Capitol Hill

May 17, 2020

203m

Metro Vancouver, BC

Capitol Hill is one of the few officially-named “local maximum points” in the Metro Vancouver area. If you think Burnaby Mountain is small, then this one is much smaller and a lot less interesting, so a complete dumpster-dive. The summit of Capitol Hill boasts a small green area named Harbourview Park, though with zero view of the harbour. The south side is full of houses and urban stuffs. The only interest might be the few trails on the north side slopes, although after completing the hike I can say that the best view is actually from the parking lot.

Capitol Hill hiking trail. GPX DL

I was not expecting to see sun on this particular Sunday so once the weather cleared up from the west I made a spontaneous decision to drive Kat up north for this short hike. It seems like Kat has been my go-to partner for these dumpster-diving objectives in Vancouver and surrounding areas. We parked at a random pull-out on the north side of the hill. The hike looked so tame that I decided to just hike up on my sandals. It turned out there was a maze of trails once leaving the main branch, and I had to check GPS several times to make sure we don’t end up in someone’s home by accident. The summit was as expected, pretty tame. I took an obligatory “victory shot” and thought I stepped on some dog shit… We explored a bit on the roads to make sure we got the highest point and that’s it.

Pretty sweet view from the parking lot looking into North Vancouver

Kat hiking on the lower trail.

This is the typical view from the lower trail

Some glimpses of Burrard Inlet but not much

The upper trails were narrow and muddy, and unsigned

Me on the summit of Capitol Hill

On the descent I misled the route into someone’s home and had to backtrack. I then checked the GPS several times to make sure we retraced our trail and in 20 minutes we were back to the truck. The drive back to White Rock was pretty scenic with clear skies above us and huge thunderstorm clouds to the east in Fraser Valley.

Hiking down. This is one of those muddy and steep spots

Grouse Mountain behind Burrard Inlet, from the parking lot