Is Vancouver flat or a hill?

[kqcallahan]

So I'm from Newfoundland. Which means any town/city next to the water means it's straight uphill to anywhere. Is this how Vancouver is? When we get off the ship and want to walk will it a hike or just a walk?

 

Thanks!

[Kamloops50]

Vancouver is a well laid out town. The cruise port is within an easy walk with a few small uphill or downhill slopes. Most of the tourist attractions don't involve a steep hill . Parts of Vancouver are hilly. By looking towards the mountains you'll see houses high up on the sloops. These mountains are over 4000 ft(approx) in height. South of downtown there are a feww steep hills.

[PNW Traveler]

I've visited Newfoundland - a very beautiful place! I live near Seattle, about four hours south of Vancouver and have visited Vancouver many times. Compared to Newfoundland, the city of Vancouver is not hilly. It is easily walkable. Vancouver is a sophisticated cosmopolitan city. Enjoy your visit!

[martincath]

Queen Elizabeth Park is the highest point in the city and it's only 152 metres above sea level. As K50 mentioned, until you get to the south side of False Creek there's very little in the way of hills - if you walked from Granville Island south onto Broadway there are some very steep slopes but they are short (they climb about thirty metres in just three blocks, the worst ones have steps instead of sidewalks).

 

Downtown proper has a little bit of a 'spine' down the middle from the park to BC Place so if you cut straight through you'll notice it sloping up a little then back down (e.g. walking straight down Howe from Canada Place to get to the ferry for Granville Island) but total elevation gain is on the order of fifty feet or so - our bridges are the highest points around downtown.

 

If you have specific issues, like someone in your party has a scooter that can only manage specific angles, it might be worth using Walkscore.com to map out exactly where the steepest/least steep streets are (not so much Vancouver, but if you are also cruising to, say, Seattle which has some brutal streets!). Unfortunately the Walkscore interface changed and it's much more annoying to get the elevation to show now - you have to Favourite spots and then run a commute on foot between them.

 

Google Maps offers an elevation feature by default now if you select Cycling as your mode of transport - for everywhere around downtown Vancouver though it defaults to 'mostly flat' as the elevation gain is very modest - but plug in some Newfy places you're familiar with and you'll see how the feature works, it's quite intuitive.

[scottbee]

So I'm from Newfoundland. Which means any town/city next to the water means it's straight uphill to anywhere. Is this how Vancouver is? When we get off the ship and want to walk will it a hike or just a walk?

 

Thanks!

 

Downtown Vancouver itself is located on the river delta of the Fraser River, so the city is relatively flat. That being said, as soon as you cross over Burrard inlet to the north it goes up in a hurry; with Grouse Mt just 25 mins from downtown being 4000 ft high, or higher than the highest point in all of Newfoundland by a good margin.

[xlxo]

So I'm from Newfoundland. Which means any town/city next to the water means it's straight uphill to anywhere. Is this how Vancouver is? When we get off the ship and want to walk will it a hike or just a walk?

Unless you are pushing yourself in a manual wheelchair. There are virtually no hills around the cruise terminal. What hills there are around downtown can be biked over without problems.

 

If you want to a challenge... catch the shuttle over to Grouse Mountain and check out the "Grouse Grind". Known as Mother Nature's stairmaster the 700meter climb is about 200 meters taller than the CN Tower. You will be rewarded with a nearly free view of the city. There's a minor charge to come down the gondola.

https://www.grousemountain.com/grousegrind

[Kamloops50]

Downtown Vancouver itself is located on the river delta of the Fraser River, so the city is relatively flat. That being said, as soon as you cross over Burrard inlet to the north it goes up in a hurry; with Grouse Mt just 25 mins from downtown being 4000 ft high, or higher than the highest point in all of Newfoundland by a good margin.

 

Vancouver isn't built on a river delta. The airport and Richmond are built on the river delta.

[scottbee]

Vancouver isn't built on a river delta. The airport and Richmond are built on the river delta.

