Backcountry Camping at Garibaldi Lake & Taylor Meadows -

Due to the pandemic, the backcountry camping reservation process changed for 2021. I could only book dates two months out on a rolling basis. So in May, I started making reservations for summer, and given the high demand, it was stressful. Although we wanted to stay two nights at Garibaldi Lake, we managed to get a one-night reservation for Garibaldi Lake and another for Taylor Meadows.

We would be taking a day off on Friday (July 30), and we planned to hike up to Garibaldi Lake at a leisurely pace. The next day, we would do the short hike to Taylor Meadows and explore the area. Finally, we would hike down from Taylor Meadows back to the parking lot on the third day. In total, it would be around 19 km round trip with 900 m vertical.

Garibaldi Lake Trail

Including an early lunch stop in Squamish, it took us about two hours to arrive at the Rubble Creek Trailhead. Rangers were checking for day-pass/backcountry reservations before the parking lot. It was a weekday, but the parking lot was packed. Fortunately, we found a spot close to the trailhead.

Around noon, we started our hike. I have been on this trail twice in winter, and it was good to do this trail again in summer. Over the next two days, I would wear out Kasturi and Kavya with my “When I came here in winter, this place….” comments.

Garibaldi Lake Trail is an easy-to-follow, wide, well-maintained trail with a gradual incline. It took us about two and half hours to reach the Garibaldi Lake-Taylor Meadows trail junction. It’s a great spot to rest and has a pit toilet as well.

Garibaldi Lake-Taylor Meadows trail junction

In six km, we had an elevation gain of close to 750 m. We had another 3 km to go with less than 150 m elevation gain. After a long break, we were back on the trail.

We were soon at the Barrier Lake.

Shortly after we made our way around Barrier Lake, we could see the Lesser Garibaldi Lake through the forest. It was beautiful, and the turquoise colour was at its best in the afternoon sun.

Garibaldi Lake

It took us less than an hour to get to Garibaldi Lake from the Garibaldi Lake-Taylor Meadows trail junction. In the previous two instances, the weather was not great. But this time the weather was great, and we had a fantastic view of the lake and the surrounding mountains.

It took us another 10-15 minutes to get to the campground. The sites closer to the lake between shelters #1 and #2 were already taken.

We looked around for open spots and finalized campsite # 12.

Backcountry Camping at Garibaldi Lake and Taylor Meadows — Campsite at Garibaldi Lake

After setting up the tent, we went back to the lake. While Kavya waded in the ice-cold water, I hiked along the lake on the trail going to Mount Price. For a moment, I thought about making an early morning hike up to Mount Price but then decided against it.

We had dinner in shelter # 2, and Kavya secured our bag with all the food at the bear hang. Kavya was tired, and it didn’t take her long to fall asleep. It was a beautiful summer night at 17C, so we didn’t put the tent fly. Late at night, we had an amazing view of the stars and we even saw a shooting star. It was perfect!

The next day around 9 am we packed everything and went to the shelter for breakfast. It was cloudy. On our hike back along the Garibaldi Lake Trail, I was still in awe at the bright turquoise colour of the lake.

We had used up all our water, so we made a quick stop to refill our bottles at the creek flowing down from Garibaldi Lake.

Taylor Meadows

From the lake, we hiked back on Garibaldi Lake Trail for a km till the junction with the trail heading to Taylor Meadows campground.

From this junction, it was an easy 1 km hike to the Taylor Meadows campground. Just 200 m before Taylor Meadows campground, we passed the Logger’s Cabin.

Logger’s Cabin at Taylor Meadows – Summer vs. Winter

It took us less than an hour from the lake to get to Taylor Meadows campground. The weather was turning and started drizzling just as we pitched our tent. Kasturi had the foresight and had suggested that we pitch the tent at a site with a wooden platform. Soon it changed from a drizzle to rain showers and continued to rain for the next two and half hours. With nothing else to do, it was time for some hot soup and Uno.

The weather cleared up around 2 pm. I did a quick hike to Panorama Ridge viewpoint, while Kasturi and Kavya explored around Taylor Meadows.

Taylor Meadows Creek — Kavya at the creek close to Taylor Meadows

The weather continued to be cloudy but thankfully it didn’t rain and we all slept well. The next day, the weather didn’t clear up and plus we had smoke from the wildfires. By 9 am we were back on the trail and it took us less than two hours to cover 7.5 km back to the parking lot.

Initially, I was disappointed that we couldn’t get a two-night reservation at Garibaldi Lake. But I am glad that we got to spend a night at Taylor Meadows. It’s an excellent base to do hikes to Black Tusk and Panorama Ridge. Also, the wildflowers you see on these hikes at this time of the year are beautiful. I will share details about the Panorama Ridge hike in another post.