Capturing the Art of Nature
Capilano Canyon
Last time I visited was during the low flow period, so today I went to see the chutes of the dam in action. I was not disappointed.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2008
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The Capilano gorge area just below the dam is a popular hiking area and offers the visitor many lovely scenic views of the river. The big negative of the area is that it has very easy access with easy walking trails making it a regular stopping point for bus loads of tourists who are visiting Vancouver in addition to large numbers of sport fishermen. The public viewing of the fish hatchery only adds to the crowds. This aside, the area still has ample spots where you can get some solitude and some good unobstructed views of scenery. Watching some of the fishermen standing on rocks near straight drops to the river below makes one wonder about their sense of safety. At-least they have traveled the cliff walls enough to develop quite useable trails for others to use.
So I decided to head to the river on May 31, 2008 to see the dam and capture a few glimpses of the river gorge. We arrived to partially cloudy skies which provided sufficient light of the river views. Our first stop was straight down to the river from the parking lot to the cable pool lookout. We then made our way up-stream towards the fish hatchery. The cable pool bridge was swarming with people as we approached and so we decided to go past and look at the exhibits at the hatchery, several bus-loads of tourists were arriving so I didn’t want to stay long. As we started back down the river a group of white water kayakers were unloading for a trip down river. I chatted with one of them as they were getting organized.
We made our way to the Cable Pool bridge where I got a few interesting photos at a point between groups. Then it was on to the view point of the upper canyon and dam. The water flow was high and the mist generated was dense. It was in fact dense enough to completely soak us at the viewpoint in a few minutes. This limited the time I could have the cameras out as they were getting drenched! We then made our way to the top of the dam, but first stopped by the giant “Grandpa Capilano” fir to ponder the massiveness of its size. These trees surely do reach an incredible mass.
Looking down the river from the top of the dam was quite spectacular with the full volume of water being let out! Last time here it was only a trickle. A few wide angle shots and I was able to get a few unusual angles of the dam, water and gorge below not to mention Ethan on his cell.
We then made our way down the east side of the river back to the truck where we stopped for a rest. Ethan had developed a sore ankle and so we decided to call an early end to the hike for the day with plans to do the lower section in a couple of weeks.
So on June 14th we made our way back to the same parking spot to resume our hike and walk the Coho loop trail. There were quite a few along the river fishing this morning though most were saying they had caught nothing for their efforts. The loop trail brought one to several viewpoints of the gorge but the best views were to be had by following the well traveled side trails created by the sport fishermen. I took a number of these to find some nice vantage points of the river. It was only two weeks later that another photographer pushed his luck by going beyond the traveled paths to get the perfect image that he needed rescuing to get back to safety! It might be acceptable to take a few risks to get a good shot but one must know the terrain and their abilities before pushing the bounds and landing oneself in a dangerous situation.
I quite enjoyed the view from the pipeline bridge. The river below presented some lovely colours, highlights and current eddies to make for a wide variety of images and textures. I could have spent all day here but I did want to see how the west side of the river looked. Though there were a number of side trails along this side as well, I was getting a bit tired and opted to pass by a number of them. So it was back to the cable pool bridge and up to the truck.
The two hikes along the canyon were nice easy retreats from the noise of the city and did provide a number of interesting sights. Most of the tourists stayed around the hatchery which left the southern loop for the more serious hikers which were few in number. It is an easy walk and I recommend it.