Last week a couple of friends and I made last minute plans to head up to Garibaldi Lake. The recommended hike was rated as intermediate with a 820m total elevation gain and an estimate of 5 hours to complete. The drive itself from Vancouver was just under 2 hours.
I haven’t hiked this long since my trip to Peru on the Inca Quarry Trail, so the distance was moderately challenging, minus the altitude factor. It was quite an enjoyable hike, but prepared to spend more time than what they estimate for stopovers and photo ops along the way! We walked the recommended loop through Taylor Meadows, took a small detour midway to Panorama Ridge, then down to the lake and back, taking us a total of around 7.5 hours.
Beautiful lake – the weather was cloudy/foggy, with some short spurts of sunny breaks in between, which was perfect. Glad that the weather turned out much better than the forecasted rain!

Shutter speed: 1/160s / Aperture: f/4.0 / Focal: 24mm / ISO: 1600

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4km in, reaching the clouds

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Grey Jay

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Starting to see a bit of flowers

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Reaching Taylor Meadows – can totally imagine it being filled with flowers

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Our first glimpse of Garibaldi Lake!

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Beautiful blues

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Destination acquired – taking a short break on the bridge

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Look at those amazing colours!

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Glaciers in the distance

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Curious chipmunks

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Looking down at The Barrier – gorgeous panorama

Shutter speed: 1/100s / Aperture: f/6.3 / Focal: 24mm / ISO: 320

Shutter speed: 1/400s / Aperture: f/4.0 / Focal: 105mm / ISO: 320

Shutter speed: 1/400s / Aperture: f/4.0 / Focal: 24mm / ISO: 320

Shutter speed: 1/80s / Aperture: f/7.1 / Focal: 24mm / ISO: 160
August 25th, 2013 at 4:08 pm
Amazing I can’t believe hiking on a cloudy day can look really pretty!!!
August 26th, 2013 at 6:42 pm
Kat: Actually, photos look prettiest and best under cloudy skies!