Whistler is very dog friendly and the number of wonderful hiking trails that your dog will love is huge. The massively varied hiking trails range from easy, short, close to Whistler Village to challenging, long and deep in the endless wilderness around Whistler. You can find dog friendly trails in and around Whistler Village that take you through deep, dark and magical forests.
Best of Whistler & Garibaldi Provincial Park
There are plenty of excellent, kid and family friendly hiking trails and destinations in and around Whistler. Kid and family friendly generally means an easy and somewhat short trail that a toddler can happily manage. Some of these trails are flat enough to be stroller friendly, such as Brandywine Falls, Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain.
Whistler is surrounded by an immense wilderness dotted with spectacular, hidden lakes and amazing places to set up a tent. Decades of logging activity has left a network of forest service roads that has opened easy access to these places. Some of these you can drive to and some you may need a 4x4 to comfortably get to.
Whistler as a resort has a wonderful car-free core. The Village Stroll runs through the heart of Whistler Village and is entirely car free. If you are visiting Whistler or living here and you don't have a car, it's no problem. On foot or on a bike you can travel the extensive network of non-motorized trails.
Hiking in Whistler and Garibaldi Provincial Park is beautiful year-round. Some hiking trails are better than others at certain months of the year. Snow restricts some trails if you don't have snowshoes or simply makes them too exhausting or impractical for most hikers.
The Sea to Sky Highway links Vancouver to Whistler and has several stops along the way that are often overlooked. Porteau Cove, for example, is surprisingly unknown even to locals that have driven past hundreds of times. Just off the highway the parking area is just steps from the huge pier stretching way out over the ocean.
Aerial views of Whistler hiking trails give you a nice perspective on how beautiful this part of the world is. Wedge Glacier is hard to grasp its immensity from across the valley. Up close, from above, the endless rows of crevasses and massive contours give this hulking glacier a more complete picture.
Whistler is home to a fantastic number of beautiful waterfalls. From the towering drop of Brandywine Falls to the awesome, up close and breathtaking view of Keyhole Falls, you could spend whole days checking out just waterfalls in and around Whistler.
Whistler has beautiful and wonderfully hidden parks nearly everywhere you look. Almost all are located on the shores of beautiful mountain lakes or rivers, and all seem to have great mountain views. From Rainbow Park's terrific panorama of Wedge Mountain, Blackcomb Mountain and Whistler Mountain to Blueberry Park's panorama of Mount Sproatt and Rainbow Mountain.
There are several hiking trails in Whistler and Garibaldi Park that could be considered the best for various reasons. Black Tusk for its incredibly surreal geologically formed structure and location in the midst of a bonanza of Garibaldi Provincial Park attractions.
Squamish sits in the midst of some amazing places to hike. Garibaldi Park sprawls from Squamish up and beyond Whistler. Tantalus Provincial Park lays across the valley to the west and the beautiful and desolate, by comparison, Callaghan Valley to the north.
Vancouver is surrounded by seemingly endless hiking trails and mountains to explore. Massive parks line up one after another. Mount Seymour Provincial Park, Lynn Canyon Park, Grouse Mountain, Cypress Mountain and the enormous Garibaldi Provincial Park all contribute to Vancouver being an incredible hiking paradise. The variety and convenience of Vancouver hiking trails is astounding!
There are plenty of beautiful and free snowshoe trails in Whistler and Garibaldi Provincial Park. From the surreal paintings of Whistler Train Wreck to the magnificent mountain serenity of Wedgemount Lake in Garibaldi Park. Trails range from extremely easy, to extremely difficult.
There are plenty of great running trails in Whistler. The Whistler Golf Course 5k is one of the easiest to get to, navigate and run. It is also surprisingly varied and has nearly constant views! The Blueberry Hill 6k follows part of the same route along Whistler Golf Course and runs up and over Blueberry Hill.