The hike to Garibaldi Lake! This was a difficult one for me, maybe one of the tougher ones I've…read moreaccomplished and I'm saying that because I'm not the most patient of hikers. I'm more of a speed hiker that likes to get in and get out! But to access Garibaldi Lake, (the obvious main event to the park), you must take the Rubble Creek Trail. It's an 18 kilometer out and back hike (or as us Americans would say - "roundtrip")...that is a length of 11.5 miles long. And with that 11.5 miles, the path is all uphill! Everything about it is uphill until you eventually arrive at...Garibaldi Lake! So...for the folks out there who maybe don't hike often, I'd just suggest preparing for the long haul. The hike will be strenuous, but pace yourself, take breaks when necessary and before long...the reward will be worth the grind! And then, you'll be coming back for more! Another thing, I'm always motivated to capture undisturbed pictures in nature. And it's this inspiration that I use to discover what's out there. I want to reflect back on the experience and know I afforded myself ample time during the day to accomplish the sights and sceneries that make for memorable stories. Lol, it's this type of internal mentality that pushes me to strive for greater heights, so to speak, hehehe. Okay so this Rubble Creek Trail to Garibaldi Lake! You must make a reservation 2 days in advance prior to visiting. Just go to bcparks.ca and sign up for a pass. I also used this website for accessing Joffre Lakes Provincial Park situated in Mount Currie, BC. And btw, this Garibaldi Lake is located just north of Whistler, BC. One side note...the parks, lakes and hikes here in Lower British Columbia are simply fantastic! There's a laundry list of things to do. And especially when you speak to locals and they recommend hidden, under the radar places that the public eye doesn't know much about. I thought the Canadian Rockies in Alberta were stunning, but British Columbia nature is really, really scenic! Before arriving at Garibaldi Lake, I suggest taking a short side trek to Barrier Viewpoint for some quick panoramic looks. Also, along the trail you'll pass over a short bridge looking up at a waterfall. It's worthy of a photo. Finally arriving at Garibaldi Lake, at first it may not be so picturesque (even when the sun is out!) but give it a chance. Walk around and explore and you'll find colorful instances where you'll connect with those green and turquoise blue waters. Especially when you're looking back towards the entrance area of the lake, the return hike back down had some of my most fulfilling pictures of the day. It's weird, it's like the angle of the sun can play tricks on you. Be patient and hopefully magical moments will evolve! I tried to walk around the perimeter of Garibaldi Lake, but that wasn't possible. So...I had to relax a little and take my foot off the gas pedal, lol. In fact, some of my best views were simply looking out at the snowcapped mountain peaks. There's a glacier set in the distance as well. A lot of visitors brought their bathing suits with them. And although the lake is glacially fed and freezing, people were still swimming! I even joined in on the fun and took my clothes down to my underwear and hopped in the waters, lol. Granted, it was only briefly, but still, I wanted to leave no stone unturned while here! I'd also point out that since the lake is not navigable 360 degrees around, it sort of took the pressure off me to find the best picture angles. Instead, I really tried to embrace the setting and live in the moment! There's camping allowed here, but again you must make reservations for it. Btw, it's free to book your entry pass to the lake. Parking is free too. One last thing, remember...when you head back towards the entrance of Garibaldi Lake, you'll be pleasantly surprised with the lake colors illuminating from the tree line pathway. I left the lake around 3pm and suddenly, light greens and blues were evident! There are vault toilets at the lake. Interestingly, they ask you to bring your own toilet paper. Never seen that before. Overall, Garibaldi Lake was a wonderful way to enjoy a summer day in the great outdoors. I can't believe I hiked 18 kilometers. And the path through the forest makes for a quiet atmosphere in the woods. I would still rank Joffre Lakes as my favorite BC landmark, but this Garibaldi Lake has its value and major popularity among hikers. Thank you for taking time to read this.

