I’ve lived in Vancouver for twenty plus years now and until this day I’m still discovering beautiful new places hidden within our amazing city.

Yesterday my fiancé and I, upon the suggestion of a Vancouver hiking guru, trekked to Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver. I had previously heard of this park and had seen it by boat but have never fully hiked around this area.  Driving through Ambleside and Dundarave I realized we really never frequented this area and spotted some gems (like the Savary Pie Co.) I’d like to check out in the future.

Lighthouse park was a good 10KM drive past Park Royal on Marine Drive. It was a long stretch but boy was it worth it! The parking lot wasn’t full, which is always a nice sign. There are actually various entrances to trails from the parking lot but we chose to climb all the way up to the ‘lookout point’ first. From there we took the Valley Trail then veered off through the Arbutus trail. The paths aren’t as clearly marked as I’d like – it was an adventure in and of itself trying to determine whether we were walking the trail or creating our own! Overall the hike took us about 2 hours with beautiful waterfront views. The terrain was rocky and some parts were muddy but there were some knolls or lookout points where you can venture out to the rocky boulders bordering the water.  It was a beautiful day nonetheless my only tip for anyone interested in this hike is to consider your timing. Returning to Vancouver through the Lion’s Gate bridge took us almost as long as it took to hike.