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Green Lake is the marvellously vivid, green coloured lake just north of Whistler Village. Driving north on the Sea to Sky Highway, Green Lake appears along the highway on your right. The vivid colour is always impressive and on a sunny day can be spectacular. One of the best, and easiest places in Whistler to capture an extraordinary sunrise or sunset photo is along the Green Lake viewpoint along the edge of the highway.
Whistler & Garibaldi Hiking
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 
Sproatt East Sproatt West Taylor Meadows Train Wreck 
Wedgemount Lake Whistler Mountain
January February 
March April May 
June July August 
September October November December
Compared to the other lakes around Whistler Village, Green Lake is quite large at well over one kilometre long and has an average width of 650 metres. Because of its large size, Green Lake doesn't warm up much in the summer and is not known as a swimming lake as Lost Lake, Alta Lake, Alpha Lake and Nita Lake are. With the railway line on one side of the lake and the Sea to Sky Highway on the other, Green Lake has relatively few houses along the shore. Nicklaus North Golf Course sits at the end closest to Whistler Village, along with Whistler's airport. The airport consists of about three float planes docked at a small wharf. The beautiful Valley Trail runs along the southern shore of Green Lake, past the airport, then veers right, through the golf course and on to Lost Lake. Green Lake is fed by Fitzsimmons Creek and The River of Golden Dreams. Both water bodies figure prominently in Whistler's history. The River of Golden Dreams runs from Rainbow Park on Alta Lake and is a lovely, meandering river that is a popular route via canoe, kayak, paddleboard, and most frequently hordes of small inflatable boats. The five kilometre distance between Alta Lake and Green Lake, makes it an always entertaining journey. Where The River of Golden Dreams is a slow, meandering, relaxing river, Fitzsimmons Creek is a fast, crashing torrent of water descending from Fitzsimmons Glacier high up in the mountains.
Fitzsimmons Creek cuts between Blackcomb Mountain and Whistler Mountain, down through Whistler Village and finally into Green Lake. Fitzsimmons Creek is the reason Green Lake has such a dazzling colour. Glaciers have tiny particles of rock in them, that when released into a lake tend to remain suspended throughout the lake reflecting light.
The image below is your first glimpse of Green Lake if you arrived via the River of Golden Dreams. Whistler's Valley Trail runs along the south end of Green Lake just a few metres from this picture. The Valley Trail then connects to the networks of hiking and biking trails around Lost Lake. From Lost Lake you can connect to the Sea to Sky Trail and/or the Green Lake Loop Trail and hike or bike around the beautiful back side of Green Lake all the way to Parkhurst and beyond.
This is the type of view of get of Green Lake over and over as you ascend up the back side of the lake. The Green Lake Loop Trail is the original trail built decades ago and the Sea to Sky Trail was just built a decade ago and overlaps much of the Green Lake Loop Trail. The Sea to Sky Trail is a considerable improvement on the old Green Lake Loop Trail, however as it smoothed out the erratic and narrow old trail and widened it as well as layered on gravel to make it luxuriously smooth and dry.
The image below is from the Sea to Sky Highway viewpoint overlooking Green Lake and Blackcomb Mountain beyond.
Green Lake Hiking Trails
As a destination in Whistler for hiking, Green Lake goes almost entirely unnoticed. A remarkable fact considering the extraordinary array of both established and unestablished trails running, seemingly endlessly throughout the edges of this massive lake. Any trails you do find are only ever used by bikes or the occasional fisherman. There are three reasons for the huge number of trails running around the lake. First, the lake and its surrounds are beautiful, sensationally beautiful. Second, there once was a small town that existed on the far side of Green Lake for decades called Parkhurst. Now a ghost town consisting of just a couple crumbling structures and numerous antique curiosities. The third reason is the nature of the forest around the lake. It is incredibly dry. The trees, the ground. Much of the surrounding forest is comprised of scattered, large trees over beautiful hillsides with a dry feeling carpet of what looks like moss, and possibly is. This allows for hiking in almost any direction and a wonderful surface to put up a tent.
