Charlotte Mitchell's Stanley Park TRAX: A Vancouver Classic

July 29, 2026

Next up in our HiFi TRAX series, we ride along with Analog Racing's Charlotte Mitchell through Stanley Park, a true Vancouver BC classic! Charlotte hit this course on a lovely, cherry-blossom-filled spring day—as you'll see!—but it's a true treat year-round. To learn more about Charlotte and her Analog Racing squad, check out the Analog website.

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Each HiFi TRAX comes with a song. We've paired the Cocteau Twins "Cherry-Coloured Funk" with the Stanley Park TRAX. Get lost in these spacy dream-pop rhythms, and enjoy the ride!

Stanley Park TRAX: A Vancouver Classic

by Charlotte Mitchell

If you’ve been to Vancouver, you’ve probably visited Stanley Park. Year-round the park is filled with locals and tourists exploring the iconic sea wall by bike, scooter, or just on foot, or visiting one of the many rotating exhibits on offer. The perimeter of the park is approximately a 10km one-way loop that can be accessed via road (watch for cars or horsey-debris) or the outer car-free path that hugs the waterfront the whole way. As a bonus, the park is full of crisscrossing, easy gravel trails that intertwine and connect. For a smooth or fast road ride, the road loop is the way to go.

My goal for this ride? A couple of easy endurance hours and a stop to admire the beautiful cherry blossom—currently right at its peak. I live in North Vancouver and east of the city, so I took the Second Narrows bridge over the inlet and onto the Adanac bikeway—an east/west straight-shot on residential streets with minimal traffic.

The park entrance greeted us with a full canopy of cherry blossom—perfect, puffy, and pink, with soft petals drifting across the path, sticking slightly to the road. The first part of the loop heads east with the city to your right over a short stretch of the harbor—I often spot harbor seals bobbing about here. The loop winds to the left and the rest of the inlet comes into view (especially beautiful at sunrise), a float plane roars overhead, and the North Shore mountains appear. The Lions Gate Bridge stretches over the water, and as it goes out of sight you start the short climb through the trees up to Prospect Point where you can nip off to the viewpoint or continue around the loop. A steady descent brings you back down to sea level with a view of English Bay (especially beautiful at sunset) dotted with container ships.

For me, the best thing about riding in the park is the ease of tailoring your distance without straying far from home. At this time of year, with the infamously unpredictable PNW weather system, it’s an undefeated win. It’s easy to tag on a lap (or a few) to any Vancouver-based road ride, and you are almost guaranteed to see friends along the way. There’s a single stop sign on the entire loop, and one short hill to throw in a little bit of elevation.

We did 2.5 laps of the park, choosing to exit over the Lions Gate Bridge to mix up the route home and make a necessary coffee / pastry stop in North Vancouver, bringing the ride to a pleasant 60km and filling my camera roll with blossom and latte art.

The Bike | The Photos

While almost any bike you have can work, the Lands End loop is best ridden on a road bike. In the winter, one equipped with fenders is probably your best bet; in the summer, your road race bike is the perfect choice to keep this route fast and smooth.