After aborting our trip to the Canadian Rockies last year due to the early arrival of winter, we kept it as our Plan A for 2016, while adding in a visit to the Whistler area on our way up. And despite a less-than-ideal longer-term weather outlook for the Canadian Rockies, we took advantage of the reasonable near-term weather and packed up the car and headed out.
We car-camped for a couple days at Alice Lake just outside of Squamish, an up-and-coming outdoor hub about an hour north of Vancouver, BC, and 30 minutes south of Whistler. The first day after our arrival, the weather looked pretty good, so we decided to take advantage of it and spend the day hiking the high country from the top of the Whistler gondola. LOTS of mountains around, many of them glaciated. The hike wasn't a wilderness experience, but the crowds weren't too bad. And some of the views were stunning.
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| Whirlwind Mountain from High Note Trail |
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| Cheakamus Lake from High Note Trail |
As expected, the following day's weather was a little more blustery with a few sprinkles, so we attempted a hike near Squamish up to the top of Stawamus Chief, which is a big climbing wall (obviously, we took an easier route). But, we were a bit surprised by the stairs, rocks and roots ... all requiring large steps up ... composing the trail. After ascending 800 or 1000 ft, with no end to the steep trail in sight, we opted to save our knees for upcoming hikes. Instead, we headed to a nearby estuary reserve, only to find it being home to the Kite Clash. This was a weekend kite-boarding competition. So, we hung out at marveled at their tricks, as well as hydrofoil setup on some of them.
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| Aerial Turn on Hydrofoil Kite Surfing Setup |
With the weather looking reasonable for the next 2 days, we opted to embark on our 3 day backpack ... hoping to avoid an early arrival of the rains. Our destination was Garibaldi Lake in Garibaldi Provincial Park. We were a bit apprehensive, since it's very popular, you need reservations, and there's a campground there with 40 or so spots. It didn't sound like a recipe for solitude. And it wasn't. But, the hike in was on a well maintained trail with very good grading (easy on the knees), and we covered the 6 miles with 2700 feet of elevation gain with surprising ease. Then, with most of the afternoon in front of us, we opted to day hike up to the top of Panorama Ridge (another 8 miles and 1800 feet gain) while the weather was decent. Absolutely beautiful high country ... lakes, streams, flowers, meadows, mountain views. It was a bit of a grunt near the end, but we powered through and enjoyed the views down to Garibaldi Lake and the peaks beyond. Needless to say, we were pretty whooped after getting back to camp. The following day, the weather was even better, so we headed back up, but this time to the Black Tusk. Again, beautiful high country. We reached the base of the monolith, but opted out of the final (chimney) climb. But WOW, the views were dynamite! Definitely worth all the sweat equity. After returning to the lake, we packed up and headed back to the car. It was a long slog out, but we really weren't excited about the possibility of packing up and hiking out in the rain that was possible the following day.
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| Evening Light, Garibaldi Lake |
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| Morning Light, Garibaldi Lake |
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| Fireweed, Garibaldi Lake |
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| Black Tusk from Panorama Ridge Trail |
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| Indian Paintbrush, Panorama Ridge Trail |
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| East End of Garibaldi Lake from Panorama Ridge |
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| Rocks near Summit of Back Tusk |
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| Meadows and Garibaldi Lake from Black Tusk Trail |
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| Garibaldi Lake from Black Tusk Trail |
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| Black Tusk from Taylor Meadows Trail |
We spent the night in a hotel in Whistler, enjoyed a nice dinner, hot
tub, and real bed ... leaving all the thinking and decisions regarding
our next direction until the morning. Once we looked at the rain out
the window and the pessimistic weather reports for everything between
Whistler and the Canadian Rockies, we opted to get a good breakfast and
head home to do wash, gather our energy, and figure out a Plan B. We
were somewhat disappointed that we were truncating the trip, after just a
tease of the great mountains in the Canadian West. But we also felt very satisfied that we got in some great hikes, and the rainy weather all the way home reinforced our decision. Not to worry, there's always next year to try again!
A couple of observations ... The trails were getting lots of usage ... probably due to the close
proximity to Vancouver, and the users were generally younger and more
international than we see near Seattle. Lots of college age kids ...
perhaps UBC students getting out with their friends in the last days
before classes start. We're not sure if our experience was typical. Also,
Garibaldi Provincial Park is in a way different league than our
Washington State Parks. I guess they have so many over-the-top areas
and lower population densities that they can't make them all national
parks. But there are tons of world-class mountains in this area, and we
can definitely see getting back there again, since it's so close to
Seattle.
Activities
- Whistler: Day hiking from top of Gondola (High Note Trail)
- Squamish: Day hiking (part way up Stawamus Chief), watching kite surfers
- Garibaldi Provincial Park: Backpacking (Garibaldi Lake), day-hiking (Panorama Ridge, Black Tusk)
5-Star Moments
- Views of high meadows towards Singer Pass and beyond (High Note Trail)
- Beautiful flowers, lakes and high parkland on the way to Panorama Ridge
- Peaking into the abyss at Black Tusk!
Random Scenes
- Dawn pine-cone bombardment by tree-top (Douglas?) squirrels at Alice Lake.
- The 3 buff "duffel bag" dudes hoofing it up to Garibaldi Lake. One
using a large duffel bag as a pack, the others using day packs, all with
many "accessories" either strapped on or in hand (including grocery
bags). We saw them again later near the top of Panorama Ridge (sans
gear), earning them some of our respect!
- The couple continuing to head up to Garibaldi Lake at 6:15 pm, small
suitcase in hand, after learning they were less that 1/4 of the way
there (< 2.5 km out of 9.5 km). We wondered later if they made it,
and how they handled the rain the following morning!
Tom's Daily Stress Points
- Nearly hour-long waits at the border (both directions).
- Vancouver traffic delays.
Sleeps
- Alice Lake: Walk-in sites (nice sites, some pretty far from car)
- Garibaldi Lake: Backcountry campground (decent, better than anticipated)
- (fine, across the street from main village)
Eats
- Alice Lake: Simple car-camping fare
- Garibaldi Lake: Yummy freeze-dried food (Good-to-Go Thai Curry, Umpqua Oats oatmeal)
- Whistler: Brewhouse (decent dinners), PureBread (serious bakery items!)
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