A Guide to Garibaldi Lake and Panorama Ridge Hike

Panorama Ridge hike via Garibaldi Lake in Whistler, British Columbia, is a worthwhile trail in Canada offering stunning views of the lake and surrounding mountains. Garibaldi Lake is also the best day trip from Vancouver. Our hiking guide includes how to get to the trailhead, difficulty, what to pack, or where to stay.

Garibaldi Lake and Panorama Ridge hike in Garibaldi Provincial Park near Whistler is one of our all-time favorite hikes in Canada.

If you’ve just started planning your itinerary, consider if it would be possible to take a road trip to this part of Canada, not only because of this day hike but also because of other top attractions in the vicinity of Vancouver.

Sitting at an altitude of almost 1500 meters above sea level, Garibaldi Lake is a glacial lake with breathtaking turquoise waters, plus the area offers great hiking trails.

Although the main purpose of visiting the western part of this country was to explore the Canadian Rockies, this area near Vancouver proved to be similar, if not even more beautiful.

We landed in the USA and then crossed borders to Canada because flight tickets from Europe were quite expensive to either Calgary or Edmonton, which are the traditional gateway cities for the Canadian Rockies journey.

So we started our trip in Vancouver. At first, we thought it would be a bit of waste of time, but thanks to it, absolutely new possibilities opened up to us.

Garibaldi Lake hike was, therefore, our first hike after we landed in Canada, and we couldn’t choose a better start for exploring this incredible country.

Overall, the Whistler area and British Columbia have all aspects of how we imagined the maple leaf’s land, and we could not hope for a better introduction.

Beautiful forests, crystal clear lakes, glaciers, meadows, wildlife, and snow-capped peaks, and the best part is that we could see all of it in one day and didn’t even need to get that deep into the wild.

Although Garibaldi Lake is one of the most popular trails in the area, we did not know much about the possible extension, Panorama Ridge Trail.

However, we decided to give it a try as we arrived by the lake’s shore early and still had time.

In the end, it was the other half of the hike that made all this day unforgettable.

It is only up to you if you decide to walk to Garibaldi Lake and back, or if you push hard and add the Panorama Ridge section, but if you’re averagely fit, we would like to inspire you to go for the latter option.

This travel guide includes everything you need to know before hiking Garibaldi Lake and Panorama Ridge, tips on how to get to the trailhead, where to stay, what to pack, or when is the best time for exploring the area.

https://www.laidbacktrip.com/posts/garibaldi-lake-panorama-ridge