This May, for Kait's 23rd birthday, we took a trip out to Squamish BC to hike the Stawamus Chief, a well known and very popular hiking trail that makes its way up and around the back of the 700 metre granite cliff face and gives hikers access to the top of the cliff faces.
After waking up, we grabbed our breakfast bagels, filled our water bottles, and left for the Chief. After we made a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up some sandwiches, watermelon, and some granola bars for the hike, we hopped on Highway 1 heading west out towards Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver. Right after the exit for the ferry terminal, the highway turned into Highway 99 which is better known as the Sea to Sky Highway, which eventually leads to Squamish, whistler and Pemberton. We followed the scenic highway for about 45 minutes until we reached the parking lot at the base of the Chief just outside out Squamish. We hopped out of the car, grabbed our day packs, and made our way to the start of the trail. We noticed along the short walk from the parking lot to the trail head that there were film crews arriving as well. We found out later that they were there to film some commercial. The poor crew had to hike all their heavy cameras and equipment up the trail.
The trail starts out flat as it goes through a walk-in campground. After roughly 100 metres of this, the climb begins and the hike goes from really easy to not-so-easy very quickly.
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| Looking up the trail at the start. |
Anyone who has ever hiked Grouse Mountain's The Grouse Grind will have a rough idea of what this hike is like. Although not quite as steep as the Grouse Grind, the trail leading up the backside of the Chief is still tough. While there is the occasional set of wooden staircases, most of the "stairs" are actually large boulders spaced semi-evenly apart. It doesn't take long to start feeling that burning sensation in your legs. Within 5 or 10 minutes, both Kait and I were breathing heavy and trying to ignore the feeling in our legs, as were many of the people we came across. Everyone was very polite of the trail allowing faster hikers to pass and opposite direction hiker would pause and allow those heading down to go by. Almost every person who paused for another hiker would say thank you and response with a " no problem is gives me an excuse to rest". Despite the the physical challenge, you can't help but notice how beautiful the scenery is. All around us we heard the chatter of birds and the sound of running water coming from a river running parallel to the trail.
The hike is wonderful and when you reach the top, it gives you the most spectacular view of Squamish and the surrounding area, but the view does not come without a price. The trail really makes you work for it.
About halfway up the mountain, there is an opening on the right hand side of the trail with a large boulder perched on top of a smooth, solid rock hill. Kait and I took a break here to get some water and have a snack. I almost always stop here for a short brake on the way up and even here you get a nice view down the valley behind the Chief. The valley is covered in trees and offers a North-South view all the way down almost to the Sea to Sky Highway and it also offers a view of the new Sea to Sky Gondola.
As we got closer to the top, the trail snaked its way up into a small corridor that ran up between the two cliffs that make up the first and second peaks. Here, the trail makes a series of switch backs and there are lots of trees and boulders on either side of the trail. When you get to the top of this corridor, there are more choices to make. Along the left hand side if you follow the rock face you will find a ladder made out of rebar bolted into the rock going strait up to a small lookout just below first peak. Although it may look like a way to access the first peak, don't let it fool you. It will only lead to a steep, slippery rock slope that is very hazardous to try to climb up. This is also a bad route to take if you're afraid of heights at all. Climbing up the "ladder" is relatively easy. Going down is not so easy. The rebar makes it easy to loose your footing and grip, and a few sections of the ladder are a bit of a stretch, even for taller people with longer arms and legs. In my opinion, the view isn't worth the trouble nor the unnecessary risk of getting up and coming down.
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| The ladder on the left hand side. |
The other choice on the right hand side leads you up along a thin strip of rock overgrown with trees and roots. While that might sound a little daunting to some, luckily the tree roots provide fairly good footholds and there is a chain bolted into the rock wall on the right hand side to aid hikers along their ascent as well as provide a little more security in case you slip or loose your balance. While it isn't necessary to use the chain to get up, some may find it useful. After we reached the top of the strip of rock, we doubled back across the top of the small cliff.
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| The way up on the right hand side. |
As you walk along this somewhat thin walkway, you are flanked on your left side by yet another steep rock face and the ledge on your right which falls away to the small corridor I mentioned earlier. We followed this walkway as it curved down and to the left towards a short crevice leading to a ladder. After making our way to the top of the ladder, we followed the hill up until we finally reached the top of the second peak.
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| The path after doubling back. |
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| The ladder on the left, crevice on the right. |
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| The view after reaching the top of the ladder. |
We stopped here at the top of the Chief to sit down, have lunch, and enjoy the wonderful view of Squamish and the surrounding area. While eating, we were approached by a few strangers that wanted to steal our lunch. About 5 little chipmunks and a squirrel raced around us and the others sitting nearby, racing in and grabbing crumbs of food when no one was looking and darting off as soon as we did. One or two brave ones even came and ate right out of another hiker's hand.
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| Looking out to Squamish. |
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| Looking to the left from the 2nd Peak. |
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| Looking at First Peak. |
After our lunch, we began to make our way down around the towards the back of the Chief. To make your way back down the mountain, you can go two ways. You can either go back the way you came which a lot of people do, or like Kait and I, you can go down the back of the Chief. Not many know that there's a way down the back of the mountain and it can be a little difficult to find. To get to the trail, you have to keep heading roughly North from the second peak. While walking, watch downhill towards the right for trail markings. There should be bright pink or orange tape hanging from branches to mark the trail. Regardless of which way down you take, you need to be careful. After hiking up the mountain, many hikers have very tired, shaky, wobbly legs which can make the trip back down quite dangerous. This is especially so if you're going back down the ladder, through the crevice and along the steep cliffs.
The trail down the back of the Chief isn't much better. While there are the occasional flat sections of the trail, most of the way down is spent walking down an old, steep, dried up creek bed covered in boulders ranging in size from a person's head to car-sized rocks. Not only that, the distance between them can be like walking down stairs, or it can be quite a drop, depending on the route down the trail you take. Don't get me wrong, if you have any hiking experience you'll do just fine and can find an easy enough way down, but if you're someone who likes a little challenge, you'll be able to find that too.
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| The view from the trail as it leads down the back of the Chief. |
Kait and I followed this trail down until we reached a bridge which we followed until we reached Shannon Falls, which is another local tourist attraction. We spent 10 minutes there taking pictures and resting before we walked back to the car for the drive home.
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| The bridge heading towards Shannon Falls. |
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| Looking down from the bridge. |
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| Shannon Falls. |
After we got back to Vancouver, we ended our day by going out to grab some dinner from Sushi Nanaimo and heading over to Third Beach in Stanley Park to watch the sun go down and the 9 O'Clock Gun fire.
It was a great way to spend a day off.
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| We also got to see a naval helicopter fly over. |
