Stanley Park

About this place

Vancouver's best-known park and one of North America's largest urban parks, spreading over some four hundred hectares of rainforest and beaches on a peninsula beside downtown, opened in 1888 and bounded by the sea on three sides. The famous seawall loops around it, about nine kilometres of walking and cycling paths along the water, with views of the skyscrapers, the marina and the North Shore mountains, passing beneath the Lions Gate suspension bridge and past Siwash Rock standing alone in the sea. At Brockton Point stands a group of painted First Nations totem poles, among the most visited sights in Canada. Inside the park are forests of giant red cedar and fir, Beaver Lake with its water lilies, sandy beaches and the Vancouver Aquarium. The park is open and free, and the best way to explore it is on a bike rented from the shops near the entrance; bikes ride the seawall one way, counter-clockwise. Late afternoon on the western beaches is loveliest.