The Grind

Grouse Mountain is one of the easily accessible mountains in Vancouver. It's a popular ski resort in the winter and a popular hiking/sightseeing spot in the summer. The Grouse Grind is a the main trail, a 2.9 km trail with a 800 meter rise. It's steep. It's not really a beautiful hike, but it's something you've got to do if you live in the area. We hiked it last fall with our church's youth group but that's all we did - hiked up and hiked down. A few weekends ago we went again with our friends Scott and Sam. They'd never hiked it before, so that made the climb a little more enjoyable.


There are activities to do on the top of the mountain: a lumberjack show, a birds in motion show and a grizzly bear refuge. Both of the shows were fun, but I've got to say watching the 2 grizzly bears was awesome. They are HUGE. The two bears living there were orphaned at a very young age so they were brought to the refuge. The caretakers have been watching the grizzlies with the hope of learning how they may be able to help other orphaned grizzlies while keeping them in the wild. It was a really beautiful 5-acre refuge that these grizzlies live in.


There are huge chainsaw carvings on the top of Grouse. Here's one that Sam and I could climb into - and 10 other people could have climbed in too!


Here's a hint if you ever come to Vancouver and want to see the grizzlies or do anything else on Grouse Mountain: If you take the gondola up, it's a $40/person activity. If you hike up, it's free!