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Lighthouse Park is a popular park in West Vancouver, Canada. Its area is about 75 hectares (185 acres) and it is almost completely covered with rugged, virgin rainforest. What most visitors (and locals) don’t realise is that most of the forests immediately surrounding Vancouver were logged before the 20th century. That is, the very first logging mills set up in Gastown were logging most of Vancouver and the local mountains of Seymour, Cypress and Grouse. Even Stanley Park was completely logged! The forests you now see in these locations are second or third generations post-logging. The trees may be tall, but they weren’t nearly as thick as the original trees that once grew there.

However, one of the few places that has never been touched by large-scale logging is Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver. As a result, Lighthouse Park boasts to be one of the few virgin temperate rainforest parks in the area. The forest here is “mature” with all stages of growth present. While you’ll see very young trees and medium-aged trees, you will also come across some of the thickest and oldest trees still growing in the area. At the southermost tip of the peninsula is Point Atkinson with an impressive landmark lighthouse built in 1914 on granite boulders jutting out into Burrard Inlet.

The area was thus set aside in 1881 as the lighthouse reserve. Some ancient trees reach heights of up to 200 feet (61 m) and are around 500 years old.

There is a network of hiking trails in the park, some of which are fairly rough and can be slippery when wet. The park receives more than 50 inches (1,300 mm) of rain annually and has an abundance of various ferns, berries and mushrooms.

You can stop by on your way to Whistler if you want!
No fancy equipment or footwear is needed for a visit to Lighthouse Park. This makes it ideal for families and people who want the sense of wilderness without having to travel to remote areas. Just bring a good pair of walking shoes, a camera, binoculars and your lunch!

The park offers beautiful views of the nearby inlets and islands, as well as the local mountains. The old lighthouse at the end of the trails is no longer functional but makes for beautiful quaint maritime scenery.

The entrance to the park is accessed by travelling to the southern end of Beacon Lane, south off of Marine Drive in West Vancouver. Beacon Lane is just south of Horseshoe Bay and west of the Ambleside and Dundarave neighbourhoods.

So don’t miss this spot on your next trip to Vancouver!

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 23rd, 2010 at 10:10 am and is filed under British Columbia, Vancouver. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.