Ireland day 0336. Tuesday 30 August 2022- Canada2201

Today’s summary	Went over to the north side of Vancouver up the Sea to Sky Highway and then a superb scrambly climb up to the top of the Tunnel Bluffs Lookout. Absolutely amazing views.
Today’s weather	In a word, perfect. Wall to wall sunshine al day. Dry with no wind. About 28C

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The green line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Tunnel Bluffs Hike Vancouver

Commentary

This is going to be a very brief blog as I am feeling pretty tired, after a strenuous hike and a bit of lingering jet lag.

Basically, our family team headed over to the north side of Vancouver and then out on the Sea to Sky Highway in the direction of Squamish. Our aim was to climb up to the much revered Tunnel Bluffs lookout, which overlooks the islands and ocean to the north of Vancouver.

The Bluffs trail starts in an extremely modest and unassuming way – practically invisible, in fact, unless you know where you are going, right on the side of the major Sea to Sky highway. The most hazardous part of the trail is, actually, getting across the road to the start of the hike. But once we were safely across, we hiked steadily straight up a rough and steep path- assisted in parts by ropes fixed to the cliff sides which you could use to haul yourself up.

It was actually quite a tough climb – but it’s so steep that you ascend relatively quickly. And after a couple of short pauses en route, we suddenly found ourselves at the clearing which was the lookout. The views were simply astonishing. Glistening blue sea, a cloudless sky, and endless mountains, islands and forests striking off to infinity in all directions. A perfect spot for lunch of sandwiches and watermelon, drinking in a view which will doubtless sustain us through the darker winter months to come.

Eventually we turned round, retraced our steps, and were soon back at road. From there, we headed for a microbrewery in north Vancouver where we paused for relaxing and well earned beers before doing battle with the traffic back into central downtown. Just time for dinner in Kitsilano then an Uber back to our AirBnB and now, hopefully, I can at last collapse into bed!

Back tomorrow with, doubtless, more adventures to report.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Very modest and quite hard-to find trailhead, right on the side of the Sea to Sky Highway	Magnificent hemlock trees (I think) all the way up the trail

No idea what this fungus is actually called, but I thought it bore an uncanny resemblance to a fried egg	There are two intermediate lookouts before you reach the main one at the top. This is the second, and they afford a great opportunity to take a brief break from the relentless uphill slog

Nylon rope provides safety and assistance on some of the steeper sections of the path. A sort of via plasticata	Well deserved beers at a craft brewery in North Vancouver at the end

At the top looking pleased we’d made it. What a fantastic view, over Bowen Island out to Vancouver Island and the Pacific.