Squamish, British Columbia
What better way to start a day of adventuring through Canada than breakfast at Tim Horton’s? I don’t know for sure, but it’s my (American) understanding that going to Tim Horton’s is a really Canadian thing to do (although Matt now informs me that the northern U.S. is actually home to several Tim Horton’s). Regardless, Tim Horton’s coffee and Timbit’s (donut holes) fueled our second day in Canada, and our drive north from Vancouver to Squamish.
Squamish sits at the northern end of the Sea to Sky Highway, the north-south stretch of road connecting all of British Columbia, from Vancouver to Lillooet. Isn’t Sea to Sky a beautiful name for an expressway?
The drive to Squamish takes about an hour from North Vancouver, and as the highway’s name might imply, it’s a scenic route gripping the mountainsides that flank the fjord-like waters of the glistening Howe Sound.
We reached Squamish around 10am—plenty of time for a full day’s adventuring in the mountains. First on our list: the Sea to Sky Gondola.
Matt and I love gondolas, those little metal boxes that dangle from cables and crawl their way up sturdy mountains. We’ve ridden in quite a few, actually, but this was easily the longest and tallest gondola we’d ever taken. In total, we were airborne for about 20 minutes as the gondola whisked us 885m (2,904 feet!) above sea level, treating us to dizzying views of Howe Sound below.
Within seconds of entering our gondola cabin, we were soaring over the tops of pine trees; yet still we climbed, until we were scaling a monolithic cliff, and then more trees, until finally, as our little rental car became a tiny ant on the ground beneath us, we reached the Summit Lodge.
If you have glanced through this blog, you might recall that Matt and I honeymooned in New Zealand, where the views ranged from dazzling to majestic to truly sublime. During that trip, I was small-minded enough to convince myself that I’d never again witness anything as beautiful as New Zealand, with its azure blue waters, towering mountain peaks, sheep-speckled hills, and verdant green rainforests. Enter British Columbia. As we climbed out of our glass-and-metal cabin, our world expanded.
Canada invaded our senses: eyes blinded by the sparkle of the waters below; lungs filled with the scent of cedar, pine, and sap; ears attuned to the woodpecker’s rhythmic hammer; goosebumps raised by the chill of a mountain breeze. At every turn, the jagged peaks of the Coast Mountains rutted up around us. We danced back and forth from viewing platform to viewing platform, too moved for words, too thrilled to stand still.
At the top of the mountain, we braved the Sky Pilot Suspension Bridge that connects the Summit Lodge to a distant rocky outcropping, only just daring to take a peak at the plunging ravine below, and shrieking as the wood-and-cable walkway swayed with our movement.
We then took a short tramp down the Spirit Trail that loops into thick forest, marveling at the history of the Squamish First Nation, an Indian tribe whose ancestral lands encompass this area.
Finally, we ate heartily at the Summit Lodge, treating ourselves to seats on its deck area, cantilevered over the mountain edge, before riding the gondola back to our car.
