Take Your Time in Cates Park - There's a Lot To Experience

Cates Park, Deep Cove BC

While we call this area Cates Park, the ancestral name for this land is Whey-Ah-Whichen which means 'faces the wind'.

As North Vancouver District's largest seaside park, Cates Park offers 6 km of waterfront trails that wind past sandy beaches and through a mixed forest of Douglas-fir and bigleaf maple. Viewpoints of tranquil Indian Arm to the north and busy Burrard Inlet to the south. tennis courts, trails, playgrounds, beaches, picnic shelter, a concession, and a display of native totems and a canoe offer year-round recreation with a cultural flavour.

Cates Park, Deep Cove BC

* Location: Cates Park can be found off the 200 block of Dollarton Highway.
* Size: Over 22 hectares.
* District park, playground, 4 tennis courts, 1 practice court, boat launch, washrooms, change rooms, parking, snack shop.
* Offers a picnic area, boating, swimming, hiking, natural area, picnic shelter, beach, ornamental planting, and seating area.
* There is a First Nation canoe on display and a beautiful totem pole by the canoe.
* The boat launch is open year-round for boats and kayaks. Launching fees apply. Call 604.990.3800 for information.
* Dogs are permitted on leash, year round, on the upper trail east and west of the entrance road only.

  
Cates Park has it all!... Lots of beautiful green space in Cates Park.

  
Play all you want in Cates Park... Can you see Cates Park resident in this picture?

  
Cates Park totem pole and lodge for native canoe... Green grass to sandy beaches.

Visit with your neighbours on Cates Park beach... Cates Park beach

  
Cates Park Roche Point 2004... Cates Park Roche Point 1950s

  
Cates Park boat launch... Bring your boat down and cruise the waters.

Whey-Ah-Whichen (Cates Park)

Whey-Ah-Whichen/Cates Park
Damien George (Stalaston), 2000

The Tsleil-Waututh Reserve is approximately 100 yards from Cates Park. It's very comforting to me that this park was the summer home to thousands of my ancestors - their bones, blood and spirits are still there. The ancestral name for Cates Park is Whey-Ah-Whichen which means 'faces the wind'. Whey-Ah-Whichen was a food gathering place and there were deer and elk trails there. Like any piece I have ever done, I want it to be easy on the eyes, to make people feel the way I feel when you look at it. None of my art has a squared edge, none of it has a sharp corner or a straight line. Each line has a real slight bend, so its easy on the eyes. It makes people feel peaceful, because I think that's what I feel at Cates Park.

Whey-Ah-Whichen is the Tsleil-Waututh name for this place which defines Indian Arm from Burrard Inlet. The Squamish know it as Atsenách. The point was named after Lieutenant Rocke of HMS Satellite, which patrolled the Northwest Coast in the 1850s.

Cates Park
Cates Park was dedicated in 1950 in memory of Charles H Cates, founder of the Cates Towing Company, and was developed during the following decade.

Dollarton
Early logging in the area supported lumber mills such as Cedarside and the Dollar Mill, a substantial enterprise that gave its name to the settlement of Dollarton.

Malcolm Lowery & Earle Biney
Shacks built along the shoreline in the 1940s and 50s have linked the area to Canada literary heritage as poet Earle Birney and novelist Malcolm Lowery and his wife lived here.

Cates Park Totem Poles
The totem poles and canoe reflect the strong native presence inherent in this site, and the continued popularity of Cates Park as a community gathering place recalls the interwar years when the point was a favourite location for aquatic activities such as canoe races, swimming and diving competitions.

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Cates Park
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