Vancouver is surrounded by seemingly endless hiking trails and mountains to explore. Massive parks line up one after another. Mount Seymour Provincial Park, Lynn Park, Grouse, Cypress and the enormous Garibaldi Provincial Park all contribute to Vancouver being a hiking paradise.
VancouverHikingMaps
There are plenty of moderately challenging Vancouver hiking trails to choose from. These are five trails that stand out from the rest. Not too difficult, yet all have sensational views. Hollyburn, Dog Mountain and Seymour are at the end of beautiful drives to reach the trailheads.
Burnaby Lake Regional Park has a series of trails that add up to 9 kilometres if done in a circular route around the lake. There are in fact 19 kilometres of trails in the park. The various trails include the 2.6 kilometres Cottonwood Trail, the 1.8 kilometres. Brunette Headwaters Trail, the 0.8 kilometres Avalon Trail which connects the Burnaby Equestrian Centre with the Southshore Trail.
The 3.4 kilometres Southshore Trail, and the smaller trails, Conifer Loop, Spruce Trail Loop and the Pavillion Trail. Burnaby Lake is often alive with activity. Whether on the water or around it. Over 400 types of creatures live in the area. Bald eagles, ospreys, herons, beavers and ducks are all frequently seen. Hiking and birdwatching are the main draws to the park, however, canoeing, rowing and kayaking are also done here. The Burnaby Canoe and Kayak Club and the Burnaby Lake Rowing Club practice here quite often. There are several access points to Burnaby Lake Regional Park. The four main access points are the Burnaby Sports Complex entrance, the Glencarin Traiilhead entrance, the Avalon Avenue entrance and the Piper Avenue Entrance.
Directions to Burnaby Lake
The easiest place to start hiking in Burnaby Lake Park is to start at the Nature House on Piper Avenue. From the Lougheed Highway in Burnaby, turn south on Brighton Ave, then right on Winston Ave, then left on Piper Ave.
The Kitsilano beaches begin as soon as you cross the Burrard Bridge and enter the residential paradise of Kitsilano. Though only this first beach is named Kitsilano Beach, you can walk from one beach to the next ...
Mount Hanover is another amazing and accessible peak in the North Shore mountains. Located in the beautiful Cypress Provincial Park, Mount Hanover is among several other prominent summits on the amazing Howe ...
Coliseum Mountain is one of several beautiful hikes in the Lynn Valley's beautiful Lynn Headwaters Regional Park. It's not terribly difficult, but it is very long. 12 kilometres from the trailhead to the ...
Everyone knows the Grouse Grind as the fantastically popular 2.9 kilometre workout in Vancouver. What is less known is that it is the gateway, or rather back door to some amazing hiking in the Lynn ...
The Chief is the mammoth rock face that towers over Squamish. Though hardly believable from looking at, the summit is an easy two hour hike. In fact there are three peaks, South (First), Centre (Second), and ...
Levette Lake is a nice mountain lake located in the enormous Squamish Valley that drains Squamish River into Howe Sound. There are some nice views and minimal elevation gain along the trail. The amazing ...
Elfin Lakes in Garibaldi Park is an absolutely phenomenal, though long, hiking, biking, snowshoeing and skiing trail that begins at the Diamond Head area in Squamish. From Whistler Village, the trailhead is ...
Shannon Falls towers above Howe Sound at 335 metres as the third tallest falls in BC. The wonderful, though very short trail winds through a beautiful old growth forest to get to the base of the falls. From ...
The Sea to Sky Trail is a 180 kilometre multi-use trail that runs from Squamish to D'Arcy. The trail is still under construction in many parts, however, the amazing route through Whistler is finally in ...
Brandywine Meadows is a nice, relatively short hike to a massive flower filled valley high up in Callaghan Valley. Located 40 minutes south of Whistler, this tough and sometimes muddy trail gains a huge 550 ...
Callaghan Lake Provincial Park is a relatively untouched wilderness of rugged mountainous terrain. The valley walls were formed by relatively recent glaciation. Evidence of this can be seen in the ...
Ancient Cedars is a nice, easy/moderate 2.5 kilometre (1.6 mile) hiking trail on the far side of Cougar Mountain, just 13.1 kilometres north of Whistler Village. A small, untouched grove of huge western ...