Cleveland Dam and Capilano River

It was a beautiful sunny day, but quite crisp outside. The temperature must have been around the zero mark but if you were doing some exercise it was nice. My hands and ears got cold as I was walking, but I soon got accustomed to it.

I went to the end of our street and there is an entrance to the Cleveland Dam Park area. I walked over the dam wall, which has a drop of 90 meters, and dams the Capilano River and created Capilano Lake. I then walked down the trail to the Canyon viewpoint #1, which looks down the river and back up to the spillway. I then took the trail down the Capilano River. You had to take care because most of the time I was walking on trails that were still covered in snow that had been compacted to ice and was quite slippery because of people walkin on it. The woods were beautiful with the sunlight filtering through the Western Red Cedar, Douglas Fir and Spruce trees.

Following the trail down river led to the Capilano Fish Hatchery where the wild salmon return to spawn. They can't climb the 90m dam wall, so this is as far as they can get up this river. They breed a couple of varieties of salmon and Steelhead Trout at his hatchery. I crossed the river and walked up a trail to fing Grandpa Capilano. Most of the forest here is regroth forest, having mostly been logged prior to 1934. There are still some old groth trees and this particular fir predates Columbus. There are trees in these forests that are over 1,000 years old.

On the walk I also spotted an eagle sitting in a tree over the river. Not a common sight so close to town.