Grouse Mountain is 1250 metres (4100 feet) and you reach it via the Skyride, an alpine-style gondola. When we arrived at Grouse Mountain we made our way to the gondola and queued with everyone else. Frustratingly, having queued for 15 minutes to catch the gondola, we were told the tickets we were holding needed to be swapped for a Skyride pass. So we had to join the (by now) long, slow-moving queue (caused by only one member of staff being on duty). Grrrr .. that was another 20 minutes wasted.
The gondola ride itself was great. You slowly drift above the Douglas Firs and looking back, see views of the Vancouver area unfold.
We had seats at the front of the gondola so rather than having to stand the whole way up, were able to sit. However I was standing up taking photos and film when the gondola passed over one of the two support towers. Everyone had been warned going over the tower would make the gondola swing a bit but despite a warning announcement and despite being ready, it was still an odd feeling (and there was a chorus of "ooohs" and "aaahs" from the rest of the passengers). Apparently, in the Summer, you can ride up to Grouse Mountain standing on the roof of the gondola - not for me I'm afraid to admit. Interestingly, although it was Summer, there were two male passengers dressed in ski-ing gear. Where was the snow? (we didn't bother asking).
Once at the top we had a look around the visitor centre then made our way to the wildlife refuge where two orphaned grizzly bears (Grinder and Coola) live in a 5 acre compound and listened to a talk by one of the conservation experts. We also found out why there were two skiers in the gondola - there was some filming going on nearby with lots of fake snow and white fabric covering the hillside. Maybe the two were local celebrities? We'll never know
We went back to the main building for a spot of lunch and I took some photos from the observation deck. Then we made our way back up top to see some entertainment in the form of a lumberjack show. The show was actually really well scripted and presented (better than you might expect) and was really good fun. As well as demonstrating some of the skills the 'old time' lumberjacks used to use in their day-to-day jobs the two lumberjacks kept us all entertained .. clambering up tall posts, chopping trees, axe-throwing, log-rolling - it was all there.
Once the show was over we made our way back to the main building and queued to get the gondola back down. We managed to get seats at the front of the gondola again and I took some more photos and some more footage with my GoPro.
Back at Canada Place we stopped off for ice creams at Bellagio and booked a table for dinner. We headed back to the hotel to pack and get ready for the morning (when we would be boarding the Rocky Mountaineer train for the next stage of our holiday). Some Rocky Mountaineer reps were in the hotel reception and I checked with them if there was anything we needed to do before the morning. But the rep told us .. "No, you're good to go" and reminded us all we needed to do was make sure we checked-in on time. And one good result of speaking to the RM reps - they presented me with a voucher to use for the taxi in the morning to the Rocky Mountaineer station - one less thing to have to think about.
Once we had packed for the morning it was time to walk down to Bellagio. We got a table outside and were able to eat our dinner whilst watching the sunset reflecting on the buildings across the harbour - perfect.
(Grouse Mountain - https://www.tourismvancouver.com/activities/attractions/guide-to-grouse-mountain/ )
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