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Nicholson Road is an ongoing photo project aimed at sharing and celebrating the different communities in Metro Vancouver. Each week Vancouver Is Awesome will be featuring an image from the previous week, shot in one of the many 'hoods around town in order to draw your attention a little bit outside of the hyper-focus that we usually have on the City of Vancouver. |
This week feels a bit like Nicholson Road UNPLUGGED. That's a good thing! Because what would Metro Vancouver be if it wasn't filled with amazing natural locations to explore?
On Wednesday I headed out to Lynn Canyon to get a much needed dose of nature. I tell you, there's something about the forest (and particularly our temperate west coast rainforest) that does so much for the spirit. It doesn't hurt that the western red cedar is one of my favourite plants, tied for first place with the sword fern. Mix in a blanket of moss, a crystal clear river, and a radiant late-summer sun and you've got an adventure aching to begin.
After a short jaunt across the [free!] suspension bridge, we headed down the trail past Twin Falls, hopped across the creek stone by stone, and explored the western edge of the canyon down to the Inter River Park and back. On the way we found a number of ponds packed full of coho salmon fry! Now I'd watched salmon grow from eggs in a classroom aquarium back in grade 6, but I'd never actually seen any in our rivers before. Add another awesome point to the day. More points were rewarded once we ascended the canyon walls around the river bend where the land goes up while the river goes down. For a while, we walked perilously close to the edge of 100ft cliffs, lined with moss and ferns, overlooking Lynn Creek far below.
At 617 acres, Lynn Canyon Park is one of the largest parks in Metro Vancouver. Created shortly after the completion of the suspension bridge in 1912, the park, then only 12 acres, was envisioned as a way to attract developers to the area, which had seen its fair share of logging (the forests are now second growth, as evidenced by the various old growth stumps located throughout). All of this brings me to the photo above, of the beautiful Lynn Canyon Café.
Designed by Davi Narine + Associates, the structure, and particularly its grand glulam (glue-laminated timber) columns, fits in wonderfully with its surroundings while providing a place to relax, grab a coffee or a burger, and enjoy a moment away from the city. While we were there, we saw people who appeared to have come solely for the coffee - which claims to be the only siphon coffee available in Metro Van.
Now I ask you, where else are you going to find a sun-speckled patio in the midst of a thriving rainforest, on which to enjoy brewed-to-order speciality coffee, but in Metro Vancouver?
Archives of the Nicholson Road project can be found HERE.
