We knew that rain is approaching the area, so we tried our second attempt in the morning. We again took the SkyTrain to the Waterfront and grabbed a free shuttle bus from there.
It took a few minutes to turn our paper QR codes into tickets, but we were at the top chalet by 10:55. It was very foggy as we were in the clouds. We could feel the mist as we moved through the cool, wet air.
We walked to see Grinder and Coola first. They weren't near the creek but on a far side of their 5.5-acre, fenced-off refuge area, It was pretty hard to see far, but we continued to the chairlift and went up to the peak.
We couldn't spot the grouse that call that area home. However, we saw more deer than ever. This doe and fawn were not afraid of us. We got really quite close. It felt cold for mid-August. The weather forecast mentioned the high for the day would be 16C but the wind made it feel much cooler than that. We'd worn jeans and long-sleeved t-shirts. So with a thin jacket we were comfortable. I could have used gloves though. Of course, some visitors came up in shorts and tank tops. We saw one young guy buying a hoodie at the gift shop at the chalet.
We saw more deer as we descended from the peak on the chairlift. There was a big buck that still had velvet on his new antlers. We must've seen a total of more than six.
When we got back to where the shuttle parks, we learned that no busses were running during lunch hour. Rather than wait 45 minutes, we took a public bus back to the Lonsdale Quay. I don't think we'd been on the Translink Seabus yet this summer. The short, 15-minute trip back across the Vancouver Harbour was enjoyable.
The original idea was to have lunch at the food court at the Harbour Centre. However, as it was just 1:40 pm, we 'SkyTrain-ed' home to New Westminster for a lunch at home. It seems as though the weather was not cooperative for our second visit to Grouse Mountain this summer.
We enjoyed our outing. How lucky we are to live in place that so many tourists come to see!