Garibaldi Lake is the centre and base for much of the hiking in Garibaldi Provincial Park. The Garibaldi Lake campsite is located on the amazing, turquoise shores of this massive and mostly still wild mountain lake. There are no trails around the edge of the lake except the small section leading to the campsites, so your view is an impossibly coloured lake edged by swaths of forest and a magnificent glacier towering in the distance.
Huge alpine lake in a pristine forestExtraordinary, turquoise coloured waterCampsites are well laid out next to the shoreGreat for swimming, but very coldHuge glacier is visible across the lakeBlack Tusk & Panorama Ridge are nearFishing is pretty goodHike past the Barrier on the way to the lake
Some find the first 6 kilometres exhaustingCampsites are crowded together & often full
Alice Lake 
Ancient Cedars 
Blackcomb Mountain Black Tusk 
Brandywine Falls Brandywine Meadows Brew Lake 
Callaghan Lake Cheakamus Lake 
Cheakamus River 
Cirque Lake Elfin Lakes Garibaldi Lake Garibaldi Park Helm Creek High Falls Joffre Lakes Keyhole Hot Springs Levette Lake Logger’s Lake Madeley Lake Meager Hot Springs Nairn Falls Panorama Ridge Parkhurst Ghost Town Rainbow Falls Rainbow Lake Ring Lake Russet Lake Sea to Sky Gondola Sea to Sky Trail Shannon Falls Skookumchuck Hot Springs Sloquet Hot Springs Sproatt East Sproatt West Stawamus Chief Taylor Meadows The Lions Train Wreck Upper Shannon Falls 
Wedgemount Lake Whistler Mountain
Compared to other lakes in Squamish and in Garibaldi Provincial Park, Garibaldi Lake is enormous with a surface area of almost 10 square kilometres or 2460 acres. It is also a very deep lake with its average depth of 119 metres or 390 feet and at its deepest, 258 metres or 849 feet! What really makes Garibaldi Lake extraordinary is its geography. It is flanked by volcanoes on three sides and lava flows from Mount Price during the last ice age formed The Barrier which blocked the valley which filled with water, creating Garibaldi Lake. Vantage points around the lake such as Panorama Ridge and Black Tusk allow relatively easy views of this magnificent lake with Mount Garibaldi and other impressive peaks surrounding it. At the Garibaldi Lake campsite the water is painfully cold, though plenty of brave hikers swim here as well as camp. Garibaldi Lake, though beautiful enough as a primary destination, is often a base camp for further hiking. The summit of Black Tusk is just a 2 hour hike from the lake. Panorama Ridge is a bit further at about 3 hours from the lake. Taylor Meadows is a beautiful, often flower filled valley, and home to the other Garibaldi Provincial Park campsites in the area. Helm Creek campsites are located past Black Tusk and Panorama Ridge, on the way to Cheakamus Lake. If you can manage transport, you can start at Rubble Creek trailhead and finish at Cheakamus Lake trailhead. This allows for a linear route instead of a there and back route. Garibaldi Lake, Taylor Meadows, Black Tusk, Panorama Ridge, Helm Creek and Cheakamus Lake are all beautiful destinations on their own, but combined in a 2 or 3 day hiking expedition are extraordinary.
The trail to Garibaldi Lake from the Rubble Creek trailhead, just off of the Sea to Sky Highway takes about two hours. You gain a fair amount of elevation, 900 metres in just 9 kilometres, trailhead to lake. Partway along the trail to Garibaldi Lake the trail forks. Right to Garibaldi Lake and left goes to another Garibaldi Provincial Park campground, Taylor Meadows. Past Taylor Meadows you can link back to Garibaldi Lake by yet another linking trail. At every trail fork, there are nice and clear signs and often large mapboards showing where and how far everything is. Beyond the main camping areas of Taylor Meadows and Garibaldi Lake, there are several amazing hikes. Black Tusk and Panorama Ridge lay just beyond these two camping areas. Black Tusk or Panorama Ridge, Taylor Meadows and Garibaldi Lake can be done in one long 30 kilometre day-hike, trailhead to trailhead, but expect to take 8-10 hours. The Garibaldi Lake trailhead is located just 30 minutes south of Whistler. Keep your eye out for the hard to miss Garibaldi Provincial Park highway sign.
