Opal Cone, Garibaldi Provincial Park

Spent a night at Elfin Lakes and decided to make the most of being in Garibaldi Provincial Park by scrambling up Opal Cone – an extinct volcano. A four-hour round trip from Elfin Lakes, it’s a great day hike and would even make for a fantastic big trail-run in one-day if you were to go from the main trailhead.

Hiking in to Elfin Lakes in the train to set up camp

After a very wet and soggy hike in on the Saturday, there was a lot of hope for better weather on the Sunday. Waking up Sunday morning, the rain had gone and a few clouds were just lingering in the valley, hanging around some of the higher peaks. As the day went on, the sun came out making for clear views from the summit of Opal Cone.

View from camping platform at Elfin Lakes

Pyramid Mountain sticking its head out from under the clouds

Leaving Elfin Lakes en route to Opal Cone (still in the clouds)

After setting off from the camping area at Elfin Lakes, the trail soon starts to descend down to a river that runs straight off the back of Garibaldi and out of the park. Once out of the trees and greenery the valley really opens up and you can see the trail wind through the boulders.

The valley up to Opal Cone as the sun comes out and it almost shows itself

River Valley that heads down out of Garibaldi

The river that heads down out of Garibaldi Provincial Park

The morning after all the rain

The train to Opal Cone leads straight up the back of Mount Garibaldi

The trail to Opal Cone leads straight up the back of Mount Garibaldi

The side of the Gargoyles as seen from the Opal Cone trailhead

The trail cuts back on itself, climbing and heading up to the south face of Opal Cone. It then heads east towards Mamquam lake. This is the point at which we turned off the trail, heading north along a narrow glacial ridge that reaches up to the south west corner of Opal Cone. From this point we circled further around to the west of the cone before we found a very easy route up to the top.