Cleveland Reservoir or Cleveland Dam is also known as Capilano Reservoir or Capilano Lake which located in North Vancouver at British Columbia Province in Canada. The name used after late Ernest Cleveland, the first Chief Commissioner of Greater Vancouver Water District. The reservoir used to store drinking water of Lower Mainland as per Wikipedia. Photo captured last June 2008.
The photo above is Lions Gate Bridge located in Greater Vancouver. The bridge connects Vancouver (South) to West Vancouver and North Vancouver. Under the bridge is Burrard Inlet and Vancouver Harbour. I captured this photo during my Whistler Tour last June 2008 in British Columbia, Canada while inside Whistler Mountaineer train.
My North Vancouver tour was officially over after we left Grouse Mountain. Before I joined the tour that day, I did checkout in my hotel because after the tour, the bus will drop me off at the airport and because of that all my luggage were in the bus as well.
In my tour as I wished to experience more and see more because I had few hours left before flying back to Manila, I was happy that the tour includes a seabus ride to cross Vancouver Harbour from North Vancouver to Vancouver.
The trip started at Lonsdale Quay at North Vancouver and then the ferry crossed Burrard Inlet or Vancouver Harbour. Along the way I had time spent viewing the coastal side of Greater Vancouver. I enjoyed the whole trip. After exiting the seabus, the bus tour was waiting at the Waterfront station. The seabus experience was the first time while in Vancouver.
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Vancouver Downtown and Vancouver Harbor (captured while at seabus) on the way to Waterfront Station
Canada PlacePan Pacific Hotel near at Canada PlaceVancouver Lookout Tower at Harbour Centre
After returning to the bus, a realisation came to my mind that I had few hours left to see more of Vancouver, that’s why on the way to the airport I enjoyed Vancouver Downtown inside the bus.
I still wish I can come back in Canada in the future.
During my last tour, the third itinerary I had in North Vancouver was Cleveland Dam. As I walk out the bus and walking approaching the dam, the surrounding areas were really lovely. The natures that encompassing the Capilano Lake or Capilano Reservoir were magnificent that made me really adore it. I felt how natural the place was and felt to believed the water flowing in the dam were indeed fresh.
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Surrounding area of Cleveland Dam
After visiting the place, I learned that the river I saw in Capilano Suspension Bridge and Capilano Fish Hatchery were coming from Capilano Lake which being hold by the dam. The water in the lake was not still or stagnant water, I learned that a lot of rivers and streams are flowing down into the lake coming from surrounding mountains. The lake serves as freshwater to the lower area of Great Vancouver.
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Capilano Lake or Capilano Reservoir and surround mountains
I just realized as well that the Capilano Lake was the lake that I saw while I was in Grouse Mountain Skyrides. The Cleveland Dam serve as to hold the water in the reservoir and used to control the water spill down to the Capilano River.
It was my last day in Vancouver or let say my last day in Canada, though it was not a full day tour as I still went to office in the morning to say goodbyes to the Vancouver team, I was still able to arrange my tour in the afternoon. I booked a North Shore Capilano Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mountain Tour. The half day tour includes 4 places such as Capilano Fish Hatchery, Capilano Suspension Bridge, Cleveland Dam and Grouse Mountain.
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The first stop was Capilano Fish Hatchery. The location of the hatchery is just beside the Capilano River in Capilano River Regional Park. The river was the same river that I saw when we went to Capilano Suspension Bridge. When we arrived at the center, there was a personnel approached us and explained the process of growing the fish in the hatchery and that includes telling us that if the right time, they release the fishes into the river. But at the time we visited the place, there was no schedule of fish release in the river.
After spending time inside the center, I walked around the area of the hatchery and I was fascinated in the surrounding areas as I felt the nature is within the hatchery. And the Capilano River was really adorable. I fell in love with the river.
I knew that Canada has a lot of wonderful mountains to offer that you can’t even count. I learned that since I went to Banff in Alberta province. While traveling in Greater Vancouver area, there were lots of places to visit that involves mountains as well and Grouse Mountain was just one of them.
