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Vancouver and Lower Mainland Geography
Travel anywhere else in the world and it becomes immediately obvious that this modest, laidback southwestern corner of British Columbia is a unique deviation from the norm. It's that wow factor tourists talk about when they arrive at YVR. You truly cannot beat the view from the window seat as you're flying in over the coast mountains on a clear evening just before sunset.
The South Coast region boasts a diverse mix of physical environments from thrusting volcanic and granite mountains, dense Douglas Fir and Hemlock rainforests and sprawling sandy beaches to a recently formed silt and clay river delta -- all surrounded by an archipelago of over a hundred islands.
Read through this session and understand how the natural geography of Vancouver and the South Coast of British Columbia evolved to become the region we know and love to hike.
What you'll learn from this resource:
- Why Vancouver is considered to have one of the warmest winters and be one of the wettest cities in Canada
- What types of trees and plants line our coastal landscape
- How the familiar North Shore and Fraser Valley mountains formed over time
The North Shore mountains locking rain clouds into the Lower Mainland View from on top of First Pump Peak on Mount Seymour
Temperate Rainforest
There are very few locales where you can be relaxing beachside in the morning, riding horseback in open grassy fields at noon, go skiing in the afternoon, then hiking up to a glacier capped peak to watch the sunset -- all in the same day.
We can credit this buffet of activities to the recipe of three key ingredients:
- Our nearby vicinity to a large body of water, namely the Strait of Georgia
- Barely notable elevation of the lowlands along the Fraser River. Looking at you Richmond and Delta.
- The mountains lining the North Shore, Coquitlam and further into the Fraser Valley
As breezes from the Strait of Georgia flow into the Lower Mainland, they carry the moist air with them. This stream of moist air generally carries right past the lowest elevation areas of Delta and Richmond with a one way ticket to the mountains. Once it reaches the wall of mountains, it condenses into precipitation.
At the lower elevations near the mountains, that precipitation means lots of rain. In fact, Abbotsford ends up with more rain than any other city in Canada (2010). Conversely, this is also why "sunnier" suburbs of Tsawwassen and White Rock receives 20-40% less rain than their counterparts only a handful of kilometers further inland.
At the higher elevations where the air is even colder, that means heavy snowfall and snowshoeing. On a cold and rainy winter day in Vancouver, you can be nearly certain that the clouds looming over the peaks of Cypress Bowl, Seymour and Grouse are plump full of snow.
Why is Vancouver's winter warmer than the rest of Canada?
While we often lament the long, dark and rainy winters, we're still fortunate to have some of the most moderate weather of the entire country. Victoria, Vancouver's laid-back, island relative is even tied as the warmest city in Canada with an average temperature comparable to that of Milan, Italy.
Again, both the geography of the region and our vicinity to the ocean play keys roles.
- As you learned earlier, we know the mountains lock the rain in. They also are working double-duty -- blocking cold arctic air from reaching the Lower Mainland. Think about how flat Edmonton is, and how cold it gets..
- Since we're so close to the Pacific Ocean, we also benefit from the Kuroshio Current (or Japan Current). This ocean current starts in the Philippines and carries warmer water clock-wise past Japan and through the North Pacific. Ultimately, this warmer water leads to warmer air and presto: Patio weather in April.
Vancouver's Wilderness
Less than a five minute walk into most any hiking trail north of the Fraser and it's like you've stepped right into a backdrop from Harry and the Hendersons or The Great Outdoors. Our backcountry has long served as the poster child for the archetypal North American forest. Countless movies including The Revenant, First Blood and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes took advantage of our backyard -- often doubling as somewhere else in the world.
Depending on where you hike around the Lower Mainland, the types of plants, trees and animals can vary fairly dramatically. In fact, Environment Canada recently split the region into five distinct microclimates.
- North Shore including North and West Vancouver
- Northeast including the Tri-Cities, Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge)
- Southwest including Richmond, South Delta, and Tsawwassen)
- Southeast including Surrey, Langley and White Rock)
- Vancouver, Burnaby and New West
Gigantic Douglas Fir Tree
In the lower to mid-elevation forested areas where it is cool and moist, expect to find evergreen Western Red Cedar, Yellow Cedar, Hemlock and Douglas Fir trees towering above beds of fallen needles, ferns, moss and huckleberry bushes. This is the postcard for the west coast temperate rainforest.
As Summer gives way to Autumn, Instagram feeds all over #Vancouver flood with pictures of leaves turning deep hues of yellow, orange and red. Credit here goes to the deciduous Maple, Alder and Birch trees common in lower elevations, floodplains such as South Delta and areas such as Burnaby Lake.
If you're lucky, you'll occasionally encounter the rare broadleaf Arbutus tree. A North American native that is more akin to the types of trees you would find while travelling through the Mediterranean.
How the familiar local mountains formed over time.
Just before the sun rises, early morning Vancouverites are fortunate to see the goosebump inducing silhouette casted by the Fraser Valley mountains in the north east and the vibrant pinks painted across the Lions and other peaks of the North Shore. One of those, "you have to be there" experiences that provokes your inner curiosity of how did this get here?
The rugged coast mountains that form the setting for Vancouver have a rich geological origin dating back more than 60 million years and appearing somewhat recognizable for the last 2.5 million..give or take. Most of our mountains were formed by volcanic activity and uplifted due to pressure from shifting tectonic plates. While not noticeable to the average hiker, our mountains have continued to evolve over time due in part to continued eruptions from volcanic mountains like Mount Baker and Mount St. Helens, glaciers carving through during the last ice age, rivers eroding the valleys and movement of the tectonic plates deep below the surface.
Howe Sound from the Bowen Island Lookout
Most of the region's mountains are primarily volcanic rock, while Burnaby Mountain is sandstone and the mountains east of Chilliwack are a mix of sedimentary and volcanic rock. The lower levels of Vancouver, Delta, Richmond and Langley are primarily till, siklt, clay and sand.
The tallest mountain on the North Shore being Brunswick Mountain peaking at 1,788 meters above sea level. Golden Ears falls into second place at a respectable 1,716 meters.
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