Snowshoeing in Vancouver

One of our favorite activities during the winter months is heading to the mountains and hiking through the woods with snowshoes strapped to our feet. There is something so magical about leaving the rainy city, driving half an hour to one of the local mountains and getting immersed in a winter wonderland.

Our go-to spots are Cypress and Seymour mountain. Both offer a good variety of free trails as well as paid options if you’re looking for something more maintained. If you don’t own snowshoes you can rent them from either ski resort for around 30$, which includes access to the pay trails as well. Our favorite free trails are:

Seymour Mountain
Dog Mountain trail has the incredible incentive of sweeping views of Vancouver at the top. It’s an easy hike with minimal elevation. However, it’s quite popular so expect to share the trail throughout your journey.

Cypress Mountain
Howe Sound Crest Trail East to Bowen Island Lookout is a little longer than Dog Mountain with a little more elevation gain, but it’s not difficult and offers incredible views of Vancouver from the top.

Hollyburn Cabin community offers an easy trail that winds through the forest past quaint, colourful cabins. We love exploring this area and snapping photos as we go. The trailhead is located at the far end of the first parking lot (the cross country ski area lot). The trail isn’t named, as far as we know, but it is an obvious, well-used trail. This trail is more about exploring rather than a big view payoff at the end.

One of the bonuses of hiking this trail is the Hollyburn Lodge which is about 1km from the parking lot. The lodge recently reopened and is a great place to stop on the way back to the car, to enjoy some warm food, hot chocolate or in our case beer and wine.

If you don’t want to rent snowshoes and don’t own any, you can usually get away with a good pair of winter boots that have good grip. The trails are so well used that the snow is often hard packed. But if you want to branch off and stomp in the deep, soft stuff, then snowshoes are a must!

Another bonus, both mountains have free parking!