Long weekend in Canada
Capilano Park
Make hay while sunshines is an apt saying for folks in Pacific North West (P.N.W).
Three months of summer is so precious that people want to make good use of weekdays and weekend alike,Prats and I on one such sunny weekend set off to Northern Cascades inspired by Reshma’s pictures.
Cascade National park is 2.5 hours north of Seattle and is at the border of Canada and US. Inspired by a lot of Instagram posts and sign board which read ‘Last exit in US’ got us to do all required paper work and set off on our road trip to Vancouver the following September.
PAPER WORK
To obtain visitor visa for Canada is a pretty straight-forward procedure. This website outlines the steps and most of the documents will need to be prepped up online and submitted along with some application fee ( usually $80 USD ) on to a secure portal.
The decision is conveyed using the same portal within 7–10 business days after which we need to mail our passport to the Canadian Consulate in Los Angeles for stamping.
The whole procedure took us exactly a month and about $120 in total. The best part about Canadian visa is that its valid until your passport expires.
D-DAY
Fridays prior to long weekend is usally a slow at work. Both of us wrapped up our ARs by noon and set off on our long drive. After a mandatory stop at Madras Dosa Corner in Seattle, we continued to drive towards our destination — the beautiful BC.
We reached the border at Peace Corps around midnight. The formality check was smooth and took about 5 minutes of waiting to get going to the Canadian side.
The same I-5 which continues to be Highway 99 on the other side seemed vastly different, the lanes were smaller and the drivers were more aggressive, coming from Oregon where the drivers are usually patient and the driving culture is pretty laid back, it took us a while to get used to what was going on.
We reached Vancouver at half past midnight and were crashing at Cambie hostel for the night
People in the hostel were on a friday night high and we were far too tired from a long 7 hours drive to join the party. We went up straight to our rooms and ended up chatting with our hostel roommates for couple of hours and called it a night.
I would rate Cambie Hostel at 4.0/5.0 for security, 3.0 for cleanliness and complete 5 for the locality. It wasn’t that bad a deal to spend a couple of hours before you head out to explore the city.
DAY 1 Northern Vancouver
Prats at Lynn CanyonWe grabbed some breakfast at the hostel and drove to the suspension bridges in the Northern part of Vancouver. It was a 20 minute drive from Gastown and we first went to Lynn Canyon bridge, which is a short, a relatively less crowded and pleasant park in middle of the happening city. The entry is free to this park and there are multiple trails on the other side of the suspension bridge.
These suspension bridges are a true engineering marvel and I was stunned to see how well the bridge was managing the weight of at-least 50–75 people at any given point of time.
Capilano Suspension BridgeWe took a short 1 miler to Twin falls and couple of photoshoots later we were on our way to the star attraction ‘Capilano Suspension Bridge’.
Capilano is about another 10 minute drive from Lynn canyon and was way too crowded. I found the entry fee of $40USD/per person to be ridiculously expensive to walk on a ‘hanging bridge’ . Eager to find out what this park has to offer, we marched our way into the park.
Getting to the bridge itself took us couple of minutes since it was a weekend and quite a popular tourist hub. The bridge is 140 meters long and 70 meters above the river and if my guesstimates were right, at any given time there were at-least 100–200 people on it and fun fact is the bridge can hold the weight of 97 elephants at any given point of time.
We spent a good 2 hours strolling around the park and the “commercialized” spots they had created within.
We still had a good part of the day at our mercy and decided to drive up to Whistler
The route to Whistler from Vancouver is one the most fancied drives in the western part of Canada and few minutes into the drive I realized what the hype was all about. The highway is aptly named Sea to Sky highway since it starts at sea level and gains elevation as your drive Northwards.
The beautiful Tantalus range to the left was hiding beneath the Turquoise blue waters. We drove 120Kms of the narrow windy mountain roads to reach a hidden beauty called Brandyvine falls. It was sunset by the time we left Whistler and we decided to crash at Squamish for the night.
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DAY 2 Squamish and Sea to Sky Highway
Porteau CoveWe woke up to this beautiful little town called Squamish which had snow capped mountains in any direction you turn.
This town had one street bustling with activities and was located in the heart of the Sea to Sky highway.
We grabbed some breakfast at a local cafe and made our way to Shannon Falls. Parking is quite a hassle on summer weekends. There is also a walkway which connects to sea to sky gondola, which was our next activity for the day.
Travel tip: purchasing tickets online / looking for Groupon options are relatively cheaper.
Gondola transfers you from parking lot area to the top of the mountain in 10–15 minutes.
Top of the mountain is a serene space with a birds eye view of the entire Squamish region. Extra points for dressing up well, the pictures from this spot can go on to be your next display picture.
Tantalus mountain rangeWe spent a good 2 hours at this place and went on to Porteau Cove, our next pit stop for the day.
This is a place where you take a book and a chair to just sit back and soak in the views until sunset.
We next drove back to Vancouver around sunset, but there are multiple pit stops and beaches along the way which makes up for a good day trip. We spent the sunset at Queen Elizabeth Park in downtown and retired for the day in Samesun, Vancouver.
Sea to Sky gondola
Sea to Sky GondolaSamesun unlike the popular reviews on hostelworld proved to be a bit of a disappointment for me. The rooms were claustrophobic and smaller than what was visible in pictures. The area is right in the middle of downtown, if you have driven down to Canada in your own vehicle-parking is a huge headache around the area and hostel authorities have no suggestions/ tie-up with a parking structure whatsoever.
I would rate Samesun hostel a 4.0/5.0 for security, 2.0 for cleanliness and complete 3.5 for the locality.
DAY 3 Stanley Park
Stanley ParkLast day of the trip . I had to meet my cousin who’s just moved to Vancouver. We decided to check out Stanley Park. This park is like a green oasis in middle of the urban jungle and covers about 400 hectares of land. We rented bikes at a nearby store and set off to explore 9KM stretch of the renowned Stanley Park sea-wall.
View from Sea to Sky GondolaThe path extends from midst of a jungle to a beautiful stretch overlooking the Vancouver skyline. You are riding along views of majestic trees and terrain shifts to ocean and beaches in the next 2 Kms. You have an option of completing the full loop/ half loop depending on your schedule. I would highly recommend completing the full loop since it gives you a feel of being in western coasts rainforests.
Checking off a workout for Monday, We left Vancouver with our hearts filled love for Pacific North West.
