DIRECTIONS: Drive or take transit to the entrance of Lynn Headwaters Regional Park at the intersection of Dempsey and Lynn Valley Roads.create
SUMMARY: Easy, almost flat walking for the first 7 km along Park entrance road, the Lynn Loop, Cedars Mill and Headwaters Trails to Norvan Falls. A bit more ups and downs to Hanes Junction and then steady but gentle inclines along the Hanes Valley Route.
Until you reach a helipad at the bottom of a huge boulder field the hike is mostly under the canopy. The boulder field ascent is long, steep in parts and gains over 300 m in elevation. As it is out in the open in a steep valley the temperature can be oven-like in the summer.
Once you reach Crown Pass/Junction at 1,050 m the ascent to Crown is steep and unrelenting. There is a traverse scramble mid-way up, with painted dots on the rocks that can be easily followed. The final scramble to Crown is relatively easy. The view at the top: panoramic and absolutely stunning!
After the descent back to Crown Pass, you will face a 300-meter re-ascent to the Goat-Little Goat ridge on steep, muddy, and slippery terrain - winter travel here would be highly sketchy!
So the cumulative elevation gain for Hanes Valley + Crown would be 1,600 m +.
From there it is a 3.5 km hike/walk back down to Grouse Chalet, where most sane humans would opt for the gondola down at this point. But you can always add 3.3 km to the trip by hiking down the BCMC Trail.create
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Crown Mountain (from Lynn Headwaters Park Entrance)
Jul 26, 2009
A pleasant enough hike in fit and gregarious company - otherwise it is an unrelentingly tough slog, especially in high mosquitoes season at the hottest time of the year with oven-like temperature, out in the open for the steep hour-plus boulder field ascent.
This was my fourth time in three months tackling Crown, and this one proved the most enjoyable. We started at Park entrance at 8:45 am, reached Crown Junction at 2 pm, summiting at 3:30 pm; hung around for 45 minutes, and reached Grouse Chalet at 6:45 pm. The last hour or so was under thunders and ever-thickening rains; but after a long strenuous hike it was almost welcome!
I will look forward to trying this on again in the off-seasons to hone my burgeoning winter skills.