All I have to say is be prepared.. As this is about an 18km hike, I recommend leaving early in the…read moremorning and staying over night in Whistler so you don't feel rushed. This time around when we went, due to the pandemic, we had to book a time slot the day of as they were limiting the amount of hikers. Driving there isn't the problem nor is the parking, it's the length of time but the reward at the end is worth it. I recommend bringing a small bag for liquids, snacks, bug spray, hat and towel as you could swim there but keep in mind you can't throw away your garbage at the site due to bears even though there's a camp site there. The hike isn't super steep and you won't have to climb anything (at least I didn't), you just have to be ready to walk a lot. The path is well marked so you can't get lost. I would say the average round trip if you aren't including staying at the destination to eat and take photos is roughly 4-5 hours round trip at a steady pace. Hike's are always calming and it helps clear your mind from stress and clutter. This is probably one of the best local hikes I've done so far and I would definitely recommend it to anything looking for a challenge and beautiful view. And if you want to be more adventurous, you can also extend your trip to panoramic ridge and black tusk!

It has been years, decades even, since I last came here. Many times I wanted to drop by but…read morecouldn't find parking so I left. This time, the parking God smiled on us and we managed to get a spot when a car left. My sister was here for a visit and we took her here. There is now a gift shop with info board near the entrance, compared to 20 years ago. There are a few picnic tables and benches for those who are not going up to the falls. There are two paths to the falls, one is for those with strollers and wheelchairs. The falls is still as beautiful as I remembered. I stayed by the stream and it was quite mesmerizing to see the flow of water gushing over the rocks in the stream. The water was so clear. This is definitely a great place to bring visitors.

Shannon Falls was beautiful and the creek had the clearest water. Made me want to have a drink…read more Meandering through a moss covered forest to get to Shannon Falls was just magical for me. I loved every inch of that forest and the lush green moss covering tree trunks and branches. The ferns were so alive and pretty. I could forest bath here all day if I had the time. The sight and sounds of water rushing was so peaceful and tranquil. Could not get enough of this enchanting forest!

What a fantastic hike! It is decently signed although we did get lost at one point. But that…read morecould've just been us. The trees and moss are beautiful. We hiked up to the Lookout point and the view was stunning. Worth the uphill hike. It is rocky terrain and lots of stairs so if you were not good with those things I would not suggest this hike. I would highly suggest some snacks to sit at the top of lookout and enjoy while you look at the stunning view.

Murrin Park is a rock climber's paradise. The large collection of granite crags provides numerous…read moreclimbing opportunities for all skill levels.  During peak hours, finding parking will test your patience. Many tourists, families, and climbers crowd the park. We just took a quick, flat walk around Browning Lake. Other things to do at Murrin Park: - Swim in the lake - Picnic by the lake - Hike the Murrin Park Loop Trail - Go fishing Murrin Provincial Park was a quick stop along our Sea to Sky Highway road trip. The park was not our kind of paradise. (Part 3)

We didn't see any eagles, but it was a lovely diversion after coffee & pastries at PureBread to…read moretiptoe thru the ice & snow up the berm. We're a bit late based on my cursory research, but worth a try (a gent down the way had a tripod out, maybe he found one) plus we got a touch of the outdoors. We spent a week in Whistler in a family New Years trip (started w 2 nights at the Westin in Vancouver, headed back there now - Red Eye flight home tonight)

I was expecting more when planning to visit this park, but I didn't realize that there wasn't a…read morewhole lot to see during the winter time. We didn't see any eagles, and we had to be careful where we walked, because there were a few signs warning us of not treading further on Indian reservation land. We walked along the road from the parking lot, but we didn't go far. We ended up turning around and walking on the shore along the water. Be careful, as the rocks are unsteady. If you don't want to walk along the water, you can walk on the sandy trails away from the water, but there isn't any view.

