Hugger Boo: I Heart Seawall

Ok, this isn't really a trail, but it is the most popular walkway in Vancouver; the Seawall around Stanley Park, which is, I read today, the largest urban park in N. America. It seems to me that much of the park's uniqueness is not solely due to its size but also to its 'wildness'. Much of the park is old forest, with only trails intersecting through it, which are usually pretty quiet. You can't really say the same thing about the seawall, which is as close as things get to busy around here. I have cycled the 10km perimeter a couple of times, but have never previously walked it, but I really wanted to do so in order to take in everything at a slower pace. So we loaded up the buggy, Boo got going on the snacks, and we headed out from our starting point just across from Coal Harbour.

Before long we reach tourist central the The Totem Poles, and we were searching for bears, as ever. On the totem poles that is, there are only real bears on the north shore.

Then we got our first glimpse of the north shore. The tower blocks are downtown Lonsdale, and we live off in the distance, in the valley between the two mountains visible here.

Round the first of two little lighthouses...

... round to the 'Girl in the Wet suit' sculpture and a dragon which had a former life on a Japanese ship. Boo said the dragon was a 'green bear' unsurprisingly, her obsession with bears continuing unabated.

We trotted along under Lions Gate Bridge (or Bear Bridge 1 as it is known in our household, Bear Bridge II being Second Narrows of course).

That's Grouse Mountain in the distance.

Marching a bit now as the tourist sights dwindle a bit beyond the bridge, and Boo was beginning to lose interest, we continued on to Siwash Rock.

On the rocks around the next corner, we saw literally hundreds of purple sea stars. We couldn't get down to them with the buggy, and most of them were just too far away for the little canon, but here's a couple of them.