Photographing Lions Gate Bridge

Lions Gate Bridge is a prominent landmark in the City of Vancouver and a popular subject of photographs, both by tourists and locals.

There are a number of different viewpoints from which Lion's Gate Bridge can be photographed. Some of my favourites include:

• Ambleside Park, West Vancouver
• Lighthouse Park, West Vancouver
• Stanley Park, Vancouver
• "The Stinky Place", North Vancouver

Ambleside park, is in West Vancouver right near the bridge. To get there from Vancouver you take Lions' Gate Bridge across the inlet and take Marine Drive West. Continue past the Park Royal Mall and the Par 3 golf course. The first set of lights after the golf course, you will turn left and you will be at the park. There is parking throughout the park, but on nice days it can be difficult to find any parking.

Ambleside park is a very popular park for people to go for walks, and on hot days to hang out on the beach. It has the only long sandy beach on the North Shore. The walk along the seawall continues (with a few minor detours) along West Vancouver for about xx km.

The best time to photograph Lion's gate bridge is around sunset as the lighting on the bridge will be best then. You may need a wide angle lens.

Ambleside park has a number of other interesting photography subjects such as the Welcoming figure, the ships in the harbour, and of course the sunsets themselves.

Lighthouse Park or Pt Atkinson Park is a quiet relatively large wilderness park in West Vancouver. To get there you continue on Marine Drive past Ambleside park (above) for about 7 km. There is a small sign at Beacon Lane indicating the entrance to the park. This takes you to a parking lot. From the parking lot it is about a 1km walk to the lighthouse. If you take one of the side trails to the west near the lighthouse you will find some views of Lions' Gate Bridge, that when the weather is right (Very clear) you can see the City behind the bridge and Mt. Baker (in Washington State) looming over the City. You need a long lens for this to work.

While your at Lighthouse park, the lighthouse itself makes a very nice photography and you can photograph it from the rocks above it and from adjacent bluffs to the east of it. There are often Eagles in this park and it has trails through some very nice secluded forests.

All of the tour buses stop at prospect point in Stanley Park and therefore this view of Lions Gate bridge is probably in millions of Japanese photo albums. Similarly the view of the bridge from the little bridge over the causeway is a very common photograph. If the mountains are covered, in snow this can make a picturesque view. There are a number of other locations where you can take a picture of Lions Gate Bridge. I like the view that is visible on the trails down to the seawall from west of the bridge over the causeway. This can include a nicely framed view of the south tower of Lions' Gate Bridge. This works best in the early morning when warm sunrise light highlights the trees and the bridge tower.

A place we used to frequent before the construction to the bridge is what we referred to as the "Stinky Place". This is adjacent to the Sewage treatment plant for the North Shore (hence the nickname). You can access the beach and walk along it. Prior to the deck replacement you used to be able to walk all around underneath the bridge and to the West of the bridge in this area. During the construction this area was all blocked off. I haven't been back recently to see if it has reopened, although I have seen some people walking on the beach (they are visible from Ambleside Park) so there is at least some access.

This allows a very nice silhouette view of Lions' Gate Bridge during sunset.

The locations of where the photos are taken from is shown on the map below:

Location