I love hiking and have done a lot of hiking over the past couple of years (I started a hiking group…read moretwo years ago), improving my stamina and fitness level. I have been able to do increasingly harder hikes, although my level is solidly intermediate -- I can't do hikes that are 20km, 10 hours, extreme elevation, really rough terrain, etc. The Stawamus Chief, known as "The Chief", is a popular hike that is on many people's bucket list. I was never particularly interested in The Chief, as the description seemed too difficult and being in Squamish, it was not possible to get there as a non-driver. However, this summer, some friends who I met through my hiking group wanted to try The Chief. We went on a Wednesday, in order to avoid the weekend crowd. Seven of us went, and none of us being morning people, we arrived around 11:30am, which is considered late for hardcore hikers. Fortunately, we were able to find a parking spot, although there were very few available at that time. The Chief consists of three peaks, and we only did the first one, which was more than enough. We went quite slowly, taking breaks as needed, and excluding about an hour at the top, taking in the view and having lunch, it took us about 4.5 hours to complete (2.5 hours to the top, 2 hours back down). While I was obviously able to complete The Chief, I didn't particularly enjoy the hike (although I really liked the company and hanging out with my friends), and I have no desire to do it again -- I've done it once, I don't have anything to prove, and there are so many other hikes to do. The trail for the first peak, while relatively short (under 4km there and back) is quite steep, and there are a lot of stairs. The problem is that I am short, and the steps were quite high, so I was extra slow as it took me longer to step up or down each stair, and by the end of the hike, I was exhausted (as were my friends). I had heard that there were chains and a ladder on the rock face that you needed to scramble up in order to get to the top, and this is why I had no desire to try The Chief. While challenging, the chains and ladder weren't so bad, and easier than I had expected. But the scramble up the rock face after the chains and ladder was horrible. I hated the scramble up the rock face, and I was actually pretty terrified -- I almost fell backwards to my death, as with Tunnel Bluffs. Thankfully my friends helped me. In my opinion, there should have been some chains to hold on to. Anyway, I made it up without dying, but I am never doing that again. At the top we could see the second peak, and to me, it looked like a pure scramble up rock face, the part I hated about our hike. I'm definitely never going to attempt the other peaks. We spend about an hour at the top, having lunch and hanging out. There was a cute chipmunk who ate the trail mix that I "accidentally" dropped, and we saw a Peregrine falcon and a raven flying around for over five minutes -- it looked like the falcon was chasing the raven. Overall a great day with my friends, but I did not enjoy The Chief and have no desire to ever do it again. [Yelp collections: Hiking]

I had never been to Stawamus Chief before but I was super excited for it. I had heard that it was a…read morerather difficult hike (which it is) but it's totally doable! We had someone with us who had never done a hike before and she made it to the top so it's doable. Having said that, we only did peak 1 because it was raining that day and we didn't want to risk anything. Peak 1 have lots of rocks and the elevation gain is pretty big. It took us 4.5 hours in total for the hike but if you are someone who is a hiker, it's possible to do it in 3 hrs. I will say that if you decide to do this hike on a rainy day, be prepared to have proper shoes because it does get slippery! Regardless I would say having proper shoes for this hike is important. The top of the hike is mostly climbing with ropes and on flat elevated rocks so it's good to have shoes with good grip. The view from up there is definitely worth it though!

It's time to come come..... what are you waiting for, an RSVP?…read more Beef sandwich, German breakfast, stroganoff..... classic classic classic!!!

The pool here is great! They have a a great diving board into a 3.5M deep pool. There are hot tubs…read moreto soak in as well. I have been staying here the past two nights a part of the BC Bike Race and enjoyed the pool, nice grounds, and the use of the rec center food room. What did I learn today? There is no one around the area that will deliver pizza here. So sad.