The most scenic and direct hiking trail to Garibaldi Lake is from the popular Rubble Creek trailhead, just off the Sea to Sky Highway, 32.9 kilometres north of downtown Squamish at Cleveland Avenue. As this trailhead is also the best route to access Garibaldi Lake, Taylor Meadows and Panorama Ridge, it is sometimes very busy and some weekends find both campgrounds full. The Rubble Creek trailhead is easy to find, just keep your eye out for the large highway sign that reads, "Black Tusk(Garibaldi)" along the side of the Sea to Sky Highway 32.9 km north of Squamish(Cleveland Ave). The huge and free trailhead parking has a map and information board as well as an outhouse. Often you will find it full in the summer, however overflow parking extends down the side of the access road.
Rubble Creek is so named because of the large boulder(rubble) field deposited from The Barrier in previous, massive debris flows. The last occurred more than a century ago, when The Barrier partly gave way and an estimated thirty million cubic metres of rock crashed down near the now, Rubble Creek trailhead. The Barrier can be viewed along the trail to Garibaldi Lake just past the y junction after the 6 kilometre mark along the trail. A sign indicates the short path to the viewpoint.
The trail from Rubble Creek starts off by quickly ascending a wide, dirt path into deep forest. For the first 6 kilometres you only catch glimpses of the sky through the the thick forest of startlingly tall trees. Several switchbacks along the trail continue until you get to the first fork in the trail about 6.2 kilometres from the trailhead. Right takes you to past The Barrier, Lesser Garibaldi Lake and then to Garibaldi Lake(in 3 kilometres). There is a nice mapboard at this trail junction which gives you a good chance to plot your course. A good way to hike if doing a one day hike to Black Tusk or Panorama Ridge, is to take this left fork through Taylor Meadows and then return via Garibaldi Lake for a swim near the end of the journey.
The rocky and narrow row of islands in Garibaldi Lake just offshore from the Garibaldi Lake campsite are known as Battleship Islands. Named by the prolific mountaineer Neal Carter in 1927 "..because they are a group of tiny islands with often a single tree as a mast, presenting the appearance of boats, as viewed from Panorama Point(a lookout on Panorama Ridge)." The name "The Battleship Islands" originally appeared on AJ Campbell's 1928 map of Garibaldi Park.
If you take the left fork toward Taylor Meadows you will finally escape the heavy forest cover and emerge to spectacular scenery in about 20 minutes. Taylor Meadows is in a beautiful valley of gnarled, weather beaten trees, endless green meadows and in July and August, alpine flowers as far as you can see. What immediately comes into view towering in the distance is Black Tusk and the wooden boardwalk through Taylor Meadows continues straight as Black Tusk looms far ahead and to your left. This is where you will start taking photos almost continuously of Black Tusk, and probably not stop until you touch its sheer black sides. Though you are only half way there, from now on the views from the trail are amazing, varied, and progressively better. Just past Taylor Meadows the boardwalk ends and the dirt trail crosses a creek and then past a small, locked BC Parks building and another trail junction. The trail to the right leads to Garibaldi Lake and campsite area in 2 kilometres. The trail that continues straight goes to Black Tusk(5.5k), the Panorama Ridge(7k) and much further away, Helm Creek(9.2k) and Cheakamus Lake(18k). The views along this 2 kilometre section of trail between this junction and the Black Tusk junction are beautiful. Green meadows, flowers everywhere you look. Distant snow capped mountains and the starkly beautiful Black Tusk towering to your left.
The next junction you come to has a nice mapboard and more nice kilometre markings and direction signs. Once again you can turn right and head towards Garibaldi Lake or continue straight for Black Tusk, Panorama Ridge, Helm Creek and Cheakamus Lake. There is an outhouse here and ropes along the edge of the trail here to try to keep hikers on the trail. The area is ideal for camping with a beautiful creek and endless flat grassy areas, however a sign indicates not to camp here in order to not damage the fragile alpine areas off the trail. In just a hundred metres further another fork in the trail takes you left towards Black Tusk(3k) or straight toward Panorama Ridge(4.5k), and you begin ascending steadily through patches of forest occasionally breaking to reveal amazing views of Garibaldi Lake to your right and Black Tusk on your left. This section of trail, from this junction to Black Tusk is fairly steep and the most challenging. You will cross dozens of tiny creeks so water is never in short supply. This section of trail is often snow covered well into July, however, the snow is hard-packed, easy to walk on, and the trail is hard to stray from.
