Route: Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver
Area: British Columbia, Canada
Date of walk: 13th August 2025
Walkers: Andrew and Gilly
Distance: 2.0 miles
Ascent: 100 feet
Weather: Mostly sunny
It’s been almost one year since our last visit to Canada, follow this link for my other walks here. Vancouver is blessed with numerous parks and open spaces, around 250 in all, the largest being Stanley Park which covers 1,000 acres. We were staying near Queen Elizabeth Park so chose this for our first walk. Anyone based further away can easily get there by car or public transport. The park covers about 130 acres and is the highest point in Vancouver at 125 metres above sea level
Entrance to Queen Elizabeth Park is free and, having arrived at the perimeter, we made our way uphill to Little Mountain via the Large Quarry Garden, which was once a massive excavation but is now full of specimen trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs and annuals. The views over Vancouver and the mountains of North Shore were superb from the top of the hill. We then visited the Rose Garden and the Small Quarry Garden before returning to Little Mountain, which is home to the domed Bloedel Conservatory. There’s an admission charge to the conservatory which we gladly paid in order to see the lush tropical planting, as well as the exotic birds and koi carp.
This capped off an enjoyable visit and from here we decided to walk to nearby VanDusen Botanical Garden
Note that the route map shows the paths we followed around both Queen Elizabeth Park and VanDusen Botanical Garden. It is not intended to be a detailed guide to either place and it’s best to wander around wherever your interest takes you. The map also shows the walking route between the two, which takes about 15 minutes
Click on the icon below for the route map and click here for a map of the park
Scroll down – or click on any photo to enlarge it and you can then view as a slideshow
The day before the walk we fly over British Columbia to Vancouver, marvelling at the vastness of the landscape
The following day, we enter into Queen Elizabeth Park - it's a free public space, so one can wander in from wherever is convenient
Coyotes are to be found in several of Vancouver's parks, but we didn't have any encounters
Colourful planting in the Quarry Gardens
'Love in the Rain' by Vancouver artist Bruce Voyce, which was installed at the lookout above the Quarry Garden in 2016. Couples are encouraged to 'lock in their love' by adding a padlock to the sculpture
We climb up through the Quarry Gardens...
Even though it's late in the gardening season, there's an impressive display of colour...
We climb up through the park
Views of Vancouver and Grouse Mountain as we gain height
Photo Session, a bronze figurative sculpture of a man photographing three people, by J. Seward Johnson, Junior. The photographer section was stolen in 2008 but was later recovered in a field and restored to its rightful place
Downtown Vancouver and Grouse Mountain again
We continue our meander around the upper section of the park...
Vancouver again
One of the highlights of Queen Elizabeth Park is Bloedel Conservatory, the largest single-structure conservatory in Canada
The conservatory is located on Little Mountain, the highest point in Vancouver
We enter into the Bloedel Conservatory (charges apply). The conservatory is unique in that it contains three separate climatic zones under one roof: tropical, subtropical and desert
It is home to more than 500 varieties of plants from around the world as well as free-flying exotic birds
Looking up into the dome, consisting of around 2,500 individual pieces of plexiglass...
Continuing around the circuit (which is one way)...
A small selection of the exotic free flying birds here, including a blue and gold macaw, hybrid macaw, double yellow Amazon parrot and an African grey parrot which has learned a few words from the visitors here...
Follow the link for more walks in Western Canada (33)
