Hiking & Photography - Blue Gentian Lake
A Favourite destination in Cypress Park, West Vancouver, on Hollyburn Mountain.
Ever since I was in my tweens, I have loved hiking and camping. For me, that is one of my top good roads to be taking.
These days I generally hike twice a week; one day during the week with my best friend and one weekend day with my partner.
It was hiking that led to my learning how to climb so that I would be more comfortable and proficient when scrambling was part of the ascent to summit some peaks. And that was almost 20 years ago! Where does the time go?!
One of the things I like about hiking is that it gets me to places where I can also use another of the good roads I have gone down in this life; photography. I always used to carry my camera until smartphones came along and could take a pretty good photo.
But when push comes to shove, and I know I’m going someplace where the vistas and landscapes are going to be awesome, I always take my trusty Canon EOS SLR.
Since this hike is one of my favourites in the area, these days, I pretty much only take smartphone pics with my iPhone.
Over the past few weeks, I hiked there by 2 different routes. For the first one, with my partner, we ascended to the lake using the trail along the creek to hike among the old growth trees — and there are a lot of them on that trail! —and then took a couple of other trails to get back to the car, including one that brought us to a really huge tree, The Hollyburn Fir.
The second hike started at a completely different place and started along a “road” that eventually became a trail and went past a lot of private cabins on Hollyburn. that route goes to Blue Gentian Lake and then up to West Lake and the Hollyburn Lodge before following X-country ski trails to get us back to the roads in the woods and eventually to the car.
So here’s a few pics for you to vicariously enjoy these hikes with us. I am also an avid iNaturalist contributor and love to take pictures of plants, flowers, mosses, lichens and any creatures that will hold still long enough for me to get a picture that I can upload to iNaturalist for recording the location and getting both the common and scientific names for the observation.
First hike, end of August.
Starting out and going up along the creek.
And a beautiful waterfall about 2/3s of the way up to the lake.
Once up at the lake, there is one old picnic table and we were able to sit there and eat our lunch. Another one of the reasons I like to hike is to be able to have lunch-with-a-view.
It was a light rainy, foggy misty day and here’s what the lake looked like.
And here’s a picture of the flowers that give the lake its name.
Actually, although they are gentian flowers and they are blue, their common name is King’s Sceptre Gentian and their scientific name is Gentiana sceptrum. It is found all up and down the Pacific West Coast from Bella Coola, BC to San Francisco, California.
And here’s one of the old growth trees and the Hollyburn Fir with my partner in the pic for size comparison.
Here’s a video of the fir if you want to get the full experience.
And a few of the mushrooms and lichens we saw.
A fine day out, for sure!
Second hike to Blue Gentian and West Lake, early September.
The second hike to the lake was with my best friend and hiking buddy over the past 20+ years. It was a much clearer, warmer day as reflected in this pic of the lake and also the image that started off this post.
From here, we made our way up to West Lake.
Below are some of the interesting plants, mushrooms and lichens we saw on this hike.
Going from left to right and top to bottom these are:
Smith’s bolete
Bolete mould
Dusky Fork-moss
Coiled-leaf claw-moss
Admirable bolete
Purple Brittlegill
Frosted Grain-spored lichen
Copperbush
Merten’s sedge
So that’s pretty much all I wanted to share about this wonderful place. If you’re in the neighbourhood, like to hike and only have a few hours to spare, don’t pass up this area. You won’t be disappointed.
And in the spirit of Taking the Good Road posts and reconciling and decolonizing these lands, you need to know that these trails and lakes are on the unceded lands and territory of the Squamish and Tsleil Waututh Nations who have resided here for thousands of years.
Until next time,
Enjoy and cherish your own Good Roads.
Rich
P.S. Please don’t use any of these photos without my permission. Thx.