Polar Express - this was very very expensive for what it inevitably turned out to be. We paid…read morealmost $300 for 5 silver tickets, about the same as the Harry Potter experience! Now I don't know if it's very expensive to run the train back and forth along maybe a 1km span slowly for an hr or what. The kids got confused and I genuinely thought they'd forgotten someone and had to go back to the station until it continued past and went back and forth in an industrial area and past the same houses and condos numerous times. I really expected we'd go to another destination one way for 20-30 mins for a drop off somewhere magical and come back an hr or so later. Even if that wasn't the case, just go in one direction for 20 mins, then come back, make the trip worthwhile! The train itself is nice, interesting to see the Rocky mountaineer up close. Christmas decor was very minimal, a string of lights on each end and the pre packaged cookie came in the last 10 mins of the "journey". The cast of characters that came through was fun for the kids. No Santa on our train. And Christmas music made it festive. The museum that serves as the "North Pole" was decked out nicely for what it was and I appreciate the effort from what I can assume was mostly volunteer run and put together. It did remind me very much of what they would do at a place like the Roundhouse community center though... Had I known how it would be for the price we paid, I think we would have allocated that hefty sum to another set of activities around Vancouver. Even my 7 year old was saying 'look we're just back at the same station, we didn't go anywhere!'. I'm sure on a regular museum day it's a nice place. But seriously, for the amount of money we were charged, quite disappointed overall. Been there, done that. It was a decent experience for the children overall but there's so many other things that kind of $$ could be spent on. Know what you're buying and maybe you won't have the expectations we did.

Came here pre-Covid days...since one of my friends loves trains and train museums. Did some…read moreresearch prior and thought this would be a cool place for the group to visit. It only took us about 45-60 minutes to go through the site...There are several trains that you can go inside and take a walk through. Nice education of trains back in the days... Well maintained Tip: For discounts, look for deals on Groupon or the like...we got a groupon that saved us $. Feel free to donate for the upkeep of the railway park when you are there.

Love, love, love Cat Lake!…read more It's $15/site each night. If there isn't a fire ban then you can buy wood from the Rangers by the arm-load ($8) or wheelbarrow ($25). There's a 2km logging road off of the highway to get to the parking lot. The road is kind of rough, so it's a good idea to take it slow. The road is best suited to trucks/Jeeps/SUV type vehicles but can be driven up in a car if you take it easy. The parking lot often fills up fast, but there is an overflow lot as well as parking along the road. You can't drive in to the sites, so be prepared to carry in your gear. There are sites 5min from the parking lot, but they get claimed quickly and you could find yourself walking most of the way around the lake. The camp provides a few wheelbarrows to help with packing in/out, but you can't count on getting one if it's busy. If you camp at Cat Lake you need to be Bear-Aware. There are bears in the area, and they have had serious problems with campers and bears in the past. All food items, cooking supplies, toiletries, clothes worn while cooking should be kept either in your car or in one of the many bear caches provided. Garbage and recycling should be disposed of in their respective bins and not stored in the caches. It takes a little bit of extra time to keep your site bear safe; however, when a bear's life (and your safety) depend on it, then it's not a big thing to take time out of your routine to do. The lake is fantastic for swimming May-September. There are a few docks and a rope swing. Cat Lake has a reputation for being a party site. Rangers are trying to change that, and in the 10+ years I've been going there I've noticed that it has gradually become much more family oriented. I'm not sure if that's due to the effort of the Rangers, the fact that the partiers of the past are coming with their young families now, or some combination of the two. Bring toilet paper! The outhouses are almost always out of toilet paper. Most campers at Cat Lake are friendly and the overall feel is very fun and relaxed.

