Tantalus Views
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
On a cloudless fall day we decided to head for Brohm Lake Interpretive Forest and walk a set of trails offering great views of the Tantalus Range. We carpooled at St. David’s Church and made our first stop at the Brackendale Café. To our surprise it was closed for upgrading so we went back to Eagle Run and had coffee and muffins there. A short continuation took us to the south Brohm Lake parking lot. (we reached this by turning left at the No Left Turn sign as there was no traffic behind us and nothing coming in the opposite direction; otherwise we would go right at the Cat Lake sign, U-turn and come back.)
We followed the track around in almost a U-turn then turned right where the old road comes in from the south. We followed the somewhat overgrown track for about a kilometre until High Trail branched off right and Cheakamus Trail left. We took Cheakamus Trail angling up the hill to a ridge, dropping down slightly and rounding the hill to head towards the Paradise Valley side. When we reached the end of an old road, we dropped down left to a viewpoint and went out onto the rocky outcrop. Here we had a stop, enjoying the spectacular view of Paradise Valley and the Tantalus mountains beyond.
After a long first lunch, we took the trail down, stopping to look at two smaller view points each supplied with a large picnic table. On our return to the track, we went left and started a climb up to the second Tantalus viewpoint. The one-kilometre trail led through forest with occasional signs of wire ropes and logging debris. At a posted sign, we went left up the short, steeped, stair-assisted trail to the viewpoint. This offered an even wider view over the Tantalus range. We took a long second lunch to absorb all of this view before looking at the former fire-watch pavilion at the top. Coming back down to the main trail, we went briefly left and then turned right to return to our car via High Trail.
On a visit earlier in the year, a group of fifteen of us had left cars in the parking lot by the hachery off Paradise Valley Road, Then from the Sea-to-Sky side, we had visited the two viewpoints as we did today and had then continued on past Brohm Lake to Thompson Trail and steeply down a long kilometre to the base. The Squamish Forest District's Brohm Lake map shows more detail.
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