Experience the best of Squamish

At the head of Howe Sound, a long fjord north of Vancouver, Squamish lies between the water and steep, forested mountains. The Stawamus Chief, a granite monolith that rises hundreds of metres above the town, draws climbers to its walls and hikers to its three summits, while Shannon Falls drops more than three hundred metres in a long white ribbon beside the highway.

A gondola climbs from the shore of the sound to a viewing platform above the fjord and the Coast Mountains. In winter, bald eagles gather on the Squamish and Cheakamus rivers at Brackendale, one of the largest winter gatherings of the birds in North America. The Britannia Mine Museum, a former copper mine, lies to the south, and Whistler is about sixty kilometres north along the Sea to Sky Highway.

Squamish is a place for mountain biking and for windsurfing and kiteboarding off the estuary spit, where summer winds blow up the sound. Breweries and bakeries serve the outdoor crowd. Winters are wet, with snow on the peaks, and summers are mostly warm and dry.