Look, I'm not really a camper. I went on this trip because my girlfriend loves it and was dying to…read morego, so I was happy to make the best of it. We brought a few of our best friends, and the group vibes were high the whole weekend. What was also high was the slant the campsite was on. The hike in is a horrendous trek that feels like it lasts several business days, and to get to Site 8 you have to navigate down a steep, treacherous hill that I'm shocked didn't claim my life. The entire campsite is on such a severe slant that flat ground simply does not exist. Two of us almost met our timely end out there. On night one, a dropped JBL speaker took a tragic rolling tumble down the mountain and sacrificed itself to the lake... could have easily been a camper. On night two, my friend was just sitting in her chair when gravity won, tipping her out of her seat so she could slam her head directly onto the metal fire pit, leaving her with a massive goose egg. Still cute, still spunky, but concussed. Then there was the camp ranger, who was very clearly drinking on the job. A drunken dictator if you will. Also, his name is Mark. MARK, the equivalent to a male Karen. I took a walk around the lake and he approached me with the energy of a cranky chihuahua. He came in way too fucking hot, barking at me about whether we paid for Site 8 and sneering at me to "pay up." Later on, he decided to drunkenly stagger directly into our campsite to check our payment status. Your one job as ranger is to walk up to the wooden post and check the paper slip that proves we paid. That's literally it. But he was probably so smashed he couldn't even locate the post, so he just wandered around our area looking completely lost and embarrassing himself. To top off his flawless performance, I walked to the washrooms later that night and saw multiple sites burning rather large campfires despite a strict fire ban. I'm no lumberjack, but I'm pretty sure letting people burn the forest down while you nurse a day-buzz isn't in the official job description..otherwise I'd take his job. Bottom Line: Cat Lake really is beyond beautiful. Our group had a great time together despite the constant threat of falling off the campsite, and I'd actually go back for the lake itself. The terrain is a complete public hazard though, and as for that ranger, he can eat my shorts.

Coffee was ok, barista was very kind and helpful. Lots of wanderers come to the coffee shop to do…read moretheir work and using the coffee shops WiFi.

Excellent Climbing | Parking is an Issue Sometimes free…read more **Do not park in the residential area. I hear you can get towed away, so park at the designated parking lot.** This is a semi-residential area, but locals and visitors mob up on this spot to hike and climb. Mostly trad/sport, but I am pretty sure I saw a boulder or two. Dogs are allowed. Mountain Lions are spotted on occasion, but we didn't see any. Burgers and Fries wall is super popular because the rock dries the fastest. It was raining when we went, so we didn't get to climb a whole lot. However, these are our favorite climbs when we got the chance: -Easter Island (5.8) -Bilbo Baggins (5.8) Easy trail to follow. Hike will take you about an hour. Total distance is 2.6km and it's a loop (partial).

This was indeed some of the best views I have ever seen. This area is a breath of fresh air. It is…read moreso spectacular and the gondola was fun to attend. Please be warn if you have a fear of heights. My friend and I upload with another set of friends and experienced the ride up. During the right, the gondola came to a complete stop for less than a minute. But it was windy and the gondola swung back and forth. It was a bit scary, but quickly the track continued a the gondola continued to ascent to the submit. At the top, there is the suspension bridge. Which is really nice. It gives a nice view of the submit lodge. There are small hikes around the place and the views from those hikes are magnificent. Once you're done with your hikes, you can venture inside the submit lodge. Inside is a good selection of food options.

Sea to Sky Gondola is one of those activities where you feel like it should be more novel than…read moreanything else. You hear the ride up and down is only 10 minutes and you start to wonder if the money spent is worth it. But then as you ascend up the mountain and look all around you in this beautifully clear and clean gondola, the lake below is pristine. The mountains around you barely hide the clouds as they lazily drift by. The trees envelop you with all their greenery. All of this is happening in these mere 10 minutes. However, once you arrive up top and get off the gondola a large selection of different adventures await you. You could warm yourself up at the visitor centre just right of the gondolas where you can get some hot food and look out through its huge glass windows out into the wilderness. You could also walk outside said visitor centre and onto the suspension bridge. It looks daunting at first, but it isn't too long and you get some wonderful photos from it. There are also several different hikes located all throughout the area with varying degrees of difficulty. The one just on the other side of the suspension bridge is an easy loop hike you can do under ten minutes with astounding moments of forest bathing. You can also go and ski or tube when there is snow. When you go with a tour package, usually you only have about an hour and a half of time up here, but if you're on your own this could easily be a 3-4 hour excursion. Those the price might be steep for some to utilize the gondolas, if you decide to make a day trip out of this visit it'll be worth the money to get the views, air, and experience that is Sea to Sky Gondola.