Grouse Mountain is located at North Shore in North Vancouver, strategically located at the heart of Greater Vancouver. I learned that this mountain is popular for skiing during winter season and popular for tourist in any season. The great thing about this mountain is the overlooking of Greater Vancouver while at the top of it. It has skyrides where people enjoyed the surrounding scenic views without doing the difficult option of trekking the mountain.
Grouse Mountain Skyride StationChain Saw Arts
The mountain was the last of the four places that we visited in North Vancouver as part of my more than half day tour, before my late night flight that day back to Manila. After the bus tour dropped us at Skyrides station, I hopped on in the Red Skyrides. During my rides to the top, I had a chance to see North Vancouver area. Like what I felt when I was in Whistler when riding gondola I got excited as I saw Capilano Lake, some part of Cypress Mountain and North Vancouver.
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After reaching the top of the mountain, I felt cold as I saw the surrounding with snow and iced which was a sign of winter season just over recently. Then I went where the grizzly bear can be seen, all people and myself had difficulty to see them clearly because they just keep hiding and hibernating in some branch of trees and logs in their cage, but I still I had a chance to see them though it’s just a quick one.
I spent sometime walking around the area and then I went back as per the timing we had in the mountain. I enjoyed my short trip in Grouse Mountain as another great places added to my discoveries. I rode the skyrides again to go back to my bus tour.
It was Monday, June 16, 2008. I went to the office at Burnaby for a day of work and training. Then I met new people whom a friend of my colleague in my team. Without any careful plan that night I went out together with new friends that I met after inviting me to a walk in Stanley Park. I can’t be in a tour on that day because I’m still officially in business trip. These new friends invited us in a walk as they were aware that I just arrived few days ago and they knew that myself and my colleague were flying back to Manila the next day.
I remembered that our walk in Stanley Park took us few hours as the park is huge. Most of stroll that we did was walking around the edges of the park.
At the entrance of Stanley Park Aquarium
There were many things and scenic views that we saw while walking in the park. We started our journey from Stanley Park Aquarium which is the largest aquarium in Canada. We never went inside as we planned was to walk around the park and not inside the aquarium. We just took photos at the entrance of the aquarium as a memories in the place. Then we moved forward towards the walking trail facing Coal Harbour where Vancouver Downtown was visible. When I saw the area, I loved it. I got excited in the walk with a thought that the walk we were doing that time leads to some more discovery in the park.
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After enjoying sometime of panoramic views of Vancouver Downtown with Coal Harbor, we passed the 9 O’clock Gun and approach it shortly to had a glimpse of it since it was housed with rocks and metals which transparent to be visible outside for people who wanted to see what it looks like. We also stopped at Brockton Point Lighthouse where we spent some time to appreciate the place and played around the area.
Totem-pole Display
Next, we found the Totem-pole display in the park. Staying for a while in Canada made me learn that even though most population in Canada come from Europe countries, in their history, they respect the local people before European discoverer came along. They call these first local people as First Nation and totem pole is one of the symbol of showing allegiance of the whole country to their culture.
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The walk continues and we had a beautiful sceneries of Vancouver Harbour and North Vancouver area. At this side of the park, I got a chance to see from a far one of the historic bridge in Vancouver which is the Lions Gate Bridge.
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At the walking trail at the Seawall in Stanley Park, we found Water Playground, which is a great place for fun not just for kids but for adults as well.
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We kept on walking at the edges or seawall of the park until we reached the bottom of Lions Gate Bridge. In this walk I had a chance to have up close and personal to the bridge. And I can say that the bridge is one of the magnificent bridge existing in the world today. The stroll continues until we witness the sunset at Burrard Inlet. After passing the bridge, we were facing West Vancouver and Vancouver Downtown.
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With Lions Gate Bridge Sceneries
After passing the Lions Gate Bridge, we got a chance to witness the sunset while walking the park. Along the way, we saw Siwash Rock and then we reached the Third Beach where we found many displays of stacked rocks nearby.
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Sunset from Stanley Park, looking towards West Vancouver
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