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Ancient Cedars is a nice, easy/moderate 2.6 kilometre(1.6 mile) hiking trail on the far side of Cougar Mountain, just 13.1 kilometres north of Whistler Village. A small, untouched grove of huge western redcedar hidden high up in the mountains. Often overlooked by hikers, certainly there are other groves of massive cedars found in other Whistler area hikes.
Easy trail to thousand year old cedars- Remote feeling escape from civilisation
- A quiet hiking trail that is dog friendly!
- Serene backcountry, drive-in camping for free
- Lots of hidden & amazing tent sites
- Newt Lake is wild, hidden & serene
- Abandoned cabin at Showh Lakes
Lots of mosquitoes in June to August- ATV's tours in the area are noisy
- The access logging road is brutally potholed
If you hike the short 3 kilometre trail to Cheakamus Lake and you will marvel at the size, frequency and wonderful aroma of these massive and numerous giant cedars. The Wedgemount Lake trail also has some majestic cedars along the hike. You can even walk through an impressive grove of huge cedars on the Valley Trail at the north end of the Whistler Golf Club. None of them compare, however, to the giants at Ancient Cedars. They are extraordinarily huge and some are estimated to be a thousand years old. Most of these giants stretch toward the sky, but some lay along the forest floor giving you an even closer grasp of their size. If you bring kids along, they will disappear into the endless, natural playground. Ancient Cedars is great to visit in the spring and fall months as you rarely see people and are less likely to encounter mosquitoes. The problem is the trailhead is up a long way into the mountains and snow at this elevation persists until April and sometimes May. Snow, along with the steep access road make driving to the trailhead impossible for most cars until it disappears. Summer is great for seeing Ancient Cedars and Showh Lakes in particular. If you have a 4x4, you can drive right to the shores of Showh Lakes and crack a beer with little chance of humanity disturbing you. If you don't have a 4x4, you can make it to a short walk to the lakes and if you have some sort of inflatable boat or canoe, you will find yourself in paradise. Floating in a mirror under a blue sky, surrounded by deep and wild forest.
Finding Ancient Cedars
The trailhead to Ancient Cedars is just a short drive north of Whistler. Just past Green Lake on Highway 99, you turn left on Cougar Mountain Road and drive 4.5 kilometres up a bumpy logging road. As logging roads go its pretty bad with a lot of deep potholes. If you are driving a car you should be OK as long as you take it slow. The Ancient Cedars trail is well marked and well worn and only gradually uphill for the 2.6 kilometre hike. At the Ancient Cedars forest there is a short circle trail that takes you throughout the giants then leads you back to the main trail for the return journey. An unmarked trailhead to Newt Lake starts at the end of the Ancient Cedars trail. The Newt Lake trail is wild, overgrown and fairly steep, but surprisingly enjoyable. Lots of wild forest scenery and constantly changing topography. At the end of the wild Newt Lake trail is the beautifully wild Newt Lake. Relatively unknown, this lake is rarely visited and you will often have it all to yourself. Fantastic!
Ancient Cedars and Showh Lakes
Though Ancient Cedars is the main focus for visitors in the area, there are branching trails to two other beautiful areas, Newt Lake and Showh Lakes. Showh Lakes are just a few hundred metres from Ancient Cedars and trails and logging roads connect them. Partway along the trail to Ancient Cedars you will see a branching trail to Showh Lakes. There is another connecting trail extending from the Ancient Cedars grove as well, but it is hard to spot and quite overgrown. If you have a 4x4 you can drive the old logging road up to the lakes and branching roads extend in a few directions. The road is pretty bad, especially after the crossroads next to Showh Lakes, so its a good idea to park there and continue on foot to the lake or the various interesting areas overlooking the lakes.
At the north end of the larger of the two Showh Lakes you will find the remains of an old house and a derelict yurt platform. The area is quite beautiful and serene and the house is teetering over and hilarious to see. You can even climb the increasingly spiral stairs to the collapsing deck and into the old cabin.
Back across the larger of the two Showh Lakes a very nice hiking trail runs through the forest and along the south shore of the lake. The trail then enters the forest and connects to the Ancient Cedars trail.
Ancient Cedars Newt Lake Map
The Ancient Cedars trail is a fairly relaxing, though constantly ascending trail up to the beautifully hidden forest. At just 2.6 kilometres, the hike is well under an hour from the trailhead to the loop trail through the ancient grove. At the far end of the loop an unmarked trail continues to a beautiful and very remote feeling lake.
The Newt Lake trail from the end of the Ancient Cedars trail to Newt Lake is just 2.4 kilometres long, though much more challenging than the Ancient Cedars trail. It winds through the weather battered and mangled rainforest up towards Cougar Mountain. It is a constantly ascending and often very steep trail, though due to its short length most hikers should make it to the lake in just over an hour. Starting from the Ancient Cedars trailhead/parking it is about a 2 hour hike one way. Though it is steep and sometimes hard to follow, it is not so much difficult as it is exhausting. The trail is extremely well marked, which is very helpful as the route zigzags constantly and the forest is scattered with deadfall.
This chaotic landscape makes the trail interesting and surprisingly enjoyable as your eyes dart from one interesting thing to another. From deadfall craning menacingly over your head, to trees grasping enormous boulders with their roots, you find yourself often having to backtrack because you miss a tree marker and wandered off the trail to get a look at something wonderfully strange.
After hiking the erratic trail though chaotic forest you come to Newt Lake, a perfectly serene mountain lake well hidden along the west flank of Cougar Mountain. The wild forest trail fades away as you reach the shore of the lake. On the right, you can cross a swampy area and climb up to a beautiful rock outcrop overlooking the lake. The left side of the lake is far more interesting and scenic, though you do have to scramble over a massive boulder field.
You have to be a little brave to crawl over the fridge sized morass of boulders that have crumbled from the steep cliffs above. For the most part you can navigate a reasonably safe route, but occasionally you wonder if the next boulder you jump to will shift and cause the truck sized one next to it to tip over and flatten you.
If you do manage the sketchy, couple hundred metres of leapfrogging you will come to a beautiful rock outcrop in the middle of the lake. Surrounded by trees this little oasis is just far enough away from the boulder field to make you feel safe from the crumbling cliff. The rock outcrop steeply ends at the lake and staring down into the clear, blue water it is far to deep to see the bottom and a wonderful place to jump in.
Beyond the rock outcrop the boulder field becomes even more menacing, with the boulders larger and piled higher and more precariously. They certainly add to the hostile beauty of Newt Lake as you wonder how thundering the sound must have been when these monsters came crashing down.
History of Ancient Cedars
Back in the late 1980's workers building a bike trail on the lower part of Cougar Mountain discovered a small grove of stunningly enormous western redcedars. Several noted at the time were over 10 feet in diameter. Core samples were taken and indicated that the trees were likely close to 1000 years old. The Coast Douglas-firs in the grove were similarly ancient and estimated to be no less than 650 years old. Suddenly it became evident that word of these monsters would reach the logging companies and the magnificent ancient grove would be turned into lumber. More...
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