I’m cool with heights…

…but I’ll admit this was the second time in all of my travel where I felt slightly skittish due to a fear of falling. The first was in Paris while riding the ferris wheel at the Place de la Concorde. It was night, it was a little cold, the wind was blowing, and the carriage of that ferris wheel was really tiny. Somehow, I survived :)

Anyhow, on to 2019 and this Vancouver attraction…

From my quick research online, it was obvious that I had to make a stop at the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park in North Vancouver and experience their suspension bridges through the forest. The photographs online made it look majestic, but of course there is usually a gap between perfect visions and reality. The big difference in this case: people. Nothing against people, but you know, once you factor in other tourists trying to do the same thing you’re doing: enjoy the place and moment…the moment feels (and photographs) different(ly). That was the case with the Capilano suspension bridge. There were many many people in the park and on the bridge in particular during my visit.

It was the amount of people which made me feel (again only the 2nd time ever) uneasy about the height of the main bridge. It is 460 foot long and spans across the Capilano River at about 230’ above the ground. Awesome, right? It really is until you step foot on the bridge and immediately have to compensate for it swaying back and forth. That’s the people factor. With people consistently crossing, the bridge can’t help but move up and down and side to side. Am I getting older? More cautious? Maybe. Or maybe I’ve seen too many action movies and always have visions of catastrophic things happening in reality, but a lot of people seemed really cavalier taking their selfies near the railings of this swaying bridge. Children would jump up and down which all my old man cautiousness aside, they really shouldn’t have been doing. Now imagine me, holding on to the railing for dear life with one hand while trying to photograph the nature with the other (photos of that below). It was a scene for sure.

All in all, it was a good experience. The park is steeped in history and if you’re interested here is the website to the Park: Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. I was of course interested in the views, and there were four main attractions I experienced: the main bridge, the Cliffwalk, Raptor’s Ridge and the Treetops Adventure. I’ll caption a few things along the way. Hope you enjoy: