Alice In Wonderland – In Search Of 1001 Steps

“Masterpiece – [mas-ter-pees, mah-ster-] – noun – a person’s greatest piece of work, as in an art.”

During my first night in the Vancouver area, I headed out to White Rock for a little bit of relaxation by the ocean.

The last time I was here was about four years ago, and I was glad to see that nothing has really changed about this great place as it is wonderful just as it is.

While it can get quite lively here, for the most part White Rock is a peaceful place to be, with it being right next to the ocean and all.

And yes, there is a gigantic white rock here!

Without a doubt, this is a special place for many.

The sun was quickly setting so I didn’t have much time to go around the small town, but I was here to relax after a long 12 hour drive after all.

I know I keep saying this about a lot of places in the Vancouver area, but it really is calming and relaxing here. Heck, it even feels like the boats are relaxing.

Not only that, but everyone here always seems to be in such a good mood that you can’t help but enjoy yourself once you’re here.

While that night ended quickly, I knew that I would be back soon…

…and surely enough, I was.

So besides being on vacation, you’re probably wondering why I’m so interested in this place.

As I said earlier, the last time I was in White Rock was about four years ago. During that time I had stumbled across a particular spot that had a big impact on me.

If you follow me on my FaceBook page , you may have noticed that I’m a big fan of graffiti. No, I do not condone acts of vandalism in any way, but when I see something as great as this, I can’t help but love it (this picture was taken in Edmonton by the way).

So where am I going with all of this?

This. This picture was taken the last time I was here when I just so happen to stumble upon this masterpiece. I absolutely loved it.

While four years is a long time for a piece of graffiti to last (authorities are usually quick to react to vandalism), I set out to hopefully at least be able to find that very spot.

I actually fell asleep on the way there last time so I had an extremely poor idea of where I was headed. All I had for reference was a couple pictures from my last trip, and occasionally, Google Maps (the reception was poor and I also ended up connecting to AT&T in the US!). I also remember parking somewhere in a neighborhood and then walking the rest. Needless to say, this wasn’t going to be easy.

(Photo courtesy of Google Maps)
Now that I look back at it (spoiler alert), I failed quite miserably. Not only did I end up not finding this mysterious spot, I would later find out that I was right next to it before I had to leave (believe me when I say that I would’ve stayed there all day to find it if I could). Not only that, the spot isn’t technically in White Rock; it is in fact located in Surrey (the purple marker is what I was looking for). Oh and to top it off? The spot actually has a name: 1001 Steps.

Regardless, I head out with high hopes of finding 1001 Steps. As you can see from the map however, 1001 Steps is all the way on the west side. I would be starting from the east side of White Rock, on foot with a considerably amount of camera gear on my back.

Now one thing I do remember is that the particular spot that I was looking for was near the train tracks as well as the ocean, so instead of sticking to the main road and checking all the side paths that showed up on my map, I actually decided to stick to the train tracks themselves. “That sounds like it’d be a lovely walk!” you might say. Actually, it was terrible. As you can see from this picture there was almost nothing but rocks to walk on, and Converse All Stars don’t exactly make for the best hiking shoes.

As I kept going however, I knew that I was getting closer.

Eventually I got tired on walking on the rocky path, so I went for the first side path that I could find.

Boy was that a mistake. It was nice to be in the shade for a change, but I was now slowly making my way up of what is essentially a cliff.

I guess this was good practice before I hit up the Grouse Grind later on that week!

I soon began to realize just how high up I really was. No matter…

…I kept marching on forwards, eventually making it to the top where I could walk out in the hot sun again, and on smooth but scorching hot sidewalks.

I continued on to check the following side paths, hoping to find a set of winding staircases that matched the ones I was looking for.

Eventually I decided to descend down one particular set of stairs that caught my attention, even though I knew that it wasn’t what I was looking for.

At this point I was just along for the ride…

…where I eventually ended up here. For the record, that’s my gear sitting there in the photo (I was way too tired to be bothered to move it for this shot). At this point I knew that my time was up and I had to start heading back, so before I did I decided to sit and relax here for a bit.

The view wasn’t too shabby either!

Unfortunately this is the end of this mini adventure of mine. I was a little bummed that I wasn’t able to find 1001 Steps, and even more so after I found out that I actually wasn’t too far away from it.