Canada Day 21 (1) - Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish

So, after three weeks, the day has finally come: our last day in beautiful Canada has begun. But we're making the most of it by catching the ride on the Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish. Unlike two weeks ago, the weather is perfect today. And lo and behold, even the Sea to Sky Highway, which we take from Vancouver to Squamish, is impressive in sunny weather.

When we arrive at the gondola, to our surprise, there's no line, so we can hop right into the gondola after buying our tickets. Even when we reach the top, it's not as crowded as we expected on such a beautiful day. Perhaps because we're early enough. First, we walk on the Suspension Bridge, which offers a magnificent view of the landscape. Then we follow a very short interpretive trail and then gather information about the trails up here. There are several short ones and some very long ones. We decide to walk several shorter trails, as most of the longer ones are a bit too long since we're meeting Luke's brother in the afternoon, so we only have a few hours up here.

We start with the Wonderland Lake Loop, which sounds promising, but along the way, we unfortunately find out that part of the trail is closed. What a shame, because so far the path seemed really beautiful and there weren't many people here. So we walk back on the trail and try the Panorama Trail. This one is probably the most popular trail here, as it is easy to walk and very short. But the name speaks for itself, and the views are really beautiful. However, it's a bit too crowded for our taste. Standing a little lost again in front of the board with the individual trails, a helpful staff member notices our confusion and recommends the High Lane Trail. It's not too far, but a bit more challenging than the other trails here. Luckily, we followed the recommendation. The climb was a bit strenuous and made us sweat, but once we reached the top, the effort was definitely worth it. The view is simply fantastic, and we're completely alone up here. Just perfect! We enjoy the solitude for a while in a cozy spot, observe a few squirrels, and dig into our provisions. Eventually, we start making our way back down. The trail was fairly short but definitely worth it! This way, we can enjoy a little more solitude in the Canadian wilderness one last time.

We then enjoyed the beautiful weather a bit more and drove back down to Squamish in the afternoon to meet Luke's brother, Chris, once again. We were really glad we could still use the Sea to Sky Gondola on our last day!