Q: like mountians a rivers and stuff
A: To the north, there are the "north shore mountains". Cypress Mountain, Grouse Mountain, Seymour Mountain and so on. These mountains are part of the coastal mountain range. Next there is Burrard Inlet. This is an arm of salt water that extends to Port Moody and divides Vancouver from West and North Vancouver. Indian arm extends north from Burrard Inlet, and that separates North Vancouver from Belcarra. The city of Vancouver itself is on a series of ancient beaches from the last ice age. While Vancouver is almost completely blanketed with development of various sorts, it's still possible to see where the hills are/were and the swamps were. Queen Elizabeth Park is situated on a small hill, which gives visitors a wonderful vista of the area. Within Vancouver there is false creek. It's actually an inlet, and Granville Island used to be isolated from the mainland during high tide. It's now permamently joined with bridges and development. Lost Lagoon, within Stanley Park was the same. During low tide, the lagoon would disapear, then reappear with high tide. The development of the road and the beaches have resulted in Lost Lagoon becomming a permament fixture. South of Vancouver there is the north arm of the Fraser River. The Fraser River is one of the longest rivers in British Columbia. It's headwaters are just south-west of Mount Robson in the Canadian Rockies. The Fraser travels through Prince George and joins up with the Thompson River at Lytton. The Fraser River is the avenue for (hopefully) millions of salmon making their migrations up and down the river. While the majority of the water is (polluted) fresh water, during high tide, the salt water from the ocean will back up as far as Mission and Abbotsford, in the Fraser Valley. Many of the beaches in and around Vancouver are either ancient middens (look for the beach being primarily made of broken shells) or trucked-in sand. Most of the natural beaches consist mostly of rocky shores with lots of barnacles, muscles and seaweed. This covers the city of Vancouver proper. I could also include Sea Island, Westham Island and Lulu Island (Richmond) to the south of Vancouver, which is essentially a flood plain that is being kept above sea-level by a series of dykes. The ground throughout Richmond is VERY fertile, as the land that makes up the island is silt that has been brought down from the mountains by the Fraser River over the centuries. The best way to get a good idea of the physical features of the Vancouver region is to download Google Earth and to do a fly through.