Lillian Lake / Galatea Creek

Dist: 13km    Elev: 580m    Time: 6.5h    Difficulty: 3/5

I invited Gavin and Elliot for a hike as an early celebration of my birthday. Unfortunately, it was another grey/overcast kind of day in the mountains. Due to quickly deteriorating visibility as we headed west, we changed our plans last minute and decided to try our luck on the Galatea Creek trail. Our original goal was the Galatea Lakes, but we were more than happy to call it a day at Lillian Lake after almost four hours of breaking trail in waist-deep powder. In hindsight, this was also a wise decision due to the elevated avalanche risk in the area and the exposed nature of the route to the higher lakes. Despite foggy skies and limited visual motivation for most of the day, we enjoyed clearing skies on our return trip and were even treated to a few minutes of sunshine and blue skies for the last half hour or so. It always feels great to get out regardless of the weather, and the three of us enjoyed our day in the great outdoors.

Trailhead sign.

Elliot and Gavin are in good spirits as the day begins. This bridge crosses Galatea Creek.

Many large boulders like this along the trail.

We crossed about a dozen bridges along Galatea Creek.

The trail weaves through thick forest at times.

Numerous clearings as well. Views were limited here, but better on the way back.

Parts of Mt Kidd visible through the clouds.

Frozen falls along Galatea Creek below.

Gavin testing his flexibility.

Frozen Lillian Lake. We stopped for lunch here before turning back.

Mt Kidd becomes more visible on our return trip.

Views of the Galatea Creek valley.

Sunshine at last!

Final leg of the journey. 

Blue sky, sunshine, green trees. This gets me excited for spring!