When hiking to Parkhurst Ghost Town, the first area you will encounter after you cross the disintegrating bridge over Wedge Creek is the wye. In railroad terminology a wye is a large turnaround area which traces a large triangle shape and allows trains to exit the main train tracks and turnaround. The original wye in the area was Mons Wye located about where the Catholic church at the end of Lorimer Road is today.
Alexander Falls 
Ancient Cedars 
Black Tusk 
Blackcomb Mountain Brandywine Falls Brandywine Meadows Brew Lake Callaghan Lake Cheakamus Lake 
Cheakamus River 
Cirque Lake Flank Trail Garibaldi Lake Garibaldi Park Helm Creek Jane Lakes Joffre Lakes Keyhole Hot Springs Logger’s Lake Madeley Lake Meager Hot Springs Nairn Falls Newt Lake Panorama Ridge Parkhurst Ghost Town Rainbow Falls Rainbow Lake Ring Lake Russet Lake Sea to Sky Trail Skookumchuck Hot Springs Sloquet Hot Springs Mount Sproatt Taylor Meadows Train Wreck 
Wedgemount Lake Whistler Mountain
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In 1914 the railroad was under construction and the Mons Wye was used frequently as a turnaround point. Maps of Whistler as recently as the 1980's show Mons Wye as still located there. Most of the development at the end of Lorimer Road happened in the mid 1990's, so it seems likely the the wye was removed well before then, and possibly reconstructed at Parkhurst. The Parkhurst Wye doesn't appear on any old maps, so it seems possible that when the Mons Wye was removed, the Parkhurst Wye was built, likely in the 1980's as well. The Parkhurst Wye is not very scenic as it is just a large, flat gravel area with an industrial feel. It is just the quickest way to get to the Parkhurst/Green Lake Loop Trail entrance into the forest at the far end of the wye. The Parkhurst wye does have some unexpected highlights that are particularly nice on a sunny day. When hiking towards Parkhurst you get a nice, clear view of Rainbow Mountain in the distance between a gap in the hills. From this angle it is hard to recognize and takes a moment to figure out which snowy peak is so strangely close and unfamiliar. Rainbow Mountain doesn't have nice, eye catching, defining features like many other mountains in the area. If you look in the opposite direction you can help but recognized the row of mountain peaks visible from almost everywhere in Whistler. Mount Cook, Armchair Glacier, Mount Weart and Wedge Mountain. Wedge and Weart are the two highest mountains in the Garibaldi Ranges and Armchair Glacier stretches across the face of Weart to Mount Cook. On a sunny day these pure white, jagged peaks look wonderfully close.
In the middle of winter when the sun is is low in the sky, the wye is the only part of this hike you will get lots of sun. Even in the summer, much of the various trails around Parkhurst are through deep forest. Opposite the main tracks from here you have quite a deep, dark forest running along Green River. Here you will find a few signs of the old Parkhurst as well as a well-defined, though very overgrown dirt road. Hiking and sometimes bushwhacking through this forest eventually squeezes you between Green River and the train tracks and you emerge near where the Parkhurst/Green Lake Loop Trail enters the forest.
The view of Rainbow Mountain you get as soon as you enter the Parkhurst Wye after crossing the Wedge Creek bridge.
Looking north on a sunny, summer day gives you an amazing panorama of several beautiful mountains in Garibaldi Provincial Park. Mount Cook on the left, Armchair Glacier, Mount Weart, Rethel Mountain, Wedge Mountain and Parkhurst Mountain.
Below is a close up view of Armchair Glacier. Usually referred to as the Armchair or Armchair Mountain, this second highest peak in the Garibaldi Ranges was officially renamed Mount Weart a few years back. Weart's neighbour Wedge Mountain is the highest mountain in the Garibaldi Ranges and Wedgemount Lake is one of the most beautiful hikes in Garibaldi Park.
Parkhurst Wye bends around to meet up with the opposite bend coming from the other side. They meet and come to a dead end in an area that allows the train to switch over and come out the other side reversed.
Just off to side of the Parkhurst Wye is a nice little area covered in an emerald coloured moss. A trail then runs up to connect with the Sea to Sky Trail.