 

Are you trying to say that the north shore of the north fork of the Fraser River (in South Vancouver) was somehow not created by sedimentary deposit of the the river flowing along side of it, but the south shore of the same part of the river (Lulu Is, Sea Is) is delta ?? Delta lands don't necessarily need to be islands

 

By your argument, the municipality of Delta, would also not be built on a delta.

[Kamloops50]

Are you trying to say that the north shore of the north fork of the Fraser River (in South Vancouver) was somehow not created by sedimentary deposit of the the river flowing along side of it, but the south shore of the same part of the river (Lulu Is, Sea Is) is delta ?? Delta lands don't necessarily need to be islands

 

By your argument, the municipality of Delta, would also not be built on a delta.

 

Large parts of South Vancouver , West End and the downtown have a thin layer of sand/gravel then a large of granite. I lived in Vancouver for almost 30 years . The area around Oakridge and Queen Elizabeth park have a lot of granite just below the surface. Vancouver is mostly covered with material deposited during the last Ice Age. Yes Delta , Richmond , parts of Surrey , Lulu Island and Sea Island are river delta. As a physical geography major in post secondary , we where taught the Vancouver proper doesn't fit into the definition of a river delta . It is considered glacial deposits.

[xlxo]

Large parts of South Vancouver , West End and the downtown have a thin layer of sand/gravel then a large of granite. I lived in Vancouver for almost 30 years . The area around Oakridge and Queen Elizabeth park have a lot of granite just below the surface. Vancouver is mostly covered with material deposited during the last Ice Age. Yes Delta , Richmond , parts of Surrey , Lulu Island and Sea Island are river delta. As a physical geography major in post secondary , we where taught the Vancouver proper doesn't fit into the definition of a river delta . It is considered glacial deposits.

To clarify.... that granite around Queen Elizabeth park is more than glacial deposits.... it's an ancient volcano (Little Mountain). When the Canada Line was built, it could not be built straight along Cambie under QE park. They had to "blast" the granite following the road.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Mountain_(British_Columbia)

 

Vancouver is surround by volcanic activity...

• if you look South East, there's Mount Baker. It emits steam every 10 years or so. 1/4 the height of Everest, Mount Baker would seriously impact Vancouver when the eruption comes. http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/baker/
  
• For those that go to Harrison Hot Springs.... what heats the water? I wonder if it's Mount Baker 50km to the South.
  
• North of Vancouver on the road to Whistler is Mount Garibaldi, it was a volcano. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Garibaldi
  
• When you go to Whistler, have you seen "Black Tusk". It's a volcano. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Tusk
  
• check out this map of volcano's along the BC Coast around Vancouver. http://www.cbc.ca/bc/features/volcanoes/
  

[Kamloops50]

To clarify.... that granite around Queen Elizabeth park is more than glacial deposits.... it's an ancient volcano (Little Mountain). When the Canada Line was built, it could not be built straight along Cambie under QE park. They had to "blast" the granite following the road.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Mountain_(British_Columbia)

 

Vancouver is surround by volcanic activity...

• if you look South East, there's Mount Baker. It emits steam every 10 years or so. 1/4 the height of Everest, Mount Baker would seriously impact Vancouver when the eruption comes. http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/baker/
  
• For those that go to Harrison Hot Springs.... what heats the water? I wonder if it's Mount Baker 50km to the South.
  
• North of Vancouver on the road to Whistler is Mount Garibaldi, it was a volcano. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Garibaldi
  
• When you go to Whistler, have you seen "Black Tusk". It's a volcano. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Tusk
  
• check out this map of volcano's along the BC Coast around Vancouver. http://www.cbc.ca/bc/features/volcanoes/
  

 

I was referring to the none granite material as glacial fill. Over time glacial becomes hard as rock. Most earth fill dams in BC use glacial fill for the main core .

 

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[Werner Heisenberg]

I would say St. John's is way more hilly than Vancouver. The Downtown is flat-ish for the most part.

[kqcallahan]

I would say St. John's is way more hilly than Vancouver. The Downtown is flat-ish for the most part.

 

Good thing because if it was anything like dt St. John's I wouldn't remotely consider walking with luggage :)