Family Hike Garibaldi Lake - Beach Day in the Snow!

In our family, like many others, it is a tradition that the birthday boy or girl chooses something special to do on their "special" day.  You can imagine my delight, when my daughter, Emma, suggested an overnight hike to Garibaldi Lake to celebrate her 20th birthday.

Creek Crossing on trail to Garibaldi Lake

We have spent many a vacation camping, hiking and paddling with our children, and now that they are all grown up it brings us such great pleasure to see them planning and embarking on their own adventures in the outdoors.  It only gets better when we are invited to join the "expeditions!"  I literally jumped at the chance to hike with Adam and Emma to one of my favourite destinations - Garibaldi Provincial Park.  This 195,000 hectare park is located in the heart of the British Columbia Coast Mountains and features over 90 kms of hiking trails.  Visitors can choose from 5 different access points as a starting point for their visit to the park.  At 2,678 meters, Mount Garibaldi stands proudly overlooking the park below.  One of my favourite features, and an iconic symbol of the park is Black Tusk - a giant remnant of a volcanic cone.

Ridge at base of Black Tusk (2012)

Final ascent to base of Black Tusk - only experienced climbers should attempt final chimney section (2012)

Base of Black Tusk (2012)

In all honesty, the majority of the hike in, is pure grunt work as you hike 9 km and climb 850 metres to Garibaldi Lake.  The trail switches back numerous times as you climb up, up and up through the forest.  To keep us entertained and our minds off the trek, Emma entertained us by sharing her knowledge of the trees, shrubs and ferns we were passing.  What a treat to have a naturalist leading the charge!  The forest features giant Douglas fir, Western Red Cedar and Western Hemlock, so she had lots to talk about.

Emma our resident Naturalist enjoys the forest

As you finish the long stretch of switchbacks you are rewarded with a visit to a viewpoint overlooking a huge slide area.  It is hard to look at the slide and not be humbled by the power of Mother Nature.  You can see where literally half of the ridge fell away.

Viewpoint on trail to Garibaldi Lake

We stopped to take it all in and of course nibble on our trail mix.  We were soon joined by a couple of hikers who were on their way down the mountain.  They were from San Francisco, California.  We laughed as they politely inquired when our summer started.  They had spent a very cold night in the snow at Garibaldi Lake.

Snow capped glaciers reflected in Garibaldi Lake

We bid farewell to the Californians and set off for the Lake.  As we continued to gain elevation, we could feel the temperature dropping and soon found ourselves hiking through snow.  In true, family vacation fashion the rain began.  It just would not be one of our family outings without some sort of bad weather!  We arrived at the lake wet and cold and quickly found our way to the warming hut to shed our wet clothing and put on our warm fleecies.  As we were warming up a group of 3 hikers joined us.  One of their group had fallen through the snow and had quite a nasty cut on his leg.  They were short a few first aid supplies, so Adam naturally kicked into gear and was soon sharing our supplies and keeping an eye on the "treatment."

As we were preparing dinner in the warming hut, we looked out over the lake and were treated to a full rainbow.  We took it as a sign that tomorrow would be sunny and warm.  We were not disappointed as we woke up to brilliant sunshine.  The views of the lake and snow capped glaciers were breathtaking...a perfect birthday gift for our birthday girl.

Perfect birthday morning on Garibaldi Lake

Giggle of the day:

With our combined years of experience, we really should know better, but we found ourselves shocked to arrive at the lake and find we were up to our knees in snow.  We had planned for a birthday picnic beside the lake and were fully prepared with frisbees, swimsuits and sunglasses.  We were huddled up in the warming hut, laughing about the tricks Mother Nature can play when 2 climbers arrived equipped with ice axes and snowshoes.  They had been up trying to make their way to Black Tusk, but had turned back because of the weather. I wish I had taken a picture of the group....Emma in her sunglasses, Adam in his beach wear and the climbers in their snowshoes!

Where's the beach?

Maps and Route tips:

You are required to purchase a BC Discover Camping back country permit for all back-country wilderness camping.  These can be purchased online or at the trail head parking lot.

Access points to the Provincial Park are located along the Sea to Sky Highway (Highway 99) between Squamish and Pemberton.


#hike #discoveroutdoors #getoutsideandplay