Elk Mountain & Mount Thurston

August 29, 2019

Distance: 15km

Elevation gain: 1100m

Time required: 5-6 hours

*stats for both Elk & Thurston Mtns. Elk Mtn by itself is much shorter.

Elk and Thurston Mountains are two popular and beautiful peaks in Chilliwack. Elk Mountain is by far the most popular of the two, being shorter and easier than Thurston.

The parking lot is off of Chilliwack Bench FSR. The trail slowly and steadily gains a forested ridge until coming out into the meadows on the ridgeline. The rocky lookout of Elk Mountain offers stunning views of the Chilliwack valley and surrounding mountains, especially to the south. It took me 1.5 hour to reach the summit.

Chilliwack valley from Elk Mtn. Sumas Mtn is on the left, Chilliwack Mtn is the smaller hump to the right of it.

Cultus Lake to the south west

Peaks near the American border with Mount Baker in the background

Looking southeast towards Canadian Border Peak and American Border Peak

Panoramic shot from Elk Mtn (click to expand)

Elk Mountain is just the first stop on a stunning ridgeline that has incredible views the whole way to Mount Thurston. The sub-alpine meadows feature beautiful wildflowers. You traverse small bumps and notches along the way.

Beautiful wildflowers in Thurston Meadows including Indian paintbrush, sitka valerian, fireweed

Looking back on Elk Mtn from the Elk-Thurston ridge

On the Elk-Thurston ridge looking south at Mount McGuire (left), Mt Baker, Chilliwack River

Panoramic shot on the Elk-Thurston ridge (click to expand)

It took me an hour to reach Mount Thurston from Elk Mountain.

Looking north from Thurston. Mount Archibald is in the centre foreground. In the back is Mt Cheam, Lady Peak, Knight Peak, Baby Munday Pk, and Welch Pk

There is a shorter route to reach Mount Thurston which starts from Mount Mercer FSR. It is only 1.5km (one way). However, getting to this trail requires 4WD to traverse the rugged FSR.

If you wanted, you could also continue all the way to Mount Mercer. I am considering doing this one day. It's about 22km in total.

It took me a little over 2 hours to get back down to the parking lot. It was a short, beautiful hike.