Years have come and gone, and Canada is a different country on a better course than was set out in 1867. And yet, the ghosts of prejudice still haunt us, right up until today.
(Duncan McCue is a reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.)
Fortune often favours the brave, especially for those who rarely get to see Vancouver from a height of 1500 metres (5000 feet). This city may be my birthplace, but this is my first helicopter tour. The only other occasions I’ve seen Vancouver from the air are from planes on approach to YVR international airport.
We arrive at Vancouver Helijet Heliport on a weekday morning, and hang out for a few minutes in the spacious waiting area, sipping on coffee and chatting with the folks at the front desk. We head outside, file down the walkway to the landing pad, and hop into a Bell 206L-3 LongRanger helicopter (chopper) for our 20-minute sightseeing tour.
The “West Coast Spectacular” tour heads across Burrard Inlet to the North Shore, goes up and over the nearby coastal mountains, flies past Crown Mountain and The Lions (The Sisters), before emerging over Howe Sound. It’s easy to forget this abundant B.C. evergreen wilderness is at the doorstep to Vancouver. After heading south down the Sound, the final half of the tour proceeds past West Vancouver to English Bay (Salish Sea), enters and covers False Creek, crosses over the downtown Vancouver peninsula, makes a small loop over Burrard Inlet, before landing at the harbour base. The map below shows in green the chopper’s path, the Heliport in downtown Vancouver is marked by the helicopter icon, and the blue pins indicate mountains I identified during the tour.
The scheduled 20-minute tour goes by quickly; blink or look away for a moment, and a part of that view in that moment disappears. Not surprisingly, there’s not a lot of chatter throughout the flight, and we’re astonished by what we’re seeing below. After returning to base, we rediscover our voices and express our wonder with grateful enthusiasm. Helijet’s sightseeing tours go for a pretty penny; the “West Coast Spectacular” tour costs $224 CAD per person (minimum of two people, 2014), but the price goes down to about $150 per person for a group of five. These photos show there’s a different side to Vancouver that’s tantalizingly close and within reach.
The first few days of spring in Vancouver, Canada have seen sun, first signs of new life, and warm temperatures reaching +15C (60F). The days have highlighted a clear advantage for being present in the “Canadian Southwest,” compared to the lingering winter hanging on so desperately in other parts of the country.
Over an 11-hour period, I’m fortunate to catch a few special moments:
Many have suffered through a long, difficult, cold and snowy winter. Here in the Canadian Southwest, the first day of northern spring has brought blue skies, warm sun, and the appearance of cherry blossoms. Fresh colours and fresh flowers provide encouraging signs of new life, and warmer sunnier days lie ahead for everyone across country and continent.
Fortunately, the morning light illuminated these blossoms beautifully, and I created the right depth of field to get pink splotches of bokeh against blue sky in the background. The settings were 1/1000s, f/4, ISO200, and 95mm focal length.
Spring/autumn equinox (northern/southern hemisphere) for 2014 occurred at 1657h GMT on March 20. I made the photo above at 1658h GMT (958h local), about a minute after the moment of spring equinox, at MacLean Park in the Strathcona neighbourhood of Vancouver, Canada, on 20 March 2014.
This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com.
Winter in Vancouver can mean the appearance of fog, as stationary moist air near the ground cools at night and condenses to form marine fog which creeps in from nearby Georgia Strait to blanket the area. At daybreak, the city struggles to get sun or warmth under the cool moist fog, whereas up over the fog on local mountains, it can be several degrees warmer under the bright sun.
From High View Lookout on Cypress Mountain, there are beautiful sweeping views of Vancouver, south to Washington State, and west across Georgia Strait to Vancouver Island. For more about the surrounding area, have a look at the Cypress Provincial Park website.
There is no public transport direct to the Cypress Mountain’s High View Lookout (indicated by pin C in the map below), although West Vancouver buses stop close enough for a 20- to 30-minute walk up to the lookout. The drive from downtown Vancouver (pin V) is about 20 to 30 minutes; click on the link “View Larger Map” below for specific directions.
I made the photos on 26 January 2014. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com.
Fotoeins Fotografie 