Unnecessary Mountain
Just a short drive north of Vancouver is Cypress Provincial Park which hosts a ton of awesome trails. We wanted to spend another night in the Rocky Mountain backcountry but didn’t have a ton of time so we were pointed to Unnecessary Mountain. Luckily there’s no booking required at the higher altitudes of Cypress, so we were able to plan this trip last minute. There’s no official campsites either, so you can camp wherever.
We parked just down the road from Cypress Mountain ski hill in an overnight-use parking lot, geared up, and hit the trail. Up to Saint Marks Summit it’s a pretty wide and well worn trail. But it still has some serious elevation. Saint Marks is a popular day hike so expect to see a lot of hikers between the trailhead at Cypress and Saint Marks. To get there is just over 5 km with an elevation gain of 570 meters. The views of Howe Sound were incredible.
After Saint Marks we didn’t pass any more hikers. The trail declines for while into a valley before the climb up to Unnecessary Mountain begins. It’s a pretty hefty ascent but the trail was in good shape. There’s great views all along the way. Unnecessary Mountain technically has two peaks: the north and the south. They’re about the same height, but the north peak is a little further if you start from Cypress. The camping prospects looked a bit better on the south peak so we set up camp there.
From this site there’s insane 360 degree views. You can see Howe Sound, lots of mountains, and even the city of Vancouver. The Twin Sisters (AKA the Lions) are pretty cool looking mountains that are in plain view as well.
Other than the creek right near the trailhead there’s really no water source on the trail. We got lucky because there was still a large pile of snow near our site (in late August!) that had a small meltwater stream trickling from it. So we were able to fill up our bottles and boil some water for dinner. After dinner the sunset over the mountains was phenomenal.
It took a bit under 4 hours today to get to the site at Unnecessary Mountain. It was 9.1 km and 1100 meters of elevation gain to get there. It gets cold at night even in the summer so pack appropriately. The next morning we trekked back down in about 2.5 hours. Another note: Unnecessary Mountain is on the Howe Sound Crest Trail, which is a 26 km point-to-point trail from Cypress to the Sea to Sky Highway. If you have some more time and a ride waiting at the far end this would be a great option for a multi-day trip. Overall, this is an awesome area for hiking and camping and not busy at all past Saint Marks. Would highly recommend.
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