Adventure & Outdoors
Walk Out to the Birds at Piper Spit
A free boardwalk jutting into Burnaby Lake where numbered turtles sun themselves and herons ignore you completely.
Burnaby Lake Regional Park (Piper Spit)
More infoAdventure & Outdoors
A free boardwalk jutting into Burnaby Lake where numbered turtles sun themselves and herons ignore you completely.
Burnaby Lake Regional Park (Piper Spit)
More infoPiper Spit is a free wooden boardwalk poking straight into Burnaby Lake, dropping you among herons, wood ducks and the odd bald eagle. The real showstopper is the western painted turtles basking on floating logs, shells stamped with painted numbers. That's turtle research, not vandalism, and explaining the difference is the best free conversation starter in the Lower Mainland.
Park at the Piper Avenue lot off Winston Street, it's free and feeds straight onto the spit, so you're at the water within minutes. Walk all the way to the end of the boardwalk where the ducks and geese congregate (it's busiest for birdlife when the light is soft), and climb the viewing tower for the bird's-eye look. Don't miss scanning the floating logs near the south shore for western painted turtles basking in the sun, the numbers painted on their shells are part of a conservation study, not vandalism. If you want more, the flat lakeside loop continues for around 10 km; otherwise keep it to a relaxed hour. Bring layers and bug spray in summer, and skip it in heavy rain since it's fully exposed.
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