Another awesome day for a hike. High Falls Creek is an excellent choice for a hike when your group consists of new hikers. With its frequent views of Squamish Valley, the Falls, and the omnipresent mountain vistas, everyone is sure to have great time.
To get to the trailhead you'll have to drive to Squamish, while heading North on HWY 99 turn left at Squamish Valley Road. Stay on this road, you'll shortly come to a fork, go left. There will be two bridges to cross, and you'll pass by a power station. Note that after you cross the first bridge, you'll see another substantial bridge crossing over the Squamish river, do not go over this; that bridge leads the Ashulu Valley rec park.
You will then come to a third bridge park before that bridge. The trailhead is about 25 m after the bridge on your right. You may not see the sign for the trail it's an inconspicuous white sign, easily overlooked. I would have provide km points, but stupidly I forgot to zero the odometer; I wouldn't recommend using the km markings along the road either, they are totally wrong.
The trail itself is quite fun full of easy scrambling with a lot of points to step out into a clearing and view the Squamish Valley. There are many fantastic places to view the Falls, take your time and your camera (if you have one). There are points where the trail becomes a bit hard to follow, but I have put up marking tape in these areas to help elucidate the typical path followed.
The end of the hike is capped off with a hike down a logging road, or returning along the path you came. I would opt for the logging road; you're provided many more viewpoints of the valley, just bring a hat, you're going to becontinue reading » exposed to the Sun for a while.
There is a shortcut during the hike, during the latter portion of the hike you'll come to a bit of a clearing in the forest. You can continue left through the forest and along a ridge, or you can cut up a section of logged forest; be warned there are a lot prickly berry plants in the logged areas, bring gaiters. Both routes lead to the logging road which you'll follow down.
Another great aspect of this hike is that when you get back down to the main road, you can go down the Squamish River and cool off. Likely, you won't be swimming, the current is very strong, but at the very least cool your feet. « less
Jul 24, 2010
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