Garibaldi Park Whistler A to Z: NunatukParkhurst Ridge is an incredible place for a lot of reasons.  Of course, the view is spectacular with Green Lake's absurdly vivid green coloured water.  Snowy mountains all around.  Wonderfully varied clifftop terrain with easily accessible cliff plateaus leading like giant steps down to the water.  The forest on the ridge is sparse enough to be always sunny, but with plenty of trees to make it feel secluded.

Whistler & Garibaldi Hiking

Easy Hiking Trail WhistlerAlexander Falls  Moderate Hiking Trail Whistler Dog FriendlyAncient Cedars  Moderate Hiking Trail WhistlerBlack Tusk  Pay Use Hiking Trail WhistlerBlackcomb Mountain  Easy Hiking Trail WhistlerBrandywine Falls  Moderate/Hard Hiking Trail Whistler Dog FriendlyBrandywine Meadows  Moderate/Hard Hiking Trail Whistler Dog FriendlyBrew Lake  Easy Hiking Trail WhistlerCallaghan Lake  Moderate Hiking Trail WhistlerCheakamus Lake  Whistler Hiking Trail EasyCheakamus River  Whistler Hiking Trail HardCirque Lake  Whistler Hiking Trail EasyFlank Trail  Moderate Hiking Trail WhistlerGaribaldi Lake  Moderate Hiking Trail WhistlerGaribaldi Park  Moderate Hiking Trail WhistlerHelm Creek  Moderate Hiking Trail Whistler Dog FriendlyJane Lakes  Joffre Lakes Hike in Whistler in SeptemberJoffre Lakes  Moderate Hiking Trail Whistler Dog FriendlyKeyhole Hot Springs  Hiking Trail Hard Dog FriendlyLogger’s Lake  Whistler Hiking Trail EasyMadeley Lake  Moderate/Hard Hiking Trail Whistler Dog FriendlyMeager Hot Springs Easy Hiking Trail WhistlerNairn Falls  Whistler Hiking Trail HardNewt Lake  Moderate Hiking Trail WhistlerPanorama Ridge  Easy Hiking Trail WhistlerParkhurst Ghost Town  Hiking Trail ModerateRainbow Falls  Moderate Hiking Trail WhistlerRainbow Lake  Moderate/Hard Hiking Trail Whistler Dog FriendlyRing Lake  Moderate Hiking Trail WhistlerRusset Lake  Whistler Hiking Trail EasySea to Sky Trail  Easy Hiking Trail WhistlerSkookumchuck Hot Springs  Easy Hiking Trail WhistlerSloquet Hot Springs  Moderate/Hard Hiking Trail Whistler Dog FriendlyMount Sproatt  Moderate Hiking Trail WhistlerTaylor Meadows  Whistler Hiking Trail EasyTrain Wreck  Hiking Trail Hard - Whistler TrailsWedgemount Lake  Pay Use Hiking Trail WhistlerWhistler Mountain

  Winter Hiking WhistlerJanuary  Winter Hiking WhistlerFebruary  Spring Hiking WhistlerMarch  Spring Hiking WhistlerApril  Spring Hiking WhistlerMay  Summer Hiking WhistlerJune  Summer Hiking WhistlerJuly  Summer Hiking WhistlerAugust  Fall Hiking WhistlerSeptember  Fall Hiking WhistlerOctober  Fall Hiking WhistlerNovember  Winter Hiking WhistlerDecember

The trees on Parkhurst Ridge are quite impressive as well.  Many absurdly hardy and contorted lodgepole pines grow in bizarre ways.  Bent over from harsh winters they have a strange beauty in their hardy, weather battered forms.  One particular lodgepole pine on the ridge, judging by its trunk diameter must be over 50 years old, but stands only a couple metres tall.  Next to this extraordinary krummholz tree is an absolutely incredible place to camp.  A flat, mossy clearing at the edge of the cliff, surrounded by trees but plenty of views of Green Lake.  Just a couple metres away is the flat clifftop overlooking Green Lake with the sturdy, old picnic table nestled against the trees.  The Parkhurst Ridge Trail continues down from here and emerges at the train tracks.  If you cross the tracks and walk for a couple minutes keeping Green Lake on your right you will see a tiny wooden hut on your left.  This is an old crumbling relic that used to store supplies for maintaining the railroad.  Next to this little house you will see the continuation of the Parkhurst Ridge Trail as it quickly ascends from the train tracks back up to the ridge that leads to the main part of Parkhurst where most of the houses once were.

