September 16th 2026. Squamish, BC.
Round Trip: 10hrs 15m, +33km. Elevation Gain: +2100m
Mostly Hiking; brief scramble on Gargoyles’ summit.
This was Bri and I’s first time exploring Squamish in summer conditions, our previous trips have always been in shoulder season or winter. So, prior to this trip our hikes in the area have been fairly tame, with The Chief being our only “peak”. We set aside five days in September to visit our good friend Will and to get some local peak bagging in. After driving in from Golden on the 15th we went with Will’s recommendation of Columnar Peak and The Gargoyles. If we had the energy, we could extend and get Diamond Head, a small peak dwarfed by Atwell and Garibaldi.
The morning of we decided on making Diamond Head 2056m the main objective and would tag Columnar Peak and The Gargoyles on the way back. Fighting off the urge to sleep in after a full day of driving, and despite Google Maps directing us to a discontinued road entrance, we managed to start the hike by 8:30am. The initial approach is along the popular Elfin Lakes trail, which meant an easy hike along groomed provincial park trail with a gradual elevation gain. Pretty straight forward by Bri and I’s standards. And being the tourists that we were, there was no shortage of photos along the way.
It took us roughly 2 hours to reach Elfin Lakes, we stopped for our first real break of the day then continued past the hut. There was a signposted junction indicating the start of the Saddle Trail, which leads to the saddle connecting Columnar and Gargoyles. Yay more groomed goodness! Hilariously we did unknowingly wander along an unofficial side trail while approaching the saddle, though it spat us back on to the main near the turn-off for Opal Cone. I’d argue the “side” trail was more travelled then the main path. Either that or I’m becoming too comfortable with bush whacking! The only minor challenge between Elfin Lakes and the Saddle was the surprisingly slick hard-packed dirt. It had rained the previous day and the ground remained sporadically damp despite it being a hot bluebird day.
We reached the saddle by 11:40am and overtook a few groups along the way, the last people we would see for the next couple hours. A well defined path continued down the north side of the Saddle towards Diamond Head, as well as both peaks on either side of us. Some elevation was lost dropping down the north side, and from down here The Gargoyles lived up to their namesake. Plodding along past a few trees towards the rubbly south slope of Diamond Head, Bri spotted a black bear up ahead. Not even 24 hours in Squamish and already our third bear of the trip! It took one look at us and bolted off down to the west into the trees. We plodded onwards with no further incident, reaching the “summit” of Diamond Head at 12:55pm. While not really a scramble, cresting the final stretch of the ridge involved a few steps over loose terrain with decent exposure off the north side. The ridge’s high point was deceiving narrow so we took turns tagging it and had our break slightly to the south near a large boulder.
We took a long-ish break here before doubling back towards the saddle, leaving Diamond Head around 1:20ish. Coming down off of the summit we ran into an elderly solo hiker that we had met earlier in the day. I gave him a heads-up about the black bear given that he was on his own and that neither of us had seen anyone else beyond the saddle. It took us an hour to reach the top of the saddle again, though I recall it feeling a lot longer. My hiking boots – a disappointing pair of Lowa Renegades – were on their last limb and I was struggling with footing on otherwise pretty tame terrain.
I don’t recall our decision making process but we opted to trudge up Columnar Peak first. A narrow but defined foot path led us up the ridge, weaving through trees before topping out. No real scrambling per se, though using the trees as hand holds was helpful. We ran into another older solo hiker here before continuing to the main peak. The higher point was slightly further along the ridge and from the saddle only took us twenty minutes or so. While it had been a quick and easy peak, Bri and I were starting to feel fatigued and even contemplated skipping The Gargoyles. I’m glad we didn’t, it was the most fun out of the three. Peak to peak took us 45 minutes, with the final few meters of Gargoyles being an easy hands-on scramble onto the exposed-pinnacle-like summit. It reminded me of The Fang that we had scrambled up in early August, though this was slightly wider to stand on. Still, I could only stand upright on this briefly before feeling vertigo. We snapped a few photos before heading back to Elfin Lakes, where we refilled our water supply for the hike out. An awesome long first day of hiking for our Squamish trip! And yes, much busier than what we’re used to.
