Squamish sits in the midst of some amazing places to hike. Garibaldi Provincial Park sprawls from Squamish up and beyond Whistler. Tantalus Provincial Park lays across the valley to the west and the beautiful and desolate, by comparison, Callaghan Valley to the north.
GaribaldiProvincialPark
Garibaldi Provincial Park wraps around Squamish and is home to some amazing hiking trails. Garibaldi Lake, Panorama Ridge, Black Tusk and Elfin Lakes are all wonderful hiking destinations in this extraordinary Provincial Park so close to Squamish.
Mount Strachan is part of the trio of mountains, also Black Mountain and Hollyburn Mountain that form a bowl, or Cypress Bowl that give the resort its name. The Cypress part of the name comes from the Cypress or Yellow Cedar that fills the valley. Both Mount Strachan and Hollyburn Mountain are easy hikes from the Cypress Resort parking lot. Mount Strachan is a short but beautiful hike that can be done in just a couple hours from the trailhead at Cypress Mountain Resort.
It's a nice taste of the Howe Sound Crest Trail that extends to the horizon from here. For Mount Strachan you can start near the main lodge walk directly up the gravel road and start along the Yew Lake trail. This immediately gets you into deep forest as you ascend toward the Howe Sound Crest Trail. There are excellent signs at all the trail junctions. The Howe Sound Crest Trail comes to a fork at about 2.5 kilometres from the trailhead near Cypress Mountain Lodge. Taking the trail to the right takes you to Mount Strachan in about 15 minutes. Past the Mount Strachan north peak and Mount Strachan south peak you can continue by following the Mount Strachan trail which in turn connects to the Baden Powell Trail returning you to where you began near the Cypress Mountain Lodge. Roundtrip, this circle route is 6 kilometres and should take about 2 hours. Mount Strachan is part of the 29k Howe Sound Crest Trail as it lays at the one end of this span at the Cypress trailhead. Among the hiker friendly mountains (from Cypress north) on the Howe Sound Crest Trail are: St Mark`s Summit, Unnecessary Mountain, The Lions, Mount Harvey, Mount Hanover, Brunswick Mountain and finally Deeks Peak.
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