Overnight camping fees are required at all campgrounds, year-round. It is still free to day hike in the park, but sleeping in the park requires a reservation and camping fees apply in all areas of Garibaldi Park. You can’t pay by cash or at the trailheads or at the campgrounds. There are two ways to book a reservation to camp in Garibaldi Provincial Park. You can book online here. For mobile devices, scroll to bottom of page and click “Switch to Full Site”. Or via the Call Centre (an additional $5 surcharge applies): 1-800-689-9025 (toll free Canada) +1-519-826-6850 (International) 7:00 am-7:00 pm seven days a week. In recent years the trail was reasonably easy to hike through the quickly melting and tracked out snow in late May. The main concerns are the shoe soaking sections of knee deep snow and the possibility of losing the snow covered trail and getting lost. The tracked out route keeps it relatively easy to follow, however for some this already exhausting trail, may become frustratingly painful to hike, and potentially dangerous. It is surprisingly easy to absentmindedly set out on a trail like this without adequate clothing and decent pre-planning. You can quickly find yourself soaked with sweat, drenched socks and find yourself approaching hypothermia. It is doubtful that any week of the year passes without hiking, skiing or snowshoeing occurring in this part of Garibaldi Provincial Park. And owing to the large numbers of visitors a few unprepared hikers are often seen. Best to assume it will be very cold near the end of the trail and being dry and warm makes a world of difference!
Garibaldi Lake sits at the heart of the enormous Garibaldi Provincial Park. Trails head in all directions, and all of them to breathtaking destinations. Black Tusk is a starkly black, extinct volcano core that is crumbling slowly. It is, as its name suggests, looks like a Black Tusk coming out of the earth. It looks impossible to climb from a distance, yet is actually possible to summit without technical skill. The final small chute is quite challenging, and if you have a fear of heights, looking down from it may freak you out. Panorama Ridge is another great destination beyond Garibaldi Lake. This is the source of all the stunning images you will find on the internet, showing the impossibly blue Garibaldi Lake. If you are more adventurous, you will find a route from the Garibaldi Lake campground to Price Mountain. A bit more challenging than the other, well laid out and travelled trails in the park.
The campground at Garibaldi Lake is the largest and most popular in Garibaldi Park with 50 tent pads. It is open year-round, although it is only busy in the summer months. Though you get some skier and snowboarder activity in the winter, the snow and cold weather keeps people away. Along with the 50 tent pads, you have plenty of outhouses, picnic tables and a bear-proof hut for preparing and storing food. No sleeping is allowed in the hut. At the end of the campsites you will find a BC Parks ranger cabin which is often manned in the summer and sporadically the rest of the year. The campsites at Garibaldi Lake and Taylor Meadows are popular bases for hiking to Black Tusk and/or Panorama Ridge. The Helm Creek campground on the other side of Black Tusk and Panorama Ridge is another good base for these amazing sights. Generally Helm Creek is hiked from the Cheakamus Lake trailhead instead of the Rubble Creek trailhead. Fees Per Night: $10 Adult - $5 Kids(6-15) Campsite fees must be paid online in advance at the BC Parks Garibaldi Provincial Park's reservations page. There are no well defined hiking trails around the lake. The Panorama Ridge side of the lake is far to steep and wild to make a trail feasible. On the other side of the lake, hiking is possible to Mount Price, although the faint trail disappears into the alpine and route-finding can get very difficult. There are some trail markings that denote the trail past the BC Parks ranger cabin a the far end of the Garibaldi Lake campsite. Plenty of hikers have hiked around Garibaldi Lake in the past, but you have to know what you are doing and be well equipped, tough and determined to do it.
Near Garibaldi Lake is another popular and beautiful campground at Taylor Meadows. Taylor Meadows lacks the beautiful lake and distant glacier views you get from the campsite at Garibaldi Lake. You do get a much prettier forest and meadow setting at Taylor Meadows as well as stunning views of the always impressive Black Tusk. Fresh water is plentiful here as well as there is a pristine, glacier fed creek that runs through the campsites. As with Garibaldi Lake you have a food storage and preparation hut to use and there is a frequently manned ranger cabin nearby as well. Taylor Meadows has 40 well-spaced and organized tent pads sprinkled throughout the beautiful forest here. Though Garibaldi Lake is often considered the better campsite because you can swim in the stunningly beautiful, though frigidly cold lake, Taylor Meadows is beautiful with its lush green and flower filled meadows surrounding the campsite. Taylor Meadows tends to feel less hectic as Garibaldi Lake tends to draw the majority of visitors to the park. Both Taylor Meadows and Garibaldi Lake campsites are good if you are hiking to Black Tusk or Panorama Ridge as both connect to the Black Tusk trail and or the Panorama Ridge trail.
