Hiking to Hollyburn Peak near Vancouver using AllTrails

By Keith and Heather Nicol

Hollyburn Peak is a great ½ day hike from the Cypress Bowl Nordic Centre near Vancouver. We were in Vancouver visiting our kids and grandchild recently and when a nice day beckoned we took full advantage to hike this roughly 8.2 km return hike.  Note that although the distance one way is around 4 km the trail does climb over 400 meters. It took us about 1 hour and 40 minutes to reach the top and about 70 minutes to return and we had a lunch at the peak with several other groups. 

                                                                   There are splashes of colour along the way

Note that there are several options for this hike according to AllTrails but we opted for the Power line option and it worked out well. The option from the alpine parking lot seemed to have warnings about wasp nests enroute and the winter route was reported to be overgrown.  For those people that do not know about AllTrails it is a great app for finding hiking trails and also since users often up date info about the trail you can often see what actual conditions are like for hiking and any tips that people might have. 

                                             The Lions are clearly visible from the summit of Hoillyburn

The Powerline trail starts out easily enough as it winds up one of the xc ski trails but at the warming hut the trail turns left and narrows considerably. From there it winds up through a broad cut over that featured splashes of colour and gradually gets steeper as you approach the summit. Many people brought bear spray since bears have been seen in the area so you are best to travel in a group and keep dogs on a leash. The trail itself has many sections that are quite rooty and rocky so hiking shoes of some sort are recommended.  From the top you can see the Lions very clearly and also views to the many distant mountains to the north. Although the trail is easy to follow you can download the route from AllTrails in case of poor weather or fog. The hike gets a rating of 4.3/5 out of 500 reviews on AllTrails and which is what we would give it as well. Check it out on your next visit to Vancouver.  Cypress Provincial Park has many fine hiking trails and we have reported on a few of them is this blog. Previous posts have dealt with hiking to Eagle Bluffs (https://keithnicol.blogspot.com/2015/03/hiking-to-eagle-bluffs-at-cypress.html)  and also to Mt Strachan (https://keithnicol.blogspot.com/2016/08/hiking-to-summit-of-mt-strachan-in.html) .  See you on the trails. 

                                                                             Starting out on our hike