Petgill Lake – Squamish, BC

If you’re looking for a challenging, fun, and lightly trafficked day hike, Petgill Lake might just be the one for you. Located just south of Squamish, near Murrin Provincial Park, this hike affords great views of the Howe Sound and a peaceful alpine lake. The hike itself is about 12km round trip and definitely leans towards the challenging side, thanks to a handful of steep climbs along the way. However, all of your hard work along the trail is rewarded in the end. At the final viewpoint you are met with a view very similar to The Chief, but with 1/4 of the people! (You can actually see The Chief at a few points during this hike)

Part of why Petgill lake is much less trafficked than other hikes, like The Chief, is that it is not the easiest trailhead to find. In order to get to the beginning of the trail, you have to park in the Murrin Provincial Park parking lot and then cross the Sea to Sky Highway (waiting for an opening with no cars was one of hardest parts of this hike). Once you cross the highway, it’s about a one minute walk north (towards Squamish) until you come across a wooden sign at the base of a rocky incline which marks the start of the hike.

There are a handful of viewpoints along the beginning of the hike which offer glimpses of the Howe Sound. These are great places to top and catch your breath while soaking in the views. Eventually the trail turns into an old logging road, which you follow for quite some time until coming to another trailhead along the left side of the road. We completed this hike last April, and at that time a lot of this section was not very well marked. It may be a bit better now but we definitely thought we were lost multiple times along the way.

The second half of the hike is probably the harder part, as the trail turns into a series of ups and downs, for what feels like an hour. I don’t know about you but I’d say nothing is worse than getting to the top of a steep incline and realizing you have to go all the way down again (especially when you know to finish the hike you have to go back up…). Finally, the trail evened out and we came across the lake. I love alpine lakes because they are always so calm. Petgill lake’s surface looked like glass as we followed the trial down to its shorelines. Around the far side of the lake were a few spots to sit and enjoy your lunch if you choose, otherwise if you continue upwards there is another path which leads to the final viewpoint.

This last viewpoint is definitely the highlight of the hike. As you climb over the final rock face the trees part and you are met with a panoramic view of the Howe Sound and its surrounding mountains. While there are so many beautiful lakes, mountains and rivers in British Columbia, the Howe Sounds is up there with my favourite views in the province. I certainly feel lucky that there are so many hikes which offer us different perspectives of one particular body of water.

After spending some time soaking up the sun and the views we decided it was time to head back to the parking lot. As usual, the hike down seemed a lot quicker than the trek up and before we knew it we were running back across the Sea to Sky highway to our car. I’d say overall we probably spent about 4.5-5 hours hiking the trail, and allowed ourselves close to an hour at the top to eat lunch and relax. I definitely recommend this hike to anyone who is looking for a bit of a challenge and a chance to escape from the crowds that come with more popular trails.