Hike to Quarry Rock

Six flat kilometres along Burrard Inlet to a sandy beach at Old Orchard Park. Most first-timers never make it.

Four kilometres of gentle climbing buys you a wooden platform over Howe Sound with Bowen Island below and the city behind you.

A West Vancouver forest walk past 300-year-old cedars to two waterfalls that make you instinctively lower your voice without agreeing to.

Locals' pick over Capilano: a free 50-metre suspension bridge over a roaring gorge, with emerald swimming holes and no eighty-dollar admission guilt.

West Van's secret swim spot: 5 km of forest trail, 200 metres up, and a dock built for cannonballs.

A 25 km river loop around all of Port Coquitlam, almost zero hills, salmon in the water and absolutely no pressure to finish it.

A flat forest walk along an emerald creek to a waterfall that roars in spring and turns swimmable by late summer.

A big ridge loop above Buntzen Lake named for its ten views over Indian Arm, reserved for people who mean it.

Vancouver showing off everything it has in one gloriously flat, car-free, 10 km loop where the ocean is the only map you need.

An 8 km Cypress climb past historic log cabins and First Lake to a summit above the Lions and Howe Sound.

Paddle a glacial fjord from a sheltered postcard village and earn a legendary Honey Doughnut on the way back.

The glacier-fed lake so clear you'll forget there's a Costco 40 minutes away, paddle included.

The 4.4 km Deer Lake loop wraps in under an hour and deposits you beside a rowboat rental and Burnaby's heritage district.

An 11-km round trip on the Howe Sound Crest Trail delivering clifftop lunch and ferries crawling below like bath toys.