Garibaldi Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada

September 2018

Garibaldi Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada, is a breathtakingly beautiful place to explore. At over 1950 square miles, Garibaldi encompasses rugged mountain peaks, powder blue glacier-fed lakes, and old-growth forests. The Canadian government designated Garibaldi a provincial park (similar to a state park here in the U.S.) in 1927. The park is home to black bears, marmots, deer, mountain goats, and eagles. Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar, and Western Hemlock fill the densely populated forests year-round, while fields of wildflowers blanket the vast meadows in the summer months. We were impressed with the cleanliness of the park, the immaculate trail conditions, and not to mention the genuine friendliness of the Canadians. These reasons make Garibaldi one of our favorite destinations to hike in North America.

We flew into Seattle SeaTac Airport and drove 4-5 hours north, through the Canadian Border, past Vancouver, and up the Sea-to-Sky Highway to Squamish, British Columbia for the night. We woke early the next morning and drove about 45 minutes to the Cheakamus Lake trailhead, which is just south of Whistler Village. We hiked on an overcast and drizzly day, so we were not afforded the magnificent views one would normally have at this park. Nevertheless, the scenery was still beautiful and we took many photos.

The hike begins with a gradual ascent above the Cheakamus River, through Western Red Cedar. After about a mile, turn right onto Helm Creek Trail and head down to a cool bridge that crosses the river before heading steeply uphill.

The trail switchbacks for 3.7 miles through dense forest to the wide-open meadows of Helm Creek Campground. Along the way, you will pass beautiful Douglas Fir and fragrant Western Red Cedar. As you near the campground, you will start to see wild blueberry bushes along the trail. These bear delicious fruit in late summer/early fall.

Helm Creek Campground rests in an open sub-alpine meadow. It offers 9 tent platforms, a pit toilet, and bear-proof food storage. The campground is very popular with bears (see sign!), and we had our first bear sighting here. Continuing past the campground, the trees begin to thin out and the trail flattens through more open meadows. On a clear day, you can see the Black Tusk towering above in the distance. We topped a low ridge and began hiking across a moon-like volcanic landscape, aptly named Cinder Flats.

At this point, the wind picked up and the rain began to fall harder, so we decided to turn around and adventure “off-trail” for a while. Heading back on Helm Creek Trail and over the low ridge again, we followed our GPS and ventured on what appeared to be a primitive trail towards Helm Glacier. We never really found the trail, but our trusty GPS led the way through blueberry filled meadows and up sandy ridges towards the glacier. Some maps call this “trail” the Helm Glacier Route/Castle Towers Route. The washed-out areas were full of marmot families, whistling shrill warning calls of our impending approach to one another. After passing the marmot village we scrambled up a steep hillside to a crest and saw the glacier and small meltwater lake (unnamed). We found a spot on the rocks and ate our lunch before heading back down to the Helm Creek Trail once again.

We retraced our steps along Helm Creek Trail for a pleasant descent to the Cheakamus River. At the trail junction, we decided to explore Cheakamus Lake so we turned right and continued our gradual ascent. Once we reached the western terminus of the lake, we turned a corner and a medium-sized black bear stood in the middle of the trail and just stared at us. We made some noise and swung our hiking poles in the air while slowly backing away. The bear kept eye contact with us and finally moved off the trail towards the lake. We decided at this point to turn back for the trailhead parking lot. Our GPS indicated we had hiked 20 miles at the end of our adventure.