Bloedel Conservatory, Vancouver

The City of Vancouver has about 210 parks.  Visitors usually know about the largest of these, Stanley Park, and the VanDeusen Gardens are also quite famous.  The Queen Elizabeth Park was fashioned, in part, out of a former stone quarry, and includes one interesting little gem that is easily overlooked.  Its Bloedel Conservatory sits on one of the city's high points, offering views of the city below.

The top of this extensive park also houses an underground water reservoir which is beautifully covered with a park and running waterways which children enjoy. 

Part of this area is devoted to a geodesic dome in which tropical plants are carefully tended and exotic birds given free reign to fly and live more or less as they wish.  Weekends are impossible because the intimate paths become crowded when tour buses unload, but the Conservatory is more camera-friendly weekdays when it opens at 10:00 a.m.  The colours are best on overcast days.