Beauty Peak
- Kaitlin
- Aug 2, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 22, 2024
August 2, 2024
Distance: 18.7km round-trip
Elevation gain: 1830m
Time required: 9-10 hours total
Beauty Peak is a lesser travelled peak in the Grouse Mountain backcountry. It is sometimes referred to as West Crown. Although you access it from Grouse, it is technically located in the Capilano Watershed. This means you are technically not supposed to be there. That being said, many people do hike it, myself included, so use your own discretion.
The journey to Beauty Peak starts from the top of Grouse Mountain. You can either take the Grouse Grind/BCMC to get there or you can pay for the gondola. I personally chose to do the Grouse Grind as the last time I went into the Grouse backcountry, I did the BCMC, so I wanted to change it up.
The Grouse Grind sucks (I should have chosen the BCMC). I don't consider it a 'hike.' It's a grueling 2.5km climb up a manicured forest trail with no views. This time particularly sucked as I am still in the process of recovering from covid which has absolutely tanked my endurance. This means I was slow. It took me a full hour and 15 minutes (previously I could do it in 50-55 minutes at a fast pace).
From the Grouse resort, you go past the various attractions such as the lumberjack show and the grizzly bear habitat. The two resident grizzly bears weren't out this time unfortunately. From the attraction area, you walk up the dirt road for about 100m before reaching the Alpine Trail. This trail leads to all of the mountains in the backcountry.
First, I passed Dam Mountain. This is nothing more than a rock bluff intersecting the trail. I won't post any pictures here as I extensively covered these other mountains when I went to Crown Mountain three years ago, which you can read about here.
After Dam Mountain, I passed around Little Goat Mountain. It is after this point that you begin the steep descent down to Crown Pass. At the bottom of the pass is the junction to Hanes Valley. This is a popular and beautiful valley frequented by trail runners and those such as myself with a love of boulder fields. I hiked Crown Mountain via Hanes Valley last summer.
After Crown Pass, I began the hike and scramble up Crown Mountain trail. There is only one water source on the entire trail at this time of year, which is a small creek about 400m from the Crown summit.
About 300m from the summit is a faint trail junction on the left-hand side, which is the trail towards Beauty Peak. It can be missed if you aren't looking for it.
Taking the trail will first lead you to a helicopter landing pad. This is where you will see the boundary sign warning you that you are entering the Capilano watershed. From there, you will see a faint trail leading into the trees. The trail is a bit overgrown but it is well-marked and easy to follow. I updated the flagging on it as the tape was quite faded and not always visible.
Compared to Crown Mountain trail, Beauty Peak trail is relatively easy. It descends down to a false summit before climbing up to the true summit. The elevation gain and exposure is far less than Crown Mountain. It took me only 50 minutes to reach the peak from the turn-off. I was the only one there.
I spent a nice 30 minutes at the summit, eating lunch and admiring the views. The flying ants were just awful. I ate probably a good dozen of them.
From Beauty Peak, I hiked back to Grouse Mountain and then took the BCMC back down to the parking lot. The BCMC is much nicer than the Grouse Grind. It is far less busy and feels more like a natural trail through the forest rather than a thousand stairs.
Although my fitness wasn't as good as it usually is, I still had a great time and I am very glad I did it. Anyone who has done or is considering down Crown Mountain should also consider the much less travelled Beauty Peak.
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