You don't have to travel all the way to Oregon to circumnavigate a picturesque lake nestled in a volcanic crater.
Just head to Whistler Interpretive Forest, which lies in the territories of the Lil'wat Nation and Squamish Nation.
Although it's one of the lesser known hikes in Whistler, the Crater Rim Trail is highly enjoyable and well worth a day-trip from Vancouver.
Mount Fee from Crater Rim Trail. Photo: Stephen Hui.
Starting from the parking lot across the Sea to Sky Highway from Function Junction, we followed the Riverside and Ridge trails to the Crater Rim Trail. The rim walk's rewards included witch's hair lichen-draped trees, red-breasted sapsuckers, and sweet views of the surrounding Coast Mountains.
After visiting Logger's Lake, we crossed over to the east side of the Cheakamus River on MacLaurin's Crossing suspension bridge. The Highline Trail led us to our final viewpoint, before a logging road took us back to our start.
Our loop around the 10,000-year-old crater covered 10.5 kilometres and lasted 5.5 hours.
Tricouni Peak from Crater Rim Trail. Photo: Stephen Hui.
Along the way, we soaked up magnificent views of Whistler Mountain, T’ekt’akmuyin tl’a In7inyaxa7en (Black Tusk), Tricouni Peak, and Mount Fee.
If you're impressed by Whistler Interpretive Forest, you'll probably enjoy a visit to Brohm Lake Interpretive Forest in Squamish too.
