Garibaldi Provincial Park

About

Garibaldi Provincial Park, also called Garibaldi Park, is a wilderness park located on the coastal mainland of British Columbia, Canada, 70 kilometres (43.5 mi) north of Vancouver. It was established in 1920 and named a Class A Provincial Park of British Columbia in 1927. The park is a popular destination for outdoor recreation, with over 30,000 overnight campers and over 106,000 day users in the 2017/2018 season. Garibaldi Park spans an area of over 1,950 square kilometres (753 sq mi), encompassing a majority of the Garibaldi Range mountains. The western side of the park is highly trafficked by the public due to access provided by the nearby Sea to Sky Highway to destinations in the park such as Elfin Lakes, Garibaldi Lake, The Black Tusk, Cheakamus Lake, and Wedgemount Lake. The eastern wilderness of the park is harder to access and therefore more remote than its western counterpart. To the south, Garibaldi Park connects with Golden Ears Provincial Park and Pinecone Burke Provincial Park, while its northern sections stretch past the Whistler ski resort, reaching nearly to the village of Pemberton.

Mount Garibaldi is referred to by the Squamish people as Nch'ḵay̓, meaning "Dirty Place" or "Grimy One" in reference to the muddy water of the Cheekye River. The mountain is an important cultural landmark for the Squamish, with its surrounding area being used for hunting, foraging, and the collection of obsidian. In Squamish mythology, Nch'ḵay̓ was the peak to which the people tied their canoes to avoid being swept away by the Great Flood.

Another culturally significant peak within the park is The Black Tusk, which is known to the Squamish people as t'aḵ't'aḵ mu'yin tl'a in7in'a'xe7en. The name translates to "Landing Place of the Thunderbird", as the peak is said to have been crushed into its present shape by the talons of the in7in'a'xe7en, or Thunderbird. To the Lil'wat people, the same peak is known as Q̓elqámtensa ti Skenknápa, or "Place Where the Thunder Rests".

Garibaldi Provincial Park received its modern name from Mount Garibaldi, which was itself named after Giuseppe Garibaldi by Captain George Henry Richards during a survey of Howe Sound in 1860.

In 1907, the first ascent of Mount Garibaldi was completed by Vancouver mountaineers A. Dalton, W. Dalton, A. King, T. Pattison, J. J. Trorey, and G. Warren. The views from the peaks inspired the establishment of summer climbing camps at Garibaldi Lake, which included among their ranks many members of the newly formed British Columbia Mountaineering Club. The first of these camps resulted in the naming and first ascent of The Black Tusk, by a party led by William J. Gray in 1912. The interest sparked by the camps eventually led to the park being legislated as a park reserve in 1920, and designated as a Class A Provincial park in 1927.

In 1967, the southern section of Garibaldi Provincial park was split off as Golden Ears Provincial Park, which juts southward between the basins of Pitt Lake and the Stave River into the Municipality of Maple Ridge.

Today, Garibaldi park is a popular location for outdoor recreation, and has experienced greatly increased usage within the past decade. In the five-year period between the 2012/13 season and the 2017/18 season, the park's attendance increased three-fold in number of overnight campers, while the number of day users increased ten-fold.

Mount Garibaldi is referred to by the Squamish people as Nch'ḵay̓, meaning "Dirty Place" or "Grimy One" in reference to the muddy water of the Cheekye River. The mountain is an important cultural landmark for the Squamish, with its surrounding area being used for hunting, foraging, and the collection of obsidian. In Squamish mythology, Nch'ḵay̓ was the peak to which the people tied their canoes to avoid being swept away by the Great Flood.

Another culturally significant peak within the park is The Black Tusk, which is known to the Squamish people as t'aḵ't'aḵ mu'yin tl'a in7in'a'xe7en. The name translates to "Landing Place of the Thunderbird", as the peak is said to have been crushed into its present shape by the talons of the in7in'a'xe7en, or Thunderbird. To the Lil'wat people, the same peak is known as Q̓elqámtensa ti Skenknápa, or "Place Where the Thunder Rests".

Garibaldi Provincial Park received its modern name from Mount Garibaldi, which was itself named after Giuseppe Garibaldi by Captain George Henry Richards during a survey of Howe Sound in 1860.

In 1907, the first ascent of Mount Garibaldi was completed by Vancouver mountaineers A. Dalton, W. Dalton, A. King, T. Pattison, J. J. Trorey, and G. Warren. The views from the peaks inspired the establishment of summer climbing camps at Garibaldi Lake, which included among their ranks many members of the newly formed British Columbia Mountaineering Club. The first of these camps resulted in the naming and first ascent of The Black Tusk, by a party led by William J. Gray in 1912. The interest sparked by the camps eventually led to the park being legislated as a park reserve in 1920, and designated as a Class A Provincial park in 1927.

In 1967, the southern section of Garibaldi Provincial park was split off as Golden Ears Provincial Park, which juts southward between the basins of Pitt Lake and the Stave River into the Municipality of Maple Ridge.

Today, Garibaldi park is a popular location for outdoor recreation, and has experienced greatly increased usage within the past decade. In the five-year period between the 2012/13 season and the 2017/18 season, the park's attendance increased three-fold in number of overnight campers, while the number of day users increased ten-fold.

The park's landscape consists of many steep rugged mountains, coastal forests, and alpine lakes. Much of this landscape was shaped by Quaternary continental and alpine glaciation, as well as volcanic activity such as the eruption of Mount Garibaldi some 13,000 years ago.

There are over 150 glaciers in the park, including the Garibaldi Névé and Mamquam icefields. The highest peak in Garibaldi Park is Wedge Mountain, at an elevation of 2,891 metres (9,485 ft). It also includes volcanic features such as an andesite tuya known as The Table, a cinder cone known as the Opal Cone, and the stratovolcanoes Mount Garibaldi, Mount Price and The Black Tusk, which are part of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt.

There are a number of alpine lakes in the park, including Garibaldi Lake, Cheakamus Lake, Mamquam Lake, Elfin Lakes, and a number of smaller lakes. The park is also the origin of the Pitt River, a tributary of the Fraser River.

Main article: The Barrier Garibaldi Lake is retained by a lava dam known as The Barrier. Sometime in the fall or winter of 1855–56, part of this dam gave away, which resulted in a 25,000,000 m 3 (880,000,000 ft 3 ) landslide that devastated the area below. The instability of The Barrier was brought to public attention in the 1970s, eventually leading to the area below it being declared unsafe for habitation in 1981. The village of Garibaldi was evacuated as a result of this.

Today, the land immediately below The Barrier is referred to as the Barrier Civil Defence Zone by BC Parks. The area around it is denoted by signage warning hikers not to camp, stop, or otherwise linger within the hazard zone.

In 2007, a study on glacial recession in Garibaldi Park was conducted by the Department of Earth Sciences at Simon Fraser University. This study determined that, by 2005, glacier coverage in the park had decreased to 49% of what it was in the early 18th century. The study attributed this decrease to the trend of global temperature change in the 20th century.

A similar study in 2013 by the same authors reinforced that the park's glaciers, along with others in western Canada, are at the smallest they have been in several thousand years.