Hiking at Golden Ears Provincial Park Lower Falls Trail

Golden Ears Provincial Park near Maple Ridge has to be my little piece of Heaven on Earth! I do miss BC right now. The Lower Falls Trail at Golden ears Provincial Park is a favourite haunt of mine in BC - so easy to reach from Maple Ridge too. This page is about the Lower Falls Trail, an easy hike of about 2.5 kilometres at Golden Ears. it is easy provided you wear proper footwear! At the top is a beautiful and refreshing waterfall. (You can see me enjoying it in the video Vancouver Sunset). I hope to return soon...

There are in fact several trails to walk at Golden Ears, including East Canyon, West Canyon, and North Beach. The North Beach Trail goes along Alouette Lake, the East Canyon Trail continues on from the Lower Falls Trail and the West Canyon Trail leads to the Look Out and eventually the top of the mountain which is obviously a long, difficult trail for experienced hikers.

Intro image - me at the Lower Falls Trail Map. Do not copy!

Setting of the Lower Falls Trail

Golden Ears is a wonderful beauty spot in British Columbia. The Lower Falls Trail passes through unspoiled temperate rainforest in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. You walk beside the river for some of the time. This picture shows the river at low water in August. the mountain is visible from this point of the trail.

Throughout this page, I have used photos I first uploaded to Zazzle. This is for two reasons, the first reason being that I am unable to easily resize them here on a different computer and Squidoo has an image size limit, the second is that I can share them more fully as it offers readers the chance to design custom cards and posters with these images. In any case I hope you will enjoy the photos I took.

I wrote this song in 2006 and recently released it. I love British Columbia and was inspired to sing about it.... Vancouver Sunset is the product of my very first visit here....

The forest beauty of Golden Ears

One of the things I love most about Golden Ears and Alouette is how such unspoiled wilderness can coexist so near to civilization! Golden Ears is near Maple Ridge, which is quite a big town and still growing! The Park is about a half hour drive from Maple Ridge. Once you hit the trail you will be blown away by the forest. Here are some pictures I took and uploaded to Zazzle. You can click through if you like, or just enjoy the views.

The spectrum of greens here is completely natural, a product of light through the leaves and shade from the mountain....

Waterfall at the end of the trail

Here are some pictures of the waterfall itself.

And, for the faint-hearted, a picture of the pools without bathing people....

This picture was taken by my friend in BC who walks the trails with me when I am there!

You can browse the hiking and camping gear here, or use the box to search for anything you like. Have fun :)

A different viewpoint...

My friend Mabel, despite being a large grey tabby cat formerly known as Cinder, also employs a very dear friend of mine as a "minion". It is difficult for a large grey tabby to walk unnoticed along the trail taking photographs. The claws tend to slip off the shutter button and people laugh at a 22 pound cat blancing precariously on her hind legs whilst trying not to drop a camera. Therefore Mabel reluctantly released her minion as my trail guide whilst I was on holiday. On the other hand, the minion, known as Mabelmew, has a way with a camera and is new to Zazzle. Here are some of her photographs of the Lower Falls as seen on Zazzle.

By the time we reached the end of the trail we were hot and in need of a rest, so we sat by the waterfall along with quite a few of our new friends who had gotten there first. I found it was irresistible of course and had to channel my inner bear and get into that cold mountain water.

The Return from the Lower Falls

We found a beach further down where we could sit and eat a light lunch and play in the crystal clear water for a while longer. The water was cold even in mid August, earlier in the year it would be icy and the water would be much higher from melted snow run off! Even in water this shallow there was quite a fast current. As a strong swimmer I would be cautious of playing in a mountain steam at high water level, but this was gentle enough to be safe and the sun would soon warm me up again.

After relaxing by the clear water and enjoying some breathtaking views, we headed back. I was able to take more river photos on the way. This one plays with silhouettes of leaves and a dry log against the pure clean water....

Walk the Lower Falls Trail

I have said before that Lake Alouette is a favourite haunt of mine and I shall hopefully return many more times to visit, perhaps lose a little weight and attempt that West Canyon Trail at some point, but for today I want to just enjoy a little more BC sunshine before I have to return to England again. I hope you enjoyed these pictures. Please bear in mind these have not been altered in any way - it really is this beautiful. I will share more with you another day. Thank you for reading my page on hiking the Lower Falls Trail at Golden Ears. If you ever get to Maple Ridge, take a trip out and see for yourself!

Let me know if you found it as beautiful as I did....

Thank you for visiting my page.