Vancouver's Stanley Park

Stanley Park is surrounded by a busy harbour and the towering apartment buildings of the West End. It is easy to escape into the forest... especially in winter.

The totem poles are apparently the most photographed place for Vancouver tourists. A visit to the city is hardly complete without a five minute tour bus stop.
(Yes, these totems are the real thing, but the best local place for native art is the UBC Museum of Anthropology).
The lady in wet suit is nearby on a harbour rock.

The park had a small zoo for decades. I remember visiting wire cages and bear pits when I was young. There was little room for expansion and the organization eventually moved to Langley.
The polar bears had a modern building and were the last zoo animals to leave the park.

The Vancouver Aquarium remains in Stanley Park. It is a non-profit society loved by tourists, but there is a strong Vancouver faction that thinks that natural forest is the only real usage for the park. After much political squabbling the killer whales were banished south of the border.
Sea otters, seals and birds remain.