1) Point Atkinson lighthouse (double-click photo to open in full splendour)

Yesterday we drove out to West Vancouver and spent the afternoon hiking at Lighthouse Park.  It was Captain George Vancouver, who sailing past this point, named it Point Atkinson after a ‘particular friend’, or so the story goes. The first lighthouse here was built in 1874 and the park was set aside in 1881 by the Dominion of Canada to serve as a dark backdrop for the light. The timber also served to fuel its – at the time – steam-powered foghorn. The current lighthouse was built in 1912. During WWII lighthouses all along the BC coast were used as surveillance posts, just in case a German or Japanese submarine or ship decided to slip past, and searchlights, gun emplacements and barrack houses were built at Point Atkinson. Those barracks are still there today and are used for recreation programs and the Girl Guides.

2) follow these guidelines when visiting!

 3) G stops to read about the over-100-year-old Hemlock trees

 4) the woods are lovely, dark and deep ….

 5) just look at the history this tree has seen … the sign said this (now dead) tree was first born in c.800AD!

 6) when you visit, make sure to look up

 7) (sigh)

 8) G gets out ahead of me by a fair distance … though he is dwarfed by the hemlocks

 9) heading up (first) to go (down) to the beach

 10) there’s the Lighthouse and Point Grey –  home of the University of British Columbia – in the background

 11) and moi in the same location

 12) G takes in the view

 13) down to the beach we go … you can see English Bay and the city of Vancouver skyline in the background

 14) beachcombing

 15) happy to have made it

 16) looking back west to the Lighthouse