Hotels near High Falls Creek

High Falls Creek is the hardest of these Vancouver waterfall trails and the one that most repays a full day. The standard route is an 8.3 km loop with 525 m of elevation gain, most of it packed into the first 4 km of climbing, and it takes 3.5 to 5 hours. Difficulty is challenging: expect hand-and-foot scrambling on granite slabs, fixed ropes in two places, and unfenced cliff edges directly above the canyon where experienced hikers have died.

The creek falls through a tight box canyon in two distinct sections, roughly 60 m of falling water in total, with a boulder wedged between the granite walls that is the photograph everyone drives up here for. Above the canyon the trail breaks onto open bluffs with views across the Squamish River to the Tantalus Range. Almost everyone descends the gravel logging road rather than reversing the canyon, which is the sensible call. The season runs April to November, and the Squamish River Forest Service Road approach is bumpy gravel but fine in a two-wheel-drive car.

Pro Tip: Do this one in late May or early June, when snowmelt has the canyon roaring but the trail above 400 m is already dry. Go up the canyon and down the logging road, never the reverse. Leave the dog at home - there are two scrambling sections with a long drop on one side and no rail - and note there are no toilets and no water at the trailhead.