If you are hiking Black Tusk or Panorama Ridge in a day from Rubble Creek you can hike one route up and the other down. So you can hike through Taylor Meadows, up to Black Tusk or Panorama Ridge, then return via Garibaldi Lake for a swim. It is always nice to avoid retracing your steps in a hike and this way you only duplicate part of the trail in the first or last 5.5 kilometres where the trail forks left to Taylor Meadows or right to Garibaldi Lake. Fees Per Night: $10 Adult - $5 Kids(6-15) Campsite fees must be paid online in advance at the BC Parks Garibaldi Provincial Park's reservations page.
Helm Creek is the other BC Parks campground in this part of Garibaldi Provincial Park. Taylor Meadows and Garibaldi Lake campgrounds are on one side of Black Tusk and Panorama Ridge and the Helm Creek campground is on the other side. Part way to Cheakamus Lake, Helm Creek is much less busy, though you still find it full on many summer weekends. Helm Creek has 30 well spaced tent pads in a large meadow with Helm Creek surrounding it in one large arc. Helm Creek has bear proof cables on pulleys to lift your food out of reach of hungry bears. There are outhouses at Helm Creek, but the campground is wonderfully free of human constructions. If you are lucky enough to find yourself to be the only campers there you have the wonderful feeling that you have the whole of Garibaldi Park to yourself. Surrounding your tent you see only meadow, and idyllic creek and wilderness forest and mountains all around. One of those mountains is the wonderfully surreal and close Black Tusk. Helm Creek is a cute, meandering creek that winds its way from beyond Black Tusk, down the valley to the wonderful campground that takes its name. From the Helm Creek campground, Helm Creek descends further along the Helm Creek trail, until it joins Cheakamus River, not far from where it leaves Cheakamus Lake. The location of Helm Creek campground is pretty amazing for a variety of reasons. First it is just a great location. About halfway between Cheakamus Lake and Black Tusk it lays in some amazingly scenic areas. Beautiful, climbable mountains all around. Pristine fields of snow that run all the way to the base of Black Tusk well into July. Rivers, creeks and waterfalls everywhere you look from the idyllic campground. A large, grassy field ringed by trees and Helm Creek. What you always want from a campground is a convenient and clean water source and of course Helm Creek is both.
Another aspect of a great campground is a variety of beautiful views and a serene setting and again Helm Creek has both of these. The campground is so widespread that even if the area becomes busy, you can still manage to not hear your neighbours. The area really has no defined trails except the Helm Creek trail that runs past the campsite, but there are infinitely numerous directions you can wander. Exploring in any direction takes you to more and more pristine, green fields, streams, pocket lakes and mountain views. Though most just use it as a base to extend onto Black Tusk, it is a great base for so much more. Helm Peak, Corrie Peak, Cinder Cone, Empetrum Peak as well as the more frequented Panorama Ridge, Black Tusk and Garibaldi Lake. Possibly the nicest aspect of Helm Creek as a campground is that it is quiet and serene when compared with the other two area campgrounds. Garibaldi Lake and Taylor Meadows are very busy all summer long. In fact there is a posting part way up the trail to Garibaldi Lake indicating how crowded it is and if it is full. At Helm Creek you find yourself in a remote and quiet valley in the midst of paradise. From the trail junction in the campground you see the enticing sign indicating what is around you. The nice, well marked trail continues to Panorama Ridge in 7 kilometres. Black Tusk in 9.5 kilometres or Garibaldi Lake in 9 kilometres. All of these destinations branch off the main trail that ascends away from Helm Creek. Fees Per Night: $10 Adult - $5 Kids(6-15) Campsite fees must be paid online in advance at the BC Parks Garibaldi Provincial Park's reservations page.
There are outhouses (toilets) at various places in Garibaldi Park and one at both the start and end of the trail to Garibaldi Lake. The parking lot/trailhead at Rubble Creek has an outhouse. The campsites at Taylor Meadows and at Garibaldi Lake have outhouses. There is also an outhouse at the trail junction where the Black Tusk trail ascends from the main trail to the base of Black Tusk. These are very basic, pit toilets, usually equipped with toilet paper and serviced surprisingly often by BC Parks staff.
