VANCOUVER - Vancouver and Victoria - page 45

been the burial place of the last of the Coast Salish people, and been used as a quarantine
station during an early smallpox epidemic. Off the island is a floating gas station, used by
watercraft and floatplanes.
The first worthwhile stop at Brockton Point (which refers to the entire eastern tip of
the park) is a collection of authentic totem poles from the Kwagiulth people, who lived
along the coast north of present-day Vancouver. Before rounding the actual point, you'll
pass the Nine o'Clock Gun, which is fired each evening at, you guessed it, 9pm. Its ori-
ginal purpose was to allow ship captains to set their chronometers to the exact time. Much
of the Brockton Point peninsula is dedicated to sporting fields, and on any sunny after-
noon young Vancouverites can be seen playing traditional British pursuits, such as rugby
and cricket. Around the point, the road and the seawall continue to hug the shoreline,
passing the famous Girl in Wetsuit bronze sculpture and a figurehead commemorating
Vancouver's links to Japan. Then the two paths divide. The seawall passes directly under
the Lions Gate Bridge, which made the North Shore accessible to development after its
1938 opening. Meanwhile, the vehicular road loops back to a higher elevation to Prospect
Point Lookout, a memorial to the SS Beaver (which was the first HBC steamship to travel
along this stretch of the coast), and a café (a stairway leads up from the seawall to the
café).
The Lions Gate Bridge marks the halfway point of the seawall as well as a change in
scenery.FromthispointtoSecondBeach,theviewsarewestwardtowardtheStraitofGe-
orgia and across English Bay to Central Vancouver. The next stretch of pleasant pathway,
about2kilometers(1.2miles)long,issandwichedbetweenthewaterandsteepcliffs,with
Siwash Rock beingtheonlydistinctive landmark.Thisvolcanicoutcropsitsjustoffshore,
rising more than 15 meters (50 feet) from the lapping waters of English Bay. If you're
traveling along Stanley Park Drive, park at the Hollow Tree and walk back up the hill to a
lookout high above the rock.
Continuing south, the seawall and Stanley Park Drive converge at the south end of
Third Beach, a popular swimming and sunbathing spot (and a great place to watch the
setting sun). The beach's southern end is guarded by Ferguson Point, where a fountain
marks the final resting spot of renowned native poet Pauline Johnson. Second Beach is
1 kilometer (0.6 mile) farther back toward the city, where you'll find an outdoor swim-
ming pool, a pitch-and-putt golf course, a putting green, tennis courts, and lawn bowling
greens. On summer evenings an area behind the beach is set aside for local dance clubs to
practice their skills. From Second Beach it's only a short distance to busy Denman Street
and English Bay Beach, or you can cut across the park back to Coal Harbour.