Squamish to Vancouver & Stanley Park

I opened the drawers with trepidation this morning to discover that no mice had ventured into the van last night. Excellent result. If they had I’m pretty sure we would be staying in hostels for the rest of the trip. Yesterday at the campsite, we were recommended to venture over to the nearby river where we would see salmon jumping up the rapids like you see in all the nature documentaries. Instead, what we first thought was the smell of garbage or rotting vegetation, was actually dead, rotting fish. The same phenomenon that had occurred at Lillooet was happening here in Paradise Creek. Fortunately we had already eaten breakfast, it was relatively disgusting. 

Jumping back in the cab we ventured forth to Save on Foods in Squamish to pick up the fresh fruit and veg we were distinctly lacking in Walmart yesterday, the very same shop we had picked up our first grocery haul (was that an interesting point? I doubt it). Then we were back on the Sea to Sky Highway. Or more like the Sky to Sea highway when you’re heading back towards Vancouver. The dense cloud cover didn’t really lend itself to awe-inspiring photos, so we sped through the viewpoints pretty quickly to finally arrive at Cypress Mountain. Here was a pretty stunning view over Vancouver that, initially, wasn’t shrouded in cloud. We greedily ventured further up the mountain to get a better vantage point, but were rewarded by driving into an incredibly dense cloud. On the way back down we could literally only see about 10 meters ahead. Some very dodgy driving conditions. We made a cheeky stop in a residential area surrounded by some exceptionally expensive looking houses as the view was excellent, Kevin, unfortunately, didn’t fit in at all.

Getting Kevin to more familiar ground we arrived at our campsite of choice; Capilano River RV Park. The most well equipped of all the campsites we’ve been so far (there’s a jacuzzi, luxury) but we’re crammed in like sardines. Not big on privacy at Capilano River RV park. We jumped out and, after a short 20 minute walk over the Lions Gate Bridge, we were in Stanley Park. It’s a lovely, large park with loads of different Vancouverian things to do and see. I got very tired and like a child demanded a cake and hot chocolate (close to the truth) and following this delight we headed back to a hopefully mouse free night.