Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
by bus, take number 17 south along Burrard Street. Oak Street runs parallel to Granville
Street; access to the garden is on the corner of East 33rd Avenue.
Queen Elizabeth Park
Less than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the VanDusen Botanical Garden, this 53-hectare
(130-acre) park sits atop 152-meter (500-foot)
Little Mountain,
the city's highest point,
withmagnificent viewsofVancouverandtheCoastMountains.NowoperatedbytheVan-
couverBoardofParksandRecreation,thelandwassoldtothecitybytheCanadianPacific
Railroad (CPR) in 1929 and quarried for rock to build roads. The land today is a paradise
of sweeping lawns, trees, flowering shrubs, masses of rhododendrons—a vivid spectacle
in May and June—formal flower gardens including a rose garden in the park's southwest
corner, sunken gardens in the old quarry pits, and mature plantings of native trees from
across Canada. Public facilities include tennis courts and a pitch-and-putt golf course.
The highlight of the park is the magnificent
Bloedel Conservatory
(604/257-8584,
http://vandusengarden.org
, 9am-8pm Mon.-Fri. and 10am-9pm Sat.-Sun. in summer,
10am-5pm daily the rest of the year, adult $6.50, senior $4.50, child $3.25). It's a glass-
domedstructurerising40meters(130feet)andenclosingatemperature-controlled,humid
tropicaljungle.Insideyou'llfindaprofusionofexoticfloweringplantsandaresidentfree-
flying avian population including multihued parrots. The park's main entrance is by the
junction of 33rd Avenue West and Cambie Street; to get there from downtown take bus 15
south on Burrard Street.
TheUBCcampussprawlsacross
Point Grey,
thewesternmost pointofVancouverandthe
southern extremity of Burrard Inlet. It enjoys a spectacular coastal location, surrounded
by parkland laced with hiking trails. Many of the trails provide access to the beach. As
early as the 1880s, the government set aside a large tract of land on the point as a re-
serve, and although originally intended for military purposes, it became home to a branch
of Montreal's famous McGill University in 1913. The outbreak of World War I stalled a
planned expansion, and it wasn't until 1925 that the University of British Columbia of-
ficially opened on what became University Endowment Lands. The campus of today en-
compasses more than 400 hectares (990 acres) and serves up to 35,000 students at one
time.Originally,theEndowmentLandswereintendedforfuturedevelopment,butin1988
a 763-hectare (1,885-acre) section was set aside as
Pacific Spirit Regional Park,
a tract
of second-growth forest protected for all time. The park extends from Burrard Inlet in the
