Vancouver likes to think it’s beautiful all over, but this is self-delusion. Parts of the city aren’t very picturesque (the downtown peninsula, for the most part). However, you can get great views of mountain, sea, or river from a number of vistas, and a few locations will knock you out. For the North Shore Mountains try Stanley Park. Avoid crowded Prospect Point in favor of Brockton Point, at the north¬eastern end of the park, or make your way down to Siwash Rock on the seawall, west of the Lions Gate Bridge. For views of fjord-like Indian Arm, look northward from Simon Fraser University, a post¬Modern mélange of Grecian and coastal architecture atop Burnaby Mountain.
For a Fraser River landscape that runs to lush, marshy habitat, visit Fraser River Park at West 75th Avenue and Angus Drive (South Vancouver); or, for river delta, make your way over one of the bridges to Richmond and lona Beach Regional Park (for direc¬tions, see “Hiking and Walking”). Button your jacket in any but August weather and walk out the long spit (really a sewage outlet). At the end, you’ll feel that you’re standing at the fulcrum of ocean, mountain, and river. Then look back at the south shore of the city, and marvel at the lifestyle it offers (modestly wealthy).
For a gander up Howe Sound toward the Tantalus and Garibaldi mountain ranges, position yourself on the cliff at the western end of the UBC campus (take care the waterlogged earth doesn’t crumble underfoot).
But the ultimate views are from the North Shore mountains, including the Cypress Lookout, reachable by taking exit 8 from the Upper Levels Highway in West Vancouver, and traveling up the switchback Cypress Bowl Road. From the outlook (on a clear day) you can see Mount Baker in Washington state, and the mountains of Vancouver Island to the distant west, with the city in the foreground.
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