Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Squamish

Britannia Beach

by Carmanah

No, it's not really a beach in the traditional sense of the term. Don't expect to go sunbathing here! Britannia Beach is a tiny unincorporated community located along the Sea to Sky highway (Hwy 99) between Vancouver and Squamish. Initially founded as a copper mining encampment in the early 1900's, Britannia Beach now holds a permanent resident population of about 300.

It's probably most famous for its Britannia Beach Mining Museum. This is a very unique building, looking like steps carved into the mountainside. Many movies have filmed here, including many X-Files episodes!

What's unique about Britannia Beach is that the town was built on top of an alluvial fan on Howe Sound. This alluvial fan was caused by an overflowing stream that brought rocks and boulders down the face of the mountain. So, the reality of Britannia Beach is that this kind of natural disaster could happen again! In fact, back in the early days of the community, a rock slide wiped out half of the town!

MOUNTAIN BIKNIG

by jhorsfield30

Squamish has over 100 trails where the terrain ranges from easy riding for the whole family to intense white knuckle single track. A dedicated army of trail builders and mountain bike enthusiasts constantly maintain these routes for the enjoyment of all.

Mountain Bike Magazine has rated Squamish as one of the top 25 wildest and exotic places to ride in the world. The Powersmart trail is listed as one of the top 10 single track trails that are a MUST ride.

There are three main areas of trails: The Valleycliffe and Crumpit Woods trails, which are single track, stream bed, rock face and and woodland trails; the Mamquam Forest Service Roads which are active logging roads that deliver amazing views of the Mamquam Glacier and harbour some of the gnarliest downhill and freerides around including 19th Hole, featured in the Annual Peanut's Wild Ride (GK Ripper); and the Garibaldi Highlands Trails which connect to Alice Lake, consisting of the abandoned original Squamish rail track and a wide path for an easy ride. On the Highlands trail network you can find some nice wooshy downhills and a lot of inner technical stuff, the most popular being Entrails.

The community hosts the Squamish Mountainbike Festival every year which features the Squamish Test of Metal on Saturday. This gruelling 67 k race draws many of the world's top riders and features a mass start of 800 competitiors. Squamish Test of Metal website : www.testofmetal.com

Squamish Gearjammer : 2003 brought the first BC Cup X-country race to Squamish. The Gear Jammer is a 50k X-country Provincial Championship race .
Squamish GearJammer website :
www.gearjammer.ca

Squamish, BC

by moongirl

"The Chief"

The Stawamus Chief: a huge 700 meter granite cliff. We (my class) did the 1.7km hike up this thing two years in a row, in 2000 and 2001, and it was TIRING! Took 6 hours to complete (to the peak and back down), but the view from the top is worth it (almost).

"Shannon Falls"

Shannon Falls is a stop lots of people take on the Sea to Sky highway on the way to Whistler. The falls are beautiful. At 335 meters (1100 feet) tall, they're only the third highest in the province. Worth a visit!