{"id":29803,"date":"2014-07-13T13:27:12","date_gmt":"2014-07-13T21:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heynadine.com\/?p=29803"},"modified":"2014-07-13T13:27:12","modified_gmt":"2014-07-13T21:27:12","slug":"guide-sea-sky-gondola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/guide-sea-sky-gondola\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Guide to the Sea to Sky Gondola"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chief<\/a><\/p>\n

I sometimes feel like a pretty poor Canadian, since I never do much whenever I am back home to visit. So this time, in-between my travels from Fiji<\/a>\u00a0and before going to LA \u00a0for VidCon, I decided to check out the <\/span>newly opened\u00a0Sea to Sky Gondola<\/strong><\/a>. Situated along Hwy 99<\/strong> just before the town of Squamish<\/strong> and on route to Whistler<\/strong>, it is BC\u2019s hottest new attraction and I could not wait to try it out!<\/span><\/p>\n

The gondola climbs up along the left side of the Stawamus Chief <\/strong>and\u00a0then heads up around the back, thus not interrupting the pristine wildness surrounding the Chief.\u00a0<\/span>The ride itself is<\/span> only about 10 mins to reach the top, but there is also the option to hike up (~3-4hrs) and just purchase\u00a0a single ride ticket down.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sea-to-Sky<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Halfway up the ride I was immediately greeted with sweeping views of beautiful Howe Sound<\/strong>. The view never disappoints, no matter how many times I see it (as I have hiked The Chief a few times).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Summit<\/a>
View from the Summit Lodge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Located at the top there is a 9,000 square foot Summit Lodge<\/strong>, a place to sit, enjoy the views, have a bite to eat and just relax. Inside the lodge there is a self-serve buffet style restaurant, offering local food favourites like chowder, poutine, stews, tacos, sandwiches and\u00a0burgers.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is also a cafe, which serves a variety of specialty coffee beverages and pastries, plus a bar which has on tap all local beers brewed from Howe Sound Brewing Company<\/strong>, located just down the mountain in town.<\/p>\n

You can choose to eat inside, or outside on their spacious Summit Lodge deck. On Friday and Saturday evenings there is a special \u201cSunset Menu\u201d, a 3-course meal for $19.95. Reservations not required, although it doesn\u2019t hurt to call in advance.<\/p>\n

\"Summit<\/p>\n

\u00a0From the Summit Lodge there are many trails to explore. You can walk them\u00a0on your own or take one of their free interpretive guided tours. I decided to venture on my own on their well marked Panorama Trail.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Although it\u2019s a 1.6km round trip on top of the mountain, it\u2019s on a very easy to walk path I\u2019d like to call \u201cflip-flop\u201d friendly, as you can hike it in your flip-flops and you can also take a stroller along, assuming it has the proper wheels.<\/p>\n

\"Trails-
Panorama Trail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I would HIGHLY recommend to do this trail. It doesn\u2019t take to long, (approx. 1 hour if you take your time) and if you won’t miss out on the best part, the Chief Overlooking Platform.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Chief<\/a>
Chief Overlooking Platform<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Chief
View from the trail of the Chief Overlooking Platform.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the platform you\u2019ll see magnificent views of\u00a0The Squamish Spit<\/strong>, where world class windsurfing takes place, the Estuary,<\/strong> and the beautiful local mountains all looking up and overtop of the\u00a0<\/span>Stawamus<\/span> Chief.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"View<\/a><\/p>\n

\"View<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0There are other viewpoints along the trail, but they seem to still be \u201cworks in progress\u201d so I would recommend just going straight to the Chief Overlook.<\/p>\n

Another option is the Sky Pilot Suspension Bridge<\/strong> that offers a 360 degree view on a very sturdy suspension bridge (seriously no need to worry here).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sky<\/a><\/p>\n

It takes you over to the Sky Pilot Viewpoint<\/strong>, which offers views of the Summit Lodge and of the Sky Pilot<\/strong> and Co-Pilot<\/strong> mountain range.<\/p>\n

\"Sky<\/a>
Sky Pilot Viewing Platform.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Summit<\/a>
View of the Summit Lodge Viewing Platform from the Sky Pilot Viewing Platform.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sky<\/a>
Sky Pilot Mountain Range.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There also happens to be several backcountry trails<\/strong> for the enthusiastic and experienced hikers, although I didn\u2019t have time to complete any this trip (maybe next time).<\/p>\n

In conclusion, <\/span>I must say I was impressed. The Sea to Sky Gondola is a wonderful addition to Squamish and the Sea to Sky Corridor. It takes nothing away from the hikers who can still hike up the back of the Chief on their own; plus they added to the experience and offered another way up for those less physically inclined.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.seatoskygondola.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A review and guide to the brand new Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish, Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[133,142,291,522,810,1256,2381,2382,2520,2723,3185],"class_list":["post-29803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-north-america","tag-activities","tag-advice","tag-bc","tag-canada","tag-travel","tag-guide","tag-sea-to-sky","tag-sea-to-sky-gondola","tag-squamish","tag-things-to-do","tag-whistler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}