Lighthouse Hike

Welcome to Point Atkinson’s shore in West Vancouver.

We had heard from friends that it was a nice park, not a far drive and the hiking book that I recently bought sketched out a nice description of the trail. Our hike began with a muddy trail, reminding both of us that wearing hiking boots (not trail runners) would be a good thing when hiking. We headed west through 500 year old douglas firs and popped out on a legde over looking the Burrad inlet. We followed the penisula around to the lighthouse stopping to enjoy the views.

This original lighthouse was built in 1874 while the operating lighthouse today was erected in 1912. The majestic trees in this park are original old- growth, spared from logging due to the fact that the Douglas firs, Western Hemlocks and Western red cedars provided a dark background for the white lighthouse.

The 65 hectares was set aside in 1881 and many trails criss-cross the park. During World War II many of the lighthouses on the west coast of BC were used for monitoring ships and looking for enemy subs. Point Atkinson was installed with gun emplacements, search lights and several buildings: bunkhouse, officers mess hall, dining hall and a guard hut were built behind the lighthouse. There was a lonely phone booth near the guard house that suck out and was probably installed only a few years ago. Wonder how much the that was to install? Today the dining hall is a Nature Houe operated by the Girl Guides (similar to the Girl Scouts but with less cookie flavors to choose from) and one of the other building was turned into public bathrooms.

We would recommend this hike. But even if you just want to see the lighthouse there is a service road that leads from the parking lot to the lookout that only takes about 15 minutes to walk. One last thing to note, is that you can't acctually go inside the lighthouse or even get close enough to touch as it's off limits and resides on a very rocky point. Nonetheless, it's interesting to read the history and enjoy the large virgin rain forest.

Where has your feet taken you recently? Get out and explore!