Day 17 - Lakes, Meadows and Volcanoes

Today we got up early to hike up to garibaldi lake, a gorgeous, but strenuous hike up to the bluest lake in Canada.

A Hard but Beautiful Start

To say that the trail starts off intense would be an understatement, you climb 800m in the first 6km through relentless switchbacks up the forested mountain face. Climbing through the old growth rainforest is absolutely beautiful though, looking at the giant trees and lovely views we distracted ourselves from the strenuous climb.

Volcanoes and Meadows

After finishing the final switchback we where rewarded with the beautiful views of Taylor meadows mountain flowers as far as the eyes can see with giant glacier filled mountains in the back ground looking on at the black tusk, a pillar of black volcanic rock towering over the volcanic crater of the black tusk stratovolcano.

First View of the Ultra Blue Lake

Walking through the flowers, we arrived at the edge of a mossy forest where we caught our first glimpse of the ultra blue waters of garibaldi lake. Excited, we forgot our exhaustion and made our way through the beautiful lichen coated forest.

Indescriptible Beauty

Making our way down, we arrived at garibaldi lake. The sheer blueness of the lake made us speechless.

The Barrier

The immense stone wall Marty is facing is called the Barrier, it was formed by multiple Volcanic eruptions from the three volcanoes surrounding Garibaldi lake. On our way up the first 6km towards Garibaldi lake, we went off course on an unofficial trail, leading up to a lookout at the bottom of the wall. We decided to take a break at that point and take in the view of the snow capped mountains we were facing in the distance. After a few minutes there, we started to hear a faint rumble in the distance. We looked up at the Barrier and noticed something was weird. Upon closer inspection, we realized that a rock fall was under way, and we were standing in a rock field…

First Sight of Squamish

After our longest hike yet, we were looking forward to settle in at our campsite for the night, although we had yet to find where we’d sleep. We did, however, know that we wanted to sleep near Squamish, so we headed that way. Upon seeing the valley where Squamish lies for the first time, we were completely amazed. The giant slabs of rock on either side of the valley were begging us to climb them.

Our Campsite at the River Fork

After another bit of off-roading, as with most other campsites, we found our way to a BC recreation area on Mamquam river, just out of Squamish. As with most other campsites, there was no table or seating, so we improvised as always and set up a log as a table and gathered stones in the nearby river to use as chairs. We were then ready to eat and play some cards before going to bed.