Bikes are not allowed in much of Garibaldi Park, including the routes to Garibaldi Lake. You can bike to Cheakamus Lake, but not up to Helm Creek toward Black Tusk. Use of motorized vehicles of any kind are restricted to park roads and parking areas. Fires are prohibited in the park due to the potential forest fire hazard. Arriving or departing the park by aircraft is not allowed, as well as harvesting natural resources such as mushrooms. Dogs are not permitted on the trail to Black Tusk or any other Garibaldi Provincial Park trails out of courtesy to the resident animals. There are a large number of black bears in the park and encounters with dogs result in unpredictable and potentially dangerous conflicts. There are quite a few excellent hiking trails in Whistler that are dog friendly. Whistler's Valley Trail and Lost Lake trails are dog friendly and run throughout Whistler. The Sea to Sky Trail, which runs over 30 kilometres through Whistler is a paradise trail for dogs as it runs through numerous parks, beaches and forests. Ancient Cedars is a nice, dog friendly hike that is 5k roundtrip and takes you into a thousand year old forest. Train Wreck is also dog friendly as well as the Rainbow-Sproatt Flank Trail that cuts along both Rainbow Mountain and Mount Sproatt. South of Whistler you will come to Brandywine Falls, which is a short, 2k (roundtrip) dog friendly hike to the amazing falls. About 25 minutes north of Whistler, Nairn Falls is another beautiful and dog friendly hiking trail.
Garibaldi Lake sits in the midst of a pristine wilderness with plenty of wildlife to see. Black bears and hoary marmots can be occasionally spotted. Black bears in the park are reclusive and not easily spotted. Hoary marmots, however, will emerge from nowhere and whistle to each other to help monitor any threats. Hoary marmots are cute, invariably pudgy, twenty plus pound ground squirrels that have evolved to live quite happily in the hostile alpine areas of much of the world. In the northwest of North America, marmots have a distinct grey in their hair, a hoary colour, so have been named hoary marmots. They manage to survive quite happily in the alpine, largely by hibernating for 8 months of the year and largely for having a surprisingly varied array of food in such an inhospitable environment. They live off of grasses, berries, lichens, mosses, and roots and flowers. And live quite well it seems, as they always look chubby, which has one great drawback. They are sought after by bears and wolves. They have a wonderful defense system though. They are constantly on watch and whistle loudly at the first sign of danger, alerting the colony. The prevalence of these "whistlers" as they came to be locally called, in the early days of London Mountain resulted in it's name being changed to Whistler Mountain in the 60's. Hiking on Whistler Mountain, Blackcomb Mountain or to Wedgemount Lake in the summer will almost guarantee an encounter with a chubby, jolly little Whistler hoary marmot.
The best and closest parking lot to access Garibaldi Lake is the Rubble Creek trailhead just off of the Sea to Sky Highway halfway between Squamish and Whistler. The Rubble Creek trailhead parking is well equipped with direction signs, a mapboard and outhouse. The access road that connects it to the Sea to Sky Highway is even paved and it is generally free of snow from May to November. Rubble Creek is the most popular route to Garibaldi Lake and consequently the most chaotic. The three big parking areas fill up on busy weekends, however the long access road seems to have enough overflow parking room to accommodate the busiest long weekends. This road is the only paved(not a heavily potholed, gravel road) to access a trailhead to Garibaldi Lake. Though very busy, the Rubble Creek trail to Garibaldi Lake is constantly maintained to a high standard. Plenty of helpful mapboards and trail signs keep you on track and aware of where you are. The tidy, natural dirt trail is wide enough to hike side-by-side most of the time. The constant ascent from here gets you to the Garibaldi Lake in just a couple hours. To get to Rubble Creek from Squamish(zero your odometer at Canadian Tire) on Hwy 99. At 32.9 kilometres look for the Black Tusk(Garibaldi) sign on the highway indicating you to turn right. 150 metres up this road it will fork. Take the right fork and continue up the paved road for 2.9 kilometres to the Rubble Creek trailhead for Black Tusk, Taylor Meadows, Panorama Ridge, Garibaldi Lake and much more. If you are coming from Vancouver you do have a public transit option that is very good. ParkBus.ca will bring you from downtown Vancouver to the Rubble Creek trailhead for just $49(each way).
