3-Day Trip to Squamish with a Toddler

Oh my goodness, I’m SO behind with my blogging! But since we’re on vacation, I thought this would be the perfect time to catch up on the many blog posts that need to be written about our trips.

2020 and the whole COVID-19 pandemic has definitely changed our travel plans this year. So, we decided to go on a short local trip to Squamish, which is just 1.5 hours away from Richmond. Camping is a bit tough for us because of C’s health, so we decided to rent a little cabin at Sunwolf. We stayed in the Logger’s Shack, and we had a Monday-Wednesday trip, so it was really quiet in the property the entire time.

Since check-in is at 3PM, we decided to head to Ambleside Beach and Playground first in the morning, because our little one loves the beach!

Ambleside has such a fun playground and especially on a Monday morning, it’s so quiet. Chase loved playing with all that sand and the diggers, too!

Of course he was going to go into the water, because he just loves it. So, he got his pants wet!

Then, after we spent time by the beach, we got back into the car and headed all the way up to the Britannia Mine Museum. We heard good stuff about it from our friends, we’ve drove past it many times but we’ve never been to it, so it was really cool to finally check it out. We bought our tickets online and since we have BCAA we got 20% discount off the tickets.

The entrance fee includes a 40 minute underground tour of the mine. At the start you get to watch this 15 minute show, which we opted not to do. Instead, we walked around and checked out the various buildings and structures around the area. Chase had so much fun!

Soon it was time to go underground. Now this part is a bit tricky for toddlers. You’ll have to make sure they keep the helmet on, and there are times where the sound is really loud so you’ll need to cover their ears. The cart/train ride is roughly 4 minutes long only, then there are sections to walk through with the tour guide going through their spiel. The underground bit is supposedly cold so we brought hoodies, but it wasn’t that cold when we went down, but perhaps it’s summertime. It is a bit damp and muddy down there, and with the COVID restrictions, every stop we made we were supposed to stay in a small 4x4 square, so it was a bit tough for Chase to stay still and listen for 40 minutes hahaha. Plus, Chase only wanted to be carried by mommy the entire time. But, it was a really cool tour and it really gave us perspective to what miners did over the years, which is truly crazy. I would never want to be a miner!

Afterwards, we had lunch at Chatterbox Cafe, which is just a super simple cafe at this time, perhaps during COVID-19, so if you have a little one you might need to bring some food with you, or head elsewhere.

Then, it was time for Chase’s nap so we drove all the way up to Whistler instead. Once we got to Whistler, we visited the playground for a little bit and had a snack under the trees… it was so warm that day!

Then, we finally headed to Sunwolf. Our little cabin in the woods! From our cabin you could hear the sound of the rushing river, which is just a short walk away. After we settled into our cabin, we made the trek down to check out the river.

For dinner, we had tacos at Luz Tacos which was delicious! It was the best meal of the trip. We ate at the back of the car, which was even more fun! It was a gorgeous, sunny and breezy day, perfect for tacos and churros.

The next day, we headed over to Alice Lake. We decided to do the 4 lake trail, but only do two lakes (LOL) so we made the trek to Edith Lake and back. But for the most part, we just stayed by the main Alice lake beach. Chase had so much fun just stepping into the water back and forth. The highlight of this lake visit was when a butterfly got stuck onto his truck, and he was adamant on getting it to go away.

We spent most of the day just hanging out by the river close to our cabin. We wanted a nice, relaxing trip and so that’s what we did! The property has so many cool things as well, such as a little playground, and a railroad track, and piles of wood and rock which are all just fun little things for a toddler. He loved throwing rocks with his daddy and also destroying every rock formation mommy built. Also, our cabin had two floors, so Chase stayed at the bottom floor in his Slumberpod, which is a tent that goes over the crib.

We ordered takeout for dinner, because we didn’t really want to cook during this trip! I think a lot of people come to Squamish to camp, so the food options are just okay. We’re so spoiled here in Richmond / Vancouver.

The next morning, we had a photoshoot with Nadia Hung Photography. Nadia is an awesome friend of ours and she drove up to Squamish to meet us for a quick family session. We usually get one photoshoot a year, so we were so happy to be able to have this trip commemorated, just the three of us! :)

After that, we headed to the Sea to Sky Gondola for our last stop before we headed home. Man, the gondola is pretty pricey! But it’s still something cool to do and we had lunch up there, went to the playground and did a short walk.

After we had our lunch, we headed back home as it was roughly time for Chase’s nap! A fun little short trip that we all enjoyed.

Love,

K