Cypress Provincial Park — Attraction in West Vancouver

Howe Sound Crest Trail The 28 km trail started for us (when you hike like most people do South to North) @ Cypress, after we dropped off one vehicle at Porteau Cove, along HWY 99.

We did this trail on Canada Day long weekend. We started Saturday morning at 11 am. We set up camp close to The Lions and spent the second night at Brunswick Lake. We finished at noon time on Monday. Amazing vistas along the trail - alpine hiking at its finest.

We hiked the trail with our German Shepard, however, generally speaking, we would not recommend this trail for dogs. There are areas where we needed to lift up and sometimes down the dog (areas with ropes).

The trail up to The Lions was very busy since the trail is only moderately difficult. However, once you go around The Lions, we had the trail mostly for ourselves. We encountered less than 20 people from this point.

This changed after we started in our second day. The East side of the West is challenging. Snow patches were frozen and made it dangerous. There were at least three areas where the trail can be called difficult.

When we reached Unnecessary Mountain, there was full sun, with no cloud in the sky which made the heavy backpacks feel even heavier.

Generally speaking the marking is ok, however, a couple of times we had to search for trail markers. It was disturbing to find many old firepits in the backcountry and garbage as well.

You should be in good physical condition before you go on this trail. You should not be afraid of heights, robes and chains which help you getting over large cliffs.

There was lots of water along the trail. Nights got cold, but it was ok. Annoying were the little flies and mosquitos. Our bug spray which normally works well had no effect...

Nice! The park has many natural highlights, including several sparkling mountain lakes, such as Blue Gentian, First, Yew, Cabin, and West Lakes, that are nestled below the peaks of Mount Strachan (1,454 m), Black Mountain (1,217 m), and Hollyburn Mountain (1,325 m).

Cypress Provincial Park once encompassed beautiful old-growth forests. In the 1960s and 1970s after clandestine logging, carried out under the guise of cutting ski trails, devastated much of the landscape. The clear-cut can still be seen from Vancouver. Today, commercial development in Cypress is still a hot issue. To see why groups such as Friends of Cypress Park and the Sierra Club of Canada oppose any further logging in the park, take a hike on one of the park’s more moderate trails, such as Hollyburn Mountain Trail. At 4,350 feet (1326 m), Hollyburn Mountain is one of the three peaks easily reached from the Cypress Parkway. The others are Black Mountain to the west and Mount Strachan to the north. Much of the unique old-growth forest on both Black and Strachan was thinned, if not wiped out completely, by logging. The subsequent cutting of trails for downhill skiing eliminated even more.

Cypress Provincial Park provides excellent wildlife-viewing opportunities. Small mammals, including squirrels, hares, and weasels share the wilderness areas with deer, black bears, and coyotes. Birdlife consists of ravens, gray jays, chickadees, warblers, woodpeckers, grouse, hawks and owls. Early morning is the best time for observing birds and mammals. As always in wilderness areas, hikers should be alert for wild animals, especially bears, and take the necessary safety...

I have been to the top of Hollyburn twice lately (snowshoeing). It makes far more sense to me to do this free trip than pay for the privilege, though if you do pay you can always hike to the lodge where I believe you can still procure a nice meal (never tried it myself, but the lodge is nice). Anyway, great view from the top. A huge negative is that they do not allow any sliding device for going down and will fine you if caught on one, hence the loss of a star. Obviously a few idiots have ruined it for the rest of us...probably sliding into people. You can always slide down on your bum which I did and was chastised by a somewhat rude park employee (who I have no doubt would have fined me had I used a sliding aid) and warned that some have broken an ankle doing this which I must admit is possible if one is not sensible (going too fast, catching a crampon unprepared and not being able to absorb the deceleration). Against that I met another park employee who was full of joy and humor. This is also a great place to hike in the summer. Gorgeous view from the top plus great scenery along the way. Moderate difficulty. Starts with a steep section, then gradual elevation gain for quite a while, then steep near the end and really steep for...