This is the view over Cleveland Dam, at Capilano Park on Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver.  My mother grew up such a short distance from here she used to ride her bike to the dam.  Of all the fun we had, of all there is to see and do in the Vancouver area, this day was our favorite.  We all wished there had been more time for exploring the park and hiking trails surrounding the dam.  There were other, expensive, more ‘touristy’ things to see and do on Grouse Mountain, but in the end we were all so glad we ended up exploring the park instead.

One of the things the children loved was using the blue maps printed at the beginning of the hiking trails to find where we were and plot where to go next.

The hiking was beautiful.  The area is gorgeous.

We went all the way to the lookout at the lowest end of the trail where we watched salmon the size of our children leaping out of the water.

Eventually we ended up at the salmon hatchery on the other side of the river, where the kids watched fish of all different sizes and read about how and why the hatchery works.

We’d been hiking for hours when this picture was taken, and we were still having fun!

The trails got a bit more challenging as we worked our way back up to the dam.

We were finished when Shooter took this picture, mere steps from the parking lot where our rental was waiting.  I had imagined a nice photo of mom and dad on the family vacation; Farmer Boy obviously had something else in mind and I must say makes the picture more enjoyable!

Keep reading…I’ll post more soon.