The map below is a BC forestry map from 1957 that shows the Mons Wye in the bottom left corner near Alta Lake in what is Whistler Cay today. It was located near where the Catholic Church is today at the end of Lorimer Road. The Parkhurst Wye is noticably missing from the map and possibly was built in the 1980's or early 1990's when the Mons Wye was removed and development in the area increased. On December 24th 1980 there was considerable flooding in Whistler and most notably from Fitzsimmons Creek and Twentyone Mile Creek. Where Twentyone Mile Creek and the River of Golden Dreams meet near the end of Lorimer Road there was massive flooding. The measures taken in the area to prevent future flooding may have hastened the removal of the old Mons Wye.
According to John Burge, in 1914 the wye was at the end of the still under construction railway and was named after the Battle of Mons, the first major battle of World War I for the British against the Germans and widely report that year. He recalls that in the 1960's the Mons Wye was no longer used and the trail between Rainbow Lodge and Tapley's farm crossed it. You can see the trail on the original 1928 map of Garibaldi Park marked with the red arrow on the left. The right arrow points to where the Parkhurst Wye is today.
On the map on the lower left corner "Mons" is written about where Scotia Creek is as this was the location of the Mons train station, which in later years was renamed Alta Lake train station. In Whistler today Mons is a name that has moved a bit further north along the train tracks near the south end of Green Lake where Mons Road is. There is the industrial park there as well as Riverside Campground and the train tracks run past the industrial park with Nicklaus North Golf Course on the other side of the tracks. There are two and part of the way three, tracks running parallel here and the dual tracks run from about 500 metres north of the end of Lorimer Road in Whistler Cay and north all the way to Fitzsimmons Creek near the Nicklaus North parking lot. This section of parallel tracks and to some degree, the regions around it covers the area that we today refer to as "Mons". The Sea to Sky Highway overpass over the train track in this area is called Mons Crossing. Below is an excellent video of the 2016 construction of the much newer Mons Crossing Underpass for the Valley Trail.
Parkhurst Ghost Town is a beautiful and comparatively quiet place to hike in Whistler. An ever increasing network of hiking and biking trails over the years have made it quite an accessible place to get to from either the Sea to Sky Trail/Green Lake Loop Trail from Lost Lake near Whistler Village or via the Parkhurst Trail at the far end of Green Lake. A short drive from Whistler Village along the Sea to Sky Highway past the north end of Green Lake takes you to the trailhead for the Parkhurst Trail and the short hike to Parkhurst. The highlights of Parkhurst Ghost Town are not just the interesting old relics of the abandoned town, but the gorgeous views of Green Lake from several places along the Parkhurst Ridge Trail.
More Parkhurst Ghost Town Info
Ablation Zone Accumulation Zone Adit Lakes Aiguille Alpine Zone Arborlith Arête ARRTI Armchair Glacier The Barrier Battleship Islands Bears Bench Bergschrund Bivouac Bungee Bridge Bushwhack Cairn Carter, Neal Chimney Cirque Cloudraker Coast Douglas-fir Coast Mountains Col Columnar Jointing Cordilleran Cornice Corrie Lake Crevasse Dalgleish, Alec Deadfall Emerald Forest Erratic The Fissile Fitzsimmons Creek Fitzsimmons Range Fyles, Tom Garibaldi Ranges Garibaldi Volcanic Belt Gemel Glacier Window Green Lake Hoary Marmot Krummholz Lodgepole Pine Moraine Mt Garibaldi Mt James Turner Mountain Hemlock Northair Mine North Arm Nunatuk Nurse Stump Overlord Pacific Yew Paper Birch Parkhurst Cat Parkhurst RD8 Parkhurst Cletrac Parkhurst Plow Tree Parkhurst Ridge Parkhurst Sawmill Parkhurst Wye Peak 2 Peak Rainbow Lodge Roundhouse Rubble Creek Scree Spearhead Range Tarn The Table Townsend, Charles Usnea Waterbar Western Hemlock Western Redcedar Whistler Spruce Winram, Mills
Alexander Falls Ancient Cedars Black Tusk Blackcomb Mountain Brandywine Falls Brandywine Meadows Brew Lake Callaghan Lake Cheakamus Lake Cheakamus River Cirque Lake Flank Trail Garibaldi Lake Garibaldi Park Helm Creek Jane Lakes Joffre Lakes Keyhole Hot Springs Logger’s Lake Madeley Lake Meager Hot Springs Nairn Falls Newt Lake Panorama Ridge Parkhurst Ghost Town Rainbow Falls Rainbow Lake Ring Lake Russet Lake Sea to Sky Trail Skookumchuck Hot Springs Sloquet Hot Springs Mount Sproatt Taylor Meadows Train Wreck Wedgemount Lake Whistler Mountain
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