Garibaldi Lake Hike

Today, Derrick and I hiked one of the longest and most challenging hikes we've ever attempted.  I've been drooling over photos of Garibaldi Lake since we first booked our trip to Vancouver, and had this hike on my bucket list of places to see.  Derrick wasn't so sure he wanted to attempt the 5 hour, 18k hike, but I finally got him talked into it.  We gathered our gear, filled up our water bottles, stopped to grab some snacks for our backpacks, and headed off.  While taking off on the first few steps, my legs were already starting to ache, but we pressed on.

It seemed like the switch-backs were never ending, and after 35 minutes of continuous uphill hiking, Derrick started to rethink his decision to agree with me.  We hiked and hiked, passing km marker after km marker, and finally got to a break in the trail where it seemed to flatten out.

This was about the time that Derrick was so exhausted he didn't want to continue, and I popped the idea on him of going a slightly longer way, through Taylor Meadows, so we could see the other mountain peaks as well as some different scenery.  He wasn't too excited about it, but went along with the plan.  It was only going to be another 1.5 km out of the way.  No big deal, except for it was more uphill climbing.

We made it to Taylor Meadows, grabbed a few photos of "Black Tusk" and headed towards the lake.  This part of the hike was more enjoyable, as it wasn't all uphill, so we got some time to relax a bit before reaching Garibaldi Lake.

Upon arrival at the lake (almost 3 hours after we started), it was all I thought it would be, and the insects weren't too bad either, so we enjoyed our snacks along the waters edge and explored a little before making our way back down the mountain.

Downhill was just about as painful as uphill, but after what felt like an eternity, we made it back to the parking lot.  Overall the total hike took around 5 hours and we spent about an hour exploring at the lake, so it was a pretty long day of hiking!

Tonight our legs are so sore we both don't know if we will be able to walk in the morning, but it was a great trip and the beautiful view was well worth the effort!  Enjoy the photos I took along the way!