Capilano Suspension Bridge

King of the Bridge

The Capilano Suspension Bridge is only a 10 minute drive from downtown Vancouver, but it feels like another world. Buy an admission ticket and a few minutes later you're swaying 230 feet above the canyon and white river. Even two people tiptoeing gingerly across make a little wave with each cautious step. So? Imagine the tsunami when a charter bus load of Americans tramples over.

But we were there at opening hour on a rainy Wednesday morning and had the entire park (almost) to ourselves. In the photo below I'm waving to John who was ambitious enough to hike down to a lookout platform across the river.


The first suspension bridge was built here in 1889 by George Mackay to reach prime timber land. To his credit, he saved a few of the finest old-growth trees from logging. Back then the bridge was suspended on hemp ropes, but now the bridge has 2" steel cables embedded in rock. They say it could hold two fully-loaded 747 airplanes. Not that they're going to land there anytime soon.
On the other side of the canyon there are nature trails, displays and an elevated boardwalk called the "Treetop Adventure."

It's a 650 foot long boardwalk held up by cables suspended between platforms up to 10 stories high. There were some magnificent Douglas-fir, cedar and hemlocks that were growing here long before Europeans ever thought of North America.
And since this is a rain forest, visitors are supplied with attractive, complimentary rain ponchos. It was also my birthday, and climbing around the trunks of 400 year old trees helps put "old" in perspective.
:-)