For my little man’s birthday I had promised to buy him some hiking boots. YES!!! that is what he asked for HIKING BOOTS!!! When we found some they were at Sportchek/Atmosphere on sale for $49. They were waterproof, light and most importantly comfortable.

When we got back to the van he asked “Can we go try them out?” It was a rainy Vancouver day and already about noon so of course my answer was “Yes!” Then came the problem of where to go since we weren’t super prepared for rain and we would have to have lunch before hand.

Then it came to me… BEAVER LAKE!

Beaver Lake is located in Stanley Park. It’s somewhat tucked away (When you are there you cannot hear the city at all) and it is surrounded by trails. Most of the main trails are accessible for Wheelchairs and Strollers, the great part is that there are a lot of little side trails that are visible from the main trails so you can let your little ones independently explore without losing sight of them.

Time and Distance… Completely up to you. Everything is in a loop, but to get around Beaver lake is about 1.5 km and has a total elevation gain of about 13m. We ended up doing the loop and then I was asked to see the Hollow Tree, so we ended up taking “Lake Trail” to “Rawlings Trail” and then on the way back took “Meadow Trail” to “Thompson Trail” to “Bridal Path” back to “Lake Trail”.

Stanley Park has about 27km of Trails to explore so use the map, make a plan (or not) and just go! Maybe pick a couple of destinations (Hollow Tree, Beaver Lake, Prospect Point, Lost Lagoon, etc…) Here is the Trail Map: Stanley-Park-trails-map

If you are going to push a stroller or wheelchair there are a couple of steep sections on “Thompson Trail”, “Lake Trail”, and “Bridal Path” but the trails are not gravel and fairly smooth. If it looks a little too much then take “Lovers Walk” and “Lake Trail” across the park and use the paved pathways to go up and down hill 🙂

The 8 year old perspective: “The trees were huge, but the hollow tree smelled weird.” (he’s right! it did.)