The best locations to view wildlife in Vancouver (neighbourhoods, casino)
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Hello I’m traveling to Vancouver from Las Vegas with my family on the first weekend of November. Can anybody recommend a park or reserve area where it is relatively easy to view wildlife? We would love to see any type of bear or a pod of orcas or moose. And yes I realize that wild animals are quite transient.
Most people that visit Las Vegas do not realize that we have a large selection of wild life to view around this area as well. Here is a sample of some of the critters that I have taken pictures of.
Bighorn sheep at Hemenway Park. This is very close to the Hoover Dam.
Elk at Cold Creek Nevada. This is close to Area 51.
Feral horses at Cold Creek.
Captive lions in Henderson Nevada. Near to the M resort and casino.
Hello I’m traveling to Vancouver from Las Vegas with my family on the first weekend of November. Can anybody recommend a park or reserve area where it is relatively easy to view wildlife? We would love to see any type of bear or a pod of orcas or moose. And yes I realize that wild animals are quite transient........
If you're just coming to the city of Vancouver and the general metro regions around Vancouver you likely won't see any of those things. Occasionally a pod of orcas or dolphins will visit Vancouver's harbours but their visits are few and far between. There is all manner of wildlife that visits residential neighbourhoods in the middle of the night to scrounge for food in the metro areas but they tend to stay out of sight in the day times. You'd need to drive to distant places that are further out in the forested wildernesses, mountains and lakes far away from the densely populated metro areas and there's still no guarantee that you'd see the large wild life that you're looking for.
However, here are some places for you to research and look up on a map. You can start with this link to whale watching tour operators right in the Vancouver area. https://www4.bing.com/search?q=Vanco...36E725312A7A67
From Vancouver you could drive the Sea to Sky highway out to Squamish and on to Whistler Village to look for bears. If you go further afield and take the ferry to Vancouver island and visit the towns of Victoria, Campbell River, Port Hardy or Tofino there are whale watching tours available. There you would likely see more than just whales in the water, and on the beaches you might also spot cougars, sea wolves, bears, sea lions, otters and other island wild life.
If you drive from Vancouver to Quesnel or Prince George or further north in the interior of the province there's a greater likelihood of spotting deer, moose and bears at the sides of the roads. If you drive northeast to Jasper National Park or Banff National Park in the Rocky Mountains you'd have a greater chance of seeing deer, moose, elk, caribou, big horn sheep, mountain goats, black bears, grizzlies and other various types of wild life at the sides of the roads as they're heading down to warmer valleys at lower elevations for the winter.
I hope you and your family enjoy your visit. Don't forget to bring warm, water-proof clothing and foot wear, it's starting to get colder and wetter now and it's a lot damper here than what you're accustomed to in dry Las Vegas.
If you're just coming to the city of Vancouver and the general metro regions around Vancouver you likely won't see any of those things. Occasionally a pod of orcas or dolphins will visit Vancouver's harbours but their visits are few and far between. There is all manner of wildlife that visits residential neighbourhoods in the middle of the night to scrounge for food in the metro areas but they tend to stay out of sight in the day times. You'd need to drive to distant places that are further out in the forested wildernesses, mountains and lakes far away from the densely populated metro areas and there's still no guarantee that you'd see the large wild life that you're looking for.
However, here are some places for you to research and look up on a map. You can start with this link to whale watching tour operators right in the Vancouver area. https://www4.bing.com/search?q=Vanco...36E725312A7A67
From Vancouver you could drive the Sea to Sky highway out to Squamish and on to Whistler Village to look for bears. If you go further afield and take the ferry to Vancouver island and visit the towns of Victoria, Campbell River, Port Hardy or Tofino there are whale watching tours available. There you would likely see more than just whales in the water, and on the beaches you might also spot cougars, sea wolves, bears, sea lions, otters and other island wild life.
If you drive from Vancouver to Quesnel or Prince George or further north in the interior of the province there's a greater likelihood of spotting deer, moose and bears at the sides of the roads. If you drive northeast to Jasper National Park or Banff National Park in the Rocky Mountains you'd have a greater chance of seeing deer, moose, elk, caribou, big horn sheep, mountain goats, black bears, grizzlies and other various types of wild life at the sides of the roads as they're heading down to warmer valleys at lower elevations for the winter.
I hope you and your family enjoy your visit. Don't forget to bring warm, water-proof clothing and foot wear, it's starting to get colder and wetter now and it's a lot damper here than what you're accustomed to in dry Las Vegas.
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Thank you very much for the information. Getting info from a person that is local to an area is much more valuable than reading a random online article. We are going to explore the region as much as possible in the time that we have. Hopefully we will see some of the beautiful animals that live there.
And yes we are prepared for the mid 50’s to mid 40’s forecast with a 50% chance of rain. It will actually be quite a relief to feel, see and smell rain again. FYI in Las Vegas we average around 4” of rain all year long.
You will not see a moose in the Vancouver area, and I think Zoisite has the best information on where you'll need to go to see one. Black bears are somewhat common in the forested areas of the North Shore (West and North Vancouver) and Coquitlam, but not so much during this time of year. An encounter with a black bear while hiking (as with a cougar, which is also a remote possibility) might be unwelcome.
A better bet would be to visit a ski hill like Grouse Mountain in Vancouver, or Whistler Mountain, where black bear sightings are commonplace. Another area known for wildlife that is semi-close to Vancouver is Manning Provincial Park.
Whale watching tours run from Granville Island and Steveston year-round to the best of my knowledge, so that's a much more distinct wildlife viewing possibility. Orcas can be seen from the shoreline sometimes near Vancouver at Point Roberts, WA - but again, that is seasonal, and November is not high season for this.
You can go up to Grouse Mountain and see a grizzly bear sanctuary with two fully grown grizzly bears. I know it's not wild, but to see wild animals, is kind of a hit or miss. Only if you're driving through a place like Jasper Alberta you'll see that kind of stuff.
People from US think we just have moose walking down the streets next to us. You usually see Moose when you don't want to, like in the pitch black running in front of your car
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