Crystal's Epic Adventures

  The Squamish River Valley is the starting point to some truly spectacular hikes and traverses, many of which are well beyond my hiking abilities. Sunday was an incredibly gorgeous day to drive the Sea-To-Sky highway to Squamish as we thought to give the fairly short intermediate hike to Crooked Falls a try. Crooked Falls is a beautiful waterfall along the Sigurd Creek Trail in Upper Squamish River Valley and spring is the best time of year to visit to see them during the runoff. From the trailhead on Ashlu Road, we followed the Sigurd Creek Trail up the rocky route as it climbs quickly at the beginning. The trail is a peaceful and moderately challenging trek through a stunning, lush green forest. Just a few hundred meters into the hike, I was completely distracted by this beautiful weeping rock wall, stopping to take several photos and videos.  We followed a worn trail on our left which led us out onto a rocky bluff, where we got our first stunning view of the day of th...

What a gorgeous May Long weekend! By the time this holiday rolls around each year, we have been through a long, gray winter and people are itching to get outside to enjoy the warmer, greener days of the long weekend. However, on the flipside this weekend also represents gridlock traffic in every direction as there's a mass exodus of people and then again as they return back into the lower mainland after their weekend festivities.  Klaus and I normally like to stay away from the popular long weekend traffic, choosing to stay closer to home.  This year we chose to do two hikes, one on Saturday and Sunday taking advantage of the amazing weather we had.   On Saturday morning we got up bright and early to head out to the Fraser Valley to hike the Elk-Thurston Trail.  Mount Thurston via the popular Elk Mountain is a worthy hike if you have the time and energy after visiting Elk and much less frequented than the Elk Lookout.  I can hear my huffing & puffi...