Parkhurst Map Complete v14

Below is the Parkhurst Ridge view across to Mount Sproatt through early morning mist in Whistler Valley.  The vibrant green colour that gives Green Lake its name is caused by suspended particles in the glacier water reflecting light.  Much of Green Lake is fed by Fitzsimmons Creek that flows down between Blackcomb Mountain and Whistler Mountain and is fed by several glaciers, but most notably by Overlord Glacier.

Parkhurst Ridge View of Green Lake and Mount Sproatt

Parkhurst Ridge Mt Sproatt View

Amazing Views from Parkhurst Ridge

Parkhurst Ridge has several flat, rocky areas overlooking Green Lake, the highest of which has a picnic table with this spectacular view.  Early morning is a particularly beautiful time to catch Green Lake with its vivid colours and glass-like surface.  In the picture below you can see the triangle of land in the middle distance on the left, this is the site of the old Parkhurst Sawmill.  For 30 years this point of land was a hive of activity with stacks of lumber, a sawmill with a tall smokestack and few trees.  Today it is a thick forest with several impressive relics of the past including two logging tractors from the 1930's and one from the 1940's.

Early Morning View From Parkhurst Ridge

Parkhurst Ridge Sunrise

Parkhurst Ridge Picnic View

Parkhurst Ridge Picnic View

Parkhurst Ridge Mangled Lodgepole Pines

Parkhurst Ridge is surrounded by incredible scenery and the rocky terrain results in some interesting arid features.  Many of the trees appear to be brutalized by the environment and in the case of the lodgepole pine pictured here, interestingly mangled.  It appears quite old, yet contorted in different directions by heavy snow, other trees and other unknown circumstances.  Hardy trees like this are know as krummholz, which translates from German to English as crooked, bent and twisted wood.

Parkhurst Ridge Green Lake Camp

Parkhurst Ridge Lodgepole Pines

Parkhurst Ridge Deadfall Viewpoints

The Parkhurst Ridge Trail takes you past one beautiful Green Lake viewpoint after another and often through strangely beautiful tangles of hardy trees and deadfall.  The skeleton-like tree seem strangely appropriate to a ghost town, especially moments after sunrise as picture below, where the forest is dark and shadowy and the morning mist is lingering in the valley.

Parkhurst Ridge Tangle of Trees

Most of the old houses in Parkhurst are found after you cross the train tracks, but this collapsed house can be found on the Green Lake side of the train tracks in Parkhurst.  As you wander further north toward the end of Green Lake the terrain becomes more hilly and tricky to follow.  You can continue down to the shore where Green River starts, but the forest is pretty dark and there is not a whole lot to see.

Parkhurst Ridge Collapsed House

Before the Parkhurst Ridge Trail bends away from Green Lake you get some more great views.  The trail then winds its way up, over and around several hills and valleys before emerging at the train tracks just a few metres from the Parkhurst Trail that ascends into the forest to a T junction.  Right takes you to Parkhurst via the Parkhurst Trail and left takes you back down the Parkhurst Trail to the Parkhurst Wye, then across Wedge Creek to the Parkhurst trailhead.

Parkhurst Ridge Green Lake

Parkhurst Whistler Map v13

Parkhurst Ridge in Winter

Parkhurst Ridge in the winter is similarly spectacular.  Snowshoeing there is pretty exhausting compared to hiking on a nice summer day and but few venture up here in the winter.  You don't get Green Lake at its bright green best, but the winter wonderland that surrounds you more than makes up for it.  In the picture here Green Lake is actually frozen, but so clear you can't tell.  From Parkhurst Ridge in November the surface of the lake is like a sheet of glass and just a couple centimetres thick.

Snowshoeing Parkhurst Ridge

Parkhurst Ridge Winter Camp

Snowshoeing Parkhurst Ridge

The Parkhurst Blue Face House

When you snowshoe to the old Parkhurst Blue Face House in the middle of winter, you find it wonderfully serene and haunting with few visitors this time of year.  Though the snow makes the forest bright and beautiful, as soon as you enter the house the world becomes shadowy and a bit spooky.  Graffiti all through the house fills it with a red, yellow and green glow that is far brighter from reflected light from the snow than in the summertime.

Parkhurst House Winter

The Parkhurst Caterpillar

Down at the lake you find the menacingly huge Caterpillar tractor covered in snow.  The enormous steel tracks can only be appreciated when you get up close to them and get a good look at how solid they built things in the 1930's.  Everything you see is made of thick, solid steel, even the steering wheel!