Parkhurst Ghost Town can be reached in a number of ways. By boat is a fun and direct way to get there. Green Lake Park is just across from Parkhurst and just a 2 minute canoe/kayak ride away. All you have to do to find Parkhurst is aim for the huge, abandoned log loader tractor perched on the edge of the lake. Park your boat there and a trail takes you across the train tracks and up to the ruins of Parkhurst. Don't expect too much, however there is one standing house that is artfully painted with a beautiful and haunting looking blue face. If you wander the trails around the house you will find some other interesting curiosities, such as an abandoned truck from the 50's and a similarly disintegrating corvette from a similar era.
More Hiking Details for Parkhurst Ghost Town
Two Fantastic Books About BC Hiking!
Here are two excellent books on hiking and geology of British Columbia. Matt Gunn's Scrambles in Southwest British Columbia includes the various routes to the summit of Wedge Mountain as well as summit routes to the neighbouring peaks, Weart, Cook, Parkhurst and Rethel. Mount Weart is the second highest mountain in Garibaldi Park and is located just north of Wedge Mountain, separated by the Wedge-Weart Col. Published in 2005, Scrambles in Southwest British Columbia is still the best guide in print or online. A Passion for Mountains by Kathryn Bridge is a fascinating look at Don and Phyllis Munday's prolific exploration of the mountains in BC. Based out of Vancouver, they were dominant figures of the climbing community in the early 1900's. In 1923 they visited their friend Neal Carter in Alta Lake(Whistler) and explored the mountains around the valley.. many for the first time!
The Cordilleran Ice Sheet covered most of north-west North America for much of the last 2.6 million years. At the Last Glacial Maximum during the Last ...
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Western redcedar is a very large tree commonly found in the Pacific Northwest. Frequently growing up to 70 metres and with a trunk diameter of 7 metres, ...
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Cairns, inukshuks or inuksuks are a pile or arrangement of rocks used to indicate a route, landmark or a summit. The word cairn originates from the ...
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Scree: from the Norse “skridha”, landslide. The small, loose stones covering a slope. Also called talus, the French word for slope. Scree is mainly formed ...
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Crevasse: is a split or crack in the glacier surface, often with near vertical walls. Crevasses form out of the constant movement of a glacier over ...
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The Pacific yew or western yew is a coniferous tree that grows in Whistler and along the coast from Alaska to California. The Pacific yew’s unique ...
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Whistler, the surrounding mountains, and Garibaldi Provincial Park are home to two types of bears. Black bears and grizzly bears. Black bears are ...
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The Garibaldi Volcanic Belt is a line of mostly dormant stratovolcanoes and subglacial volcanoes largely centred around Whistler and extending through much ...
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February is a great month for snowshoeing in Whistler and Garibaldi Park. The days slowly get longer, but the temperatures stay consistently cold. Expect ...
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In the(usually) deep March snow of Whistler you have an amazing array of snowshoeing options. If you have not been to the Whistler Train Wreck, you have ...
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April in Whistler is a wonderful time of year. The winter deep freeze ends and T-shirt weather erupts. The village comes alive with overflowing patios and ...
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May is an extraordinarily beautiful time of year in Whistler. The days are longer and warmer and a great lull in between seasons happens. Whistler is fairly ...
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Whistler & Garibaldi Hiking
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 Sproatt East Sproatt West Taylor Meadows Train Wreck Wedgemount Lake Whistler Mountain
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Newt Lake is cute little hidden lake high up on the far side of Cougar Mountain near Ancient Cedars. Its location is a wonderful mix of unexpected characteristics that combine to make it a gorgeous place to ...
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Hiking and biking trails are so abundant in Whistler that many go unnoticed, neglected or taken for granted. The Flank Trail is one of these. Most people in Whistler don't even know about it, but the ones ...
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The Rainbow Trail is a convenient and popular trail near Whistler Village that takes you to Rainbow Lake as well as the Rainbow-Sproatt Flank Trail, Rainbow Falls, Hanging Lake, Madeley Lake, Beverley ...
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The short, winding, and ever-changing hiking trail to Rainbow Falls is the same as the much more popular trailhead for Rainbow Lake. The trailhead is marked as the Rainbow Trail, and the trail quickly ...
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