Stormy Seawall

A couple times a year we seem to get some pretty windy days here in Vancouver, strong enough to have Weather Services Canada issue a wind advisory. The cool thing about wind storms here in Vancouver, to me anyway, is walking around the Stanley Park Seawall watching mother nature’s awesome power.

My goal for the day was to actually take photos of our North Shore Mountains as they have been receiving snow dumps over the past week. I started in Coal Harbour and walked around the Stanley Park Seawall though I did cut across the Vancouver Aquarium.

As I walked past Lion’s Gate Bridge, the water became rougher, the wind started to pick up and the seawall was getting hammered. Granted this probably isn’t as strong as the wind storm we had back in 2006, which devastated Stanley Park, but it was good enough to get ocean water up and over onto the seawall. I actually stopped just around the corner from Lion’s Gate Bridge before the Siwash rock and sat on a bench for a good 30 minutes watching the ocean splash up on the seawall. Sometimes you could feel the ground shake as the water pounded the cement. It was relaxing though, watching the water, listening to it.

The above photo is my current favourite photo (you can click on any photo to view a larger version without leaving this page).  I’m not entirely sure what it  is about this particular photo I like, it could be the blue sky, white puffy clouds, the ocean crashing against Siwash Rock, the spray of the ocean, or it could be all of it! Do you like it? What part do you like? If you don’t like it, how come?

As I got closer to third beach I noticed the tide was really high and there was not much sand to be seen. The oyster catchers were out and about trying to find food in the surf. These guys are neat to watch, though I do like the bright orange bill with their black bodies. We first saw them when we were at Hornby Island in the Summer.

Second Beach too, was just all ocean water. It’s cool to see the tide so high. Here leaves were clogging the drains as the ocean water spilled up onto the seawall.

The lady in the above photo tried to escape the splash of the ocean, and just barely made it. Little did she know she would have to walk through about 6-inches of water just around the bend.

Overall, the walk was pretty fun, especially watching people dodge the water as it splashed over the seawall onto the cement.