Parkhurst Caterpillar Winter

Parkhurst Whistler Map Snow v5

More Parkhurst Ghost Town in Winter | More Parkhurst Ghost Town in Summer

More Whistler & Garibaldi Park Hiking A to Z

Cornice: a wind deposited wave of snow on a ridge, often overhanging a steep slope or cliff.  They are the result of snow building up on the crest of a ...
Read more
The Peak 2 Peak Gondola connects Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain at a dizzying height of 436 metres(1427 feet).  It runs all winter and in the ...
Read more
Mount Garibaldi is the huge, potentially active volcano that Garibaldi Provincial Park is named after.  Mount Garibaldi also lends its name to the Garibaldi ...
Read more
Chimney: a gap between two vertical faces of rock or ice.  Often a chimney offers the only viable route to the summit of a mountain.  An example of this is Black ...
Read more
The Coast Mountains run from the Yukon down to Vancouver along the west coast of British Columbia in a band that averages 300 kilometres wide(190 miles).  ...
Read more
Wedge Creek cuts through the valley that separates Wedge Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain and empties into Green River near the north end of Green Lake.  ...
Read more
Along Whistler’s Valley Trail near Rainbow Park you come across some impressively unusual trees. Unlike most other Whistler trees with straight trunks and ...
Read more
Alec Dalgleish (1 August 1907 - 26 June 1934) was a highly respected mountaineer and climber out of Vancouver in the 1920's and 1930's.  His enthusiasm and ...
Read more

Amazing Hiking Trails in Whistler

The Best Whistler & Garibaldi Park Hiking Trails!

Brew Lake is beautiful mountain lake just a short drive south of Whistler and is relatively unknown and seldom hiked. Laying at the base of Mount Brew, Brew Lake lays in a massive alpine valley of enormous ...
Read more
Sloquet Hot Springs is a wonderfully wild set of shallow, man-made pools fed by a small, all natural, and very hot, waterfall. The pools stretch from the waterfall to the large and crashing Sloquet River. The ...
Read more
Madeley Lake is a gorgeous mountain lake located high up in the Callaghan Valley just a short drive past Alexander Falls.  From Whistler Village it takes about 50 minutes to drive the 27.4 kilometres to get ...
Read more
Panorama Ridge is easily one of the most amazing hikes in Garibaldi Provincial Park.  The 15 kilometre(9.3 mile) hike from the trailhead at Rubble Creek to Panorama Ridge takes you through beautiful and deep ...
Read more

Whistler & Garibaldi Park Best Hiking by Month!

December hiking in Whistler is mainly done on snowshoes, though not always. If it hasn't snowed much recently then trails such as Whistler Train Wreck and ...
Read more
There are plenty of beautiful and free snowshoe trails in Whistler and Garibaldi Provincial Park.  From the surreal paintings of Whistler Train Wreck to ...
Read more
February is a great month for snowshoeing in Whistler and Garibaldi Park. The days slowly get longer, but the temperatures stay consistently cold.  Expect ...
Read more
March is usually a snowy month in Whistler, though in 2024 not a whole lot of snow has fallen. Snowshoes are already not necessary for lots of trails in and ...
Read more

Free Camping Gear Delivery to Garibaldi Park

Explore BC Hiking Destinations!

Whistler Hiking Trails

Hiking in Whistler is spectacular and wonderfully varied. Looking at a map of Whistler you see an extraordinary spider web of hiking trails that are unbelievably numerous. Easy trails, moderate trails and challenging hiking trails are all available. Another marvellous ...
Read more

Squamish Hiking Trails

Squamish is located in the midst of a staggering array of amazing hiking trails. Garibaldi Provincial Park sprawls alongside Squamish and up and beyond Whistler. Tantalus Provincial Park lays across the valley to the west and the wonderfully remote Callaghan Valley ...
Read more

Vancouver Hiking Trails

Vancouver is surrounded by seemingly endless hiking trails and mountains to explore.  Massive parks line up one after another.  Mount Seymour Provincial Park, Lynn Canyon Park, Grouse Mountain, Cypress Park and the enormous Garibaldi Park all contribute to Vancouver ...
Read more

Clayoquot Hiking Trails

Clayoquot Sound has a staggering array of hiking trails within it.  Between Tofino and Ucluelet, Pacific Rim Park has several wilderness and beach trails, each one radically different from the last.  The islands in the area are often Provincial parks on their own with ...
Read more

Victoria Hiking Trails

Victoria has a seemingly endless number of amazing hiking trails.  Most take you to wild and beautiful Pacific Ocean views and others take you to tranquil lakes in beautiful BC Coastal Rainforest wilderness.  Regional Parks and Provincial Parks are everywhere you turn in ...
Read more

The West Coast Trail

The West Coast Trail was created after decades of brutal and costly shipwrecks occurred along the West Coast of Vancouver Island.  One shipwreck in particular was so horrific, tragic and unbelievable that it forced the creation of a trail along the coast, which ...
Read more