Lighthouse Park

The forest at Point Atkinson was never logged, and the reason is bureaucratic: in 1881 the government reserved seventy-five hectares around the lighthouse so the dark timber would stand as a backdrop making the light easier to identify from the water. The trees stayed, and Lighthouse Park now holds some of the last old-growth Douglas fir in the Vancouver area, some of it around five hundred years old. The present hexagonal concrete lighthouse dates from 1912 and still operates. Trails run through the forest to granite bluffs at the water's edge with the city, the freighters at anchor and Vancouver Island across the strait.

History

The point was known as Sk'iwitsut, turn your canoe, before Captain George Vancouver named it Point Atkinson in 1792 after a particular friend he did not identify, most likely Thomas Atkinson of the Royal Navy. The first lighthouse, of wood with a keeper's house, was built by Arthur Finney of Nanaimo in 1874, and in 1881 the Dominion set aside 182 acres of forest as a dark backdrop for the light and fuel for its steam foghorn; the present lighthouse was built in 1912, and the area became a National Historic Site of Canada in 1994 (Wikipedia, Lighthouse Park).

What's there

• The old-growth firs - unlogged trees preserved as a lighthouse backdrop.
• The 1912 lighthouse - a hexagonal concrete tower at Point Atkinson.
• The granite bluffs - open rock at the shore with strait views.
• The freighter anchorage - ships waiting in English Bay and the strait.

When to go

Year-round; the forest suits rain and the bluffs suit clear days. Winter storms are dramatic from the rock. Parking fills on fine weekends.

Good to know

The lighthouse itself is fenced and not open to the public. Trails are rooted and rocky with some steep sections. Parking is limited with no overflow.

Nearby

Horseshoe Bay lies northwest; Vancouver is southeast.

Key facts