when […]

The Lions are to Vancouver what the Matterhorn is to Switzerland. They are the two most iconic peaks in the Vancouver area, sitting atop the North Shore mountains at 5,400 ft (West Lion) and 5,269 ft (East Lion). The Lions are also known as Ch’ich’iyúy Elxwíkn by the Squamish First Nation, which translates to Twin […]

We spend so much time looking up and over at the mountains in Vancouver. Luckily, thanks to their accessibility, through trails in the summer and powder-covered slopes in the winter, we get almost as many chances to look down at the city from their peaks. Vancouver From the North Shore Mountains in Winter A photo […]