Cypress Falls, 30 Apr 2011

We’ve only been to this park once before, a small patch of old-growth tucked away on the banks of Cypress Creek in West Vancouver. Deciding on a route through the park is not particularly easy (though easier than finding the parking lot), with its maze of trails leading in all directions.

We picked our way up the west side of the park, an easy twenty minute to half-hour wander up the slope. The birds sang all around us. It was lovely and peaceful. The trail led us over to the creek and we followed it uphill. It was already deep in a precipitous canyon, and there’s no doubt it would have been easy to slip and fall the 10 m onto the rocks below.

We passed through a gateway in a fence, with a dire warning about how the local authority was not in any way remotely responsible for anyone else’s safety, and continued up the hill. The last time we were here, we never did find the upper falls, but within a couple of minutes we found them. And, wow, how did we miss them? A spectacular single drop of 10 or 15 m over a sheer cliff face. Getting a good view was difficult, but with a little care I think I managed to get a decent photo of them.

That was as high as we were planning to go so we re-traced our steps back downhill along the creek. Soon we were surrounded by huge Douglas firs, and I couldn’t resist stopping to look around and admire them. Their presence is the reason for the park, and I’m glad they’re still standing. They are definitely some of the finest Douglas firs in the area.

Next stop was the lower falls. Here you can walk almost to the top of the falls, thanks to a fence. But it doesn’t offer a particularly good view of the falls themselves, so we continued down to the official overlook. Again, the lay of the land means that falls are still partially hidden at the overlook, and it took some careful footwork on some slippery rocks and dirt to get the photo below. I think it was worth it :-)