Madeley Lake Access Open

July 8th, 2020: One of Whistler's most impressive drive-to mountain lakes, Madeley Lake is accessible once again. It appears a large public outcry forced, or at least embarrassed Whistler Olympic Park into opening the gate that was installed in the springtime barring public access. They have also removed the sign on the gate warning that entering the area is considered trespassing. Whistler Sport Legacies managed to gain control over this road in recent years by arguing the necessity to groom it in the winter.

Whistler & Garibaldi Hiking

Alexander Falls Ancient Cedars Black Tusk Blackcomb Mountain Brandywine Falls Brandywine Meadows Brew Lake Callaghan Lake Cheakamus Lake Cheakamus River Cirque Lake Flank Trail Garibaldi Lake Garibaldi Park Helm Creek Jane Lakes Joffre Lakes Keyhole Hot Springs Logger’s Lake Madeley Lake Meager Hot Springs Nairn Falls Newt Lake Panorama Ridge Parkhurst Ghost Town Rainbow Falls Rainbow Lake Ring Lake Russet Lake Sea to Sky Trail Skookumchuck Hot Springs Sloquet Hot Springs Sproatt East Sproatt West Taylor Meadows Train Wreck Wedgemount Lake Whistler Mountain

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Alexander Falls Brandywine Falls Cirque Falls Holloway Falls Keyhole Falls Nairn Falls Rainbow Falls Shannon Falls Train Wreck Falls Wedgemount Falls

**14 July 2020: Apparently the gate is now locked again** Evidently a forest service road cannot be legally groomed for skiing, so granting Whistler Sport Legacies the lease on Madeley Lake Road must have seemed like a harmless decision. To then parlay that decision into blocking the road in the summer to the public seems very dishonest. Considerable hiking trail maintenance work in the last few years has gone on around Madeley Lake, which links it to Hanging Lake and Rainbow Lake. Obviously the trail work would not have been done if the trail was to be blocked by Whistler Olympic Park. The most shocking thing about Whistler Sport Legacies installing the gate is that no one seems to have known about it. From the Resort Municipality of Whistler to the Federation of Mountain Clubs of British Columbia, and apparently everyone in between. We have received hundreds of shocked emails in just the past few weeks inquiring into what is going on. It appears there are two reasons that Whistler Olympic Park (Whistler Sport Legacies) has installed the gate. The main reason is to give Whistler Photo Safaris exclusive access to the area in order to enable them to charge $149 to see the bears in the wider area. The second reason is to get rid of the wonderful and free campsite at the far end of Madeley Lake in preparation for the proposed pay-use campsites at Whistler Olympic Park. If you want to contact Whistler Olympic Park at 604-964-0059 to ask them why they put up a gate blocking access to Madeley Lake, the answer is "because we can". If you call Whistler Photo Safaris at 1-855-558-2327 to inquire about the gate, the answer you get is, "we don't know about it".

Madeley Lake Gate Open

In the last few weeks the gate looked like this...

Whistler Sport Legacies Gate

Madeley Lake Access Gate

Beautiful Madeley Lake

Madeley Lake is a wonderfully remote feeling place and the campsite is not maintained. There are a few picnic tables, an outhouse, several fire rings and several clearings for tents. Madeley Lake sits in a forgotten corner of Whistler's Callaghan Valley. Camping here is free and compared to every other campsite in and around Whistler, it is arguably the nicest. Tranquil, great rocky beach with a crashing river flowing by. Well laid out tent sites in a deep forest, sun facing and you can drink straight from the river which comes from a glacier at nearby Telemagique Lake.

December 27th, 2021: The Rubble Creek trailhead to Garibaldi Provincial Park is not being snowplowed this winter(2021/2022). Last winter, after years of ...

July 8th, 2020: One of Whistler's most impressive drive-to mountain lakes, Madeley Lake is accessible once again. It appears a large public outcry forced, or ...

April 29th, 2019: Back in 2011 a group of Whistler artists met at Whistler Train Wreck and transformed it from a bland array of wrecked train cars into a ...

January 1st,2020: Happy new year in Whistler and the snow is finally falling. We have winter down sleeping bags for rent that are incredibly compact, ...

December 21st, 2019: Way up in the Callaghan Valley on the back side of Mount Sproatt is an abandoned gold mine. Old cement foundations and two ...

May 5th, 2019: The summer of 2011 was the time when some local Whistler artists ventured into the wilderness between the crashing Cheakamus River and ...

April 8th, 2019: The Rubble Creek trailhead to Garibaldi Provincial Park is finally accessible by car. The snow buried access road is mostly free of snow. ...

Sept 11th, 2019: The notoriously difficult biking trail in the wilderness between Emerald Forest and Rainbow Park is a pretty fun place to wander around. It ...

June is a pretty amazing month to hike in Whistler. The average low and high temperatures in Whistler range from 9c to 21c(48f/70f). The summer tourist ...

July is a wonderful time to hike in Whistler and Garibaldi Provincial Park. The weather is beautiful and the snow on high elevation hiking trails is long ...

August hiking in Whistler definitely has the most consistently great, hot weather. You can feel the rare pleasure of walking across a glacier shirtless and ...

September hiking in Whistler is possibly the best month of all. The snow has melted far up to the mountain tops, yet the temperatures are still quite high. ...

Best Whistler Hiking Trails by Month

Whistler & Garibaldi Hiking

January February March April May June July August September October November December

Brandywine Falls is one of the must see sights on the drive to or from Whistler, and arguably the nicest of Whistler’s numerous beautiful waterfalls. Located about halfway between Squamish and Whistler, the ...

Logger's Lake is an amazing little lake hidden up in the deep forest above the more well known Cheakamus River. The lake, almost unbelievably exists in a long extinct volcano. However, as soon as you see ...

Alexander Falls is a very impressive 43 metre/141 foot waterfall just 30 to 40 minutes south of Whistler in the Callaghan Valley. Open year-round and located just before Whistler Olympic Park where several ...

Jane Lakes are a very remote feeling set of lakes in the beautiful wilderness near Cheakamus Crossing. Consisting of three lakes, West Jane Lake, East Jane Lake and Little Jane Lake, they have a great ...

More Whistler Hiking Trails & Maps

HikeInWhistler.com

Cirque Lake

Parkhurst Ghost Town

Joffre Lakes

Black Tusk

Garibaldi Park

Rainbow Falls

Wedgemount Lake

Whistler Train Wreck

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