User:Ktims

Introduction

Garibaldi Lake is located in the large (and aptly named) Garibaldi Lake park, located about half an hour from Squamish. Both trailheads are easily accesible by car and well marked with ample parking year-round. The Barrier trail hike to the lake makes a good day hike (18km round trip), several good day hikes are available from the lake and meadow sites. There's lots to do; a five or six day trip would be best to see most of the trails around the lake.

Access & Fees

Access is well-marked and quite direct from Highway 99. To access the Barrier trailhead, turn right off the highway past Rubble Creek. The park service has a sign to direct you. Follow the road to the parking lot. For access to Cheakamus Lake, take a right from Highway 99 a few kilometers before Whistler. There's a logging road through an observation forest for a few kilometers before the parking lot. A loop is possible with two vehicles; allow for a minimum of two days. Note that cellular service at both trailheads is fairly spotty (July 2004) and no pay phones are available. Trying to coordinate a pickup may be an issue. At least the Barrier trailhead has a pit toilet.

Fees are paid at the parking lot, $5 a night per person and include parking.

Sites

The Garibaldi/Black Tusk trail ring has three camping areas.

Garibaldi Lake

Mt. Price & Battleship Islands

This is the largest and most well-equipped site on the hike. There are four large cooking shelters with picnic tables, counters, sinks a line for hanging food bags. These are well maintained, but often busy. Several pit toilets are provided, and a staffed ranger station is a few hundred metres from the camping area. The site is quite large, and finding space is usually not a problem. This site is on the lake, with spectacular views of the Sphinx Glacier across the lake and the Black Tusk. Burton Hut is visible across the lake, and the Glaciology huts can be seen with binoculars. This site is probably where you'll want to base your trip. Water is available from the lake, but should be filtered or boiled. Be advised that some campsites are generally snow-covered until early July, BC Parks provides fairly good information on their site on trail conditions.

Taylor Meadows

I've never visited this site. According to BC Parks, this site has a single cooking shelter, some picnic tables and food hanging facilities. Tent platforms are provided, presumably in a meadow setting. Someone who's visited should add more information.

Helm Creek

This site is located about halfway between Garibaldi Lake and Cheakamus Lake, in a grassy clearing. There are about half a dozen tent platforms and pit toilets. A food hanging rig is provided. Drinking water can be drawn from the nearby creek. In early July 2004, mosquitos were rampant here, bring lots of repellant or plan to arrive late and leave early. Mostly this is a place to stay the night on the way to the Cheakamus trailhead, there's not much of interest nearby.

Hikes & Routes

Hiking at Garibaldi is quite diverse, and many good trails are available. BC Parks maintains a few good trails, and several unofficial trails in various degrees of repair are accesible as well. Garibaldi is a good destination for a weekend or longer hike, with enough to do to keep you busy for five or six days at least. If you're doing a two or three day hike, doing the Barrier trail to the lake and choosing between Black Tusk and Panorama Ridge (or doing both) is a good option. For a longer trip, you may opt to do a loop between the two trailheads, spending a night at Helm Creek on the way. This requires two vehicles.

Barrier Trail

This hike will take you from the Garibaldi Lake trailhead to the lake proper. It's not a difficult hike, but prepare for 9km of fairly steady climb and switchbacks. No scrambling or steep grades are involved. It can be done in four or five hours, and makes for a reasonable day hike. Plan on six to seven hours with a few day's of gear and a lunch stop. There is a rest area around 6-7km with benches and (IIRC) a pit toilet. Most of the hiking is through beautiful douglas fir forest, with the last kilometre or two travelling around Barrier Lake and Lesser Garibaldi Lake. Trails are well maintained and quite busy, expect to see a wide range of day hikers and backpackers sharing the trail with you. There's a rock outcropping on the right of the trail about about halfway that makes a good spot to stop for lunch. Birds and rodents readily approach looking for food, and there are some good views to be had.

The Black Tusk

The Black Tusk

This hike begins from either Garibaldi Lake or Taylor Meadows. It's 7km one way from Garibaldi Lake, with approximately 850m of elevation gain, though most of this is concentrated in the first kilometre or two of trail. From Garibaldi, head north out of the camp area and stay right to climb some steep switchback up to a meadow. A leisurely hike through some meadows (beautiful wildflowers in late July-August) and many streams will take you to the junction with the trail from Taylor. There is a map and informative display here. Continue east along the trail to the base of the tusk. Loose volcanic rock abounds here, though in early summer climbing the snow is easier going. This is not difficult, and could not justly be called scrambling, but the rock is quite loose and fairly steep to reach the base of the tusk itself. From the eastern side of the tusk, traverse around to the west side for an easy climb to the top of the tusk. This could be omitted if you're not a climber. Good views of the surrounding landscape and mountains from both the base and top of the tusk.