Hike to Cheakamus Lake
20 July 2011
I recently took a quick trip to Cheakamus Lake, which is in Garibaldi Provincial Park. The trailhead is 8.5km off of the Sea-to-Sky highway at Function Junction, which is the southernmost part of Whistler.
It was probably 15 years ago the last time I went on this hike. I remember hiking up to Helm Creek with my mom, and taking this great picture in an alpine meadow with Black Tusk in the background. Pulling into the parking lot, the memories of this place and the hike came back to me like a flood. Even though I hadn't been here in over a decade, I could still remember the details of what was in store for me on this hike with amazing clarity.
The hike from the parking lot to Cheakamus Lake is 3km, and it is a further 4km to the Singing Creek camping site. There isn't much elevation gain, and the trail goes through an old forest. Although it was a weekday, there were quite a few people on the trail.
The campsites at Cheakamus Lake and Singing Creek were both full of tents of overnight campers. There were even some mountain bikers making their way to the lake and back. I was just there for the afternoon, so I went straight to Singing Creek to take in the views, have a snack and then make my way back to the parking lot. These two pictures were taken from Singing Creek. The first one is looking back at where the trail meets Cheakamus Lake. The bottom one is looking at the Southeast end of the lake.
This is an easy and rewarding hike in Whistler. Not too much work, and the camping sites are right by the lake. There are many more ambitious hikes to be done in Whistler this summer. Once the snow melts a little bit more, then I will start climbing some peaks.
