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Burrard Inlet lies both west and east of Stanley Parks Prospect Point, where it is spanned by the Lions Gate Bridge at First Narrows. This three-laned structure connects Vancouver with North and West Vancouver. The inlet expands into Coal Harbour, where much of the commercial marine activity is centred. It contacts again at Second Narrows where the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Bridge links Vancouver and Burnaby on the south with North Vancouver on the north. Just beyond Second Narrows, Burrard Inlet divides and branches east to Port Moody and north up Indian Arm, a slender, steep-sided fjord.

Vancouver's outer harbour is composed of English Bay and Burrard Inlet and acts as the holding area for large, oceangoing freighters. You often see as many as 20 ruddy-coloured ones floating high in the water as they await their turn to take on cargoes of prairie grain, lurid yellow sulfur, raw logs, sawdust, and finished lumber. When they come to load, each is guided to the inner harbour by a tugboat that possesses the muscle of a nightclub bouncer combined with the finesse of a ma”tre'd. Their antics are fun to watch from the deck of Taconite.

From Prospect Point in Stanley Park one truly has a front-porch view of the mountains arising from the North Shore of Burrard Inlet. As the eagle flies it's 20 kilometres from the summit plateau of Black Mountain in the west to the alpine bowls and ridges of Mount Seymour. These summits before you are not part of a single, contiguous ridge, but are separated from each other by four major valleys: Cypress Creek, the Capilano River, Lynn Valley and the Seymour River. The saltwater Indian Arm of Burrard Inlet separates Mount Seymour from the forested slopes above Coquitlam, such as Burke Mountain. Farther east the Golden Ears group (originally known as "Golden Eyries" because of the local eagle population) dominates the Fraser Valley above Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge.

Vancouver's favorite choice for sightseeing is from the water. Aboard Taconite you can have a uniquely Vancouver experience offering unparalleled panoramic views of the city skyline, the surrounding Coastal Mountain range and many of the areas most famous landmarks.

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