Videos of Vancouver Stanley Park biking and hiking trails

The interior trails in Vancouver's Stanley Park are often overlooked by many of the millions of tourists who visit the park every year. The park offers some great biking and hiking opportunities, but navigating around the park using the interior trails can be a little confusing. 

The Vancouver Parks Board has a good Stanley Park trail map available for downloading in  PDF format (right click to open the map in a new tab).

Vancouver's Stanley Park - click on the photo to enlarge

The park slopes uphill as you go north, so the lower southern half consists of easy, flat east / west trails. The main trails that lead to Prospect Point (e.g. Bridle, Rawlings, Thompson) all climb very steeply going uphill.

 

Video #1:  Prospect Point from the Seawall by going under the Lion's Gate bridge.

The first captioned video (no sound)  shows how to get up to Prospect Point from the  Seawall using the Eldon Trail. The outlook is about 60 meters or 225 feet above sea level and it is the highest point in the park and getting there from the seawall can be confusing. 

At about 4.25 KM mark on the seawall there is a trail that goes under the Lion's Gate bridge up to Prospect Point.  It is a steep walk, but it is impossible to get lost if you follow the route shown in the video.

 

Video #2: A fast, easy ride back to Second Beach using the Thompson, Rawlings and Meadow trails.

The next captioned video (also no sound) shows how to use the Prospect Point, Thompson, Meadow and Rawlings trails to quickly ride back down to sea level by the Second Beach swimming pool via the west side of the park. This route drops about 60 meters (200 feet) over about 2.4 Km (about 1.5 miles) so it is an exciting, easy downhill ride.

Google Earth shows many of the trails

Video #3 This is a short clip of a very popular walking and biking route from English Bay to Lost Lagoon. The freshwater lagoon is home to raccoons, swans, turtles and many birds.

 

Video #4 This bike route goes through the busy eastern half of the park and is an easy, flat ride. It covers Lost Lagoon, the Aquarium area and Lumberman's Arch and takes the seawall to the point where Video #1 (Prospect Point) begins.

Turtles in Lost Lagoon - April 2011

Video #5 - A fast, easy downhill ride from Prospect Point using the Bridle, Lover's Walk, Squirrel and Cathedral trails.  It finishes at the Lost Lagoon bridge shown in #3.

Video #6 - Climbing to Prospect Point from the Seawall using the Avison Trail. This is an easier but much longer trail than the one shown in video #1.

Video #7 - Riding the North Creek, Beaver Lake and South Creek trails to Lost Lagoon. This is quiet downhill route through the forest and around Beaver Lake.  The North Creek trail is a narrow and twisting downhill, the trail around Beaver Lake is flat, and the South Creek trail has a initial uphill climb but then an easy downhill to Lost Lagoon on a wide trail, coming out near the Rose Garden.

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