Natural Features
Mountains
16,000 years ago the three mountains in southern Cypress Provincial Park (CPP) were under several hundred metres of glacier ice. As the glaciers receded, they scoured and rounded the mountaintops, marking them with striations that can be seen today. Strachan is the tallest of the three mountains. The El. 1459 m north summit is divided from the El. 1442 m southern summit by a deep gully. The south summit consists of a large plateau and contains several very large glacial erratics, “glacial pavement” and other noteworthy geological features, along with spectacular views of the Lions, Howe Sound and Georgia Strait.
Hollyburn Mountain, El. 1326 m, has a small plateau at the summit. There is no chairlift development on Hollyburn, making the hike to the top a special experience. There is always room to sit and enjoy the view and to consider the harsh growing conditions and great age of the gnarled mountain hemlock at the top. This tree has endured the summit’s harsh winter conditions - with snow about 3 m deep - and summer heat, with drought conditions, for several hundred years.
Black Mountain has two summits. The true summit, at El. 1224 m, is a short climb north of Cabin Lake. The South Summit, at El. 1218 m, forms a bump on the extensive Black Mountain Plateau, which slopes gradually south toward Eagle Bluff overlooking West Vancouver and Burrard Inlet. Eagle Bluff’s warmer, drier location allows the growth of light purple Davidson’s penstemon, bright orange Columbia lilies, and other plants not commonly seen in the park.
Forests
CPP is located in the Coastal Western Hemlock and Subalpine Mountain Hemlock zones. The main tree species are western and mountain hemlock, amabilis fir and yellow‑cedar (also called yellow‑cypress, for which the park is named). Western white pine grows here, along with some Douglas‑fir. Naturally caused forest fires are rare in the subalpine areas, where snow can linger for over half the year. Many of the trees are over 1000 years old. Many impressive old-growth stands remain and include some of the largest recorded trees for their species in BC.
These forests are dominated by western and mountain hemlock, amabilis fir, and yellow-cedar. Research in the late 1980s by Dr. Ken Lertzman, Simon Fraser University, on forest stands on Hollyburn and Strachan mountains showed that these “snow forests” have been in continuous existence without major fires for 1500-2000 years and possibly for over 4000 years.
While the trees themselves are not as old as the forest, many of the park’s yellow-cedars are 1000 years of age, and some may be considerably older. The Roadside Yellow-Cedar is known to be over 1200 years old, and is one of the largest known yellow-cedars in BC. The volume of its huge, slow-tapering trunk makes it the largest tree overall in the park. This tree is adjacent to Cypress Bowl Road just before the turn to the cross-country ski area. The Cabin Lake Fir is located on the steep north slopes of Black Mountain. This amabilis fir was one of the largest of this species in the world at 47.0 m high and 7.32 m circumference. This tree was reported dead in March 2015. Other trees listed on The BC BigTree Registry include the Hollyburn Giant yellow‑cedar, now a snag, and a mountain hemlock on Hollyburn, which holds the record for the largest circumference for this species. For details on these and other record trees, see
The BC BigTree Registry (Hosted by UBC)
Randy Stoltmann was an outdoorsman and an expert on big trees in British Columbia. He has written several books on the subject.
Stoltmann Randy: Hiking Guide to the Big Trees of Southwestern British Columbia 1991
Stoltmann Randy, Debbie Robertson: Hiking the Ancient Forests of British Columbia and Washington 1996
Meadows
Yew Meadows in Cypress Bowl is probably the largest and most important of the park’s natural meadows. This sedge and grass-filled meadow is saturated with water for much of the year, and supports a great variety of plants that thrive in open, moist areas. These include western bog-laurel, sub-alpine daisy, narrow-leaved cotton-grass, and false asphodel. Yellow pond-lilies can be seen in small ponds in Yew Meadows. Several small meadows can be seen throughout the park, often associated with ponds. Pink and white heather grows in the drier open areas. The park’s southern section also contains several artificially created open areas, especially on Hollyburn Ridge where trees were cut for winter recreational purposes and hydro lines. These areas are covered with heather and low-growing shrubs, and in wet areas with wildflowers, grasses and sedges.
Artificially created meadows above the Hollyburn Ridge parking areas also contain several species of non-native invasive plants, such as oxeye daisies, along with the native plants described above.
Wetlands, Lakes, Creeks
Southern CPP contains several relatively flat areas with small lakes, tarns and marshy places. These wetlands provide habitat for a large number of plant and animal species that require moisture and abundant light. The best known is the wheelchair-accessible Yew Lake area in Cypress Bowl. Numerous small lakes and ponds dot Black Mountain Plateau, many of which can be seen along the Baden-Powell Trail toward Eagle Bluff. The largest is Cabin Lake, named for a cabin that once stood here. A few small lakes and ponds can be found on Mt. Strachan, the largest of which is Strachan Lake, west of Upper Collins ski run. Hollyburn’s several small lakes include Lost and Blue Gentian lakes in the park’s southeast corner, and man-made West Lake and First Lake (at Hollyburn Lodge). Five other small numbered (man-made) lakes can be seen from the Hollyburn Peak Trail. The Heather Lakes are just below Hollyburn Peak.
Many of West Vancouver’s larger streams originate in the park’s wetlands. Several of these streams are fish-bearing in their lower reaches. The headwaters of Cypress Creek are on Black and Hollyburn mountains, with tributaries flowing from Yew Lake and from Frank Lake, in the saddle between Strachan and Hollyburn mountains. Dick Creek on Black Mountain supplies water to West Vancouver’s Eagle Lake, which provides 50% of the District’s water. Nelson Creek also originates on the Plateau. Brothers Creek flows down to Burrard Inlet from Sixth Lake on Hollyburn Ridge. Marr Creek flows out of First Lake, MacDonald Creek flows from wetlands east of First Lake and Lawson Creek from wetlands south of Blue Gentian Lake.
Geology
The mountains in CPP are at the south end of the Coast Range and are sedimentary and volcanic rocks from the middle Jurassic age and earlier. They were later intruded by granite and quartz diorite batholith (Benton, 1974). 16,000 years ago mile-high glaciers covered the peaks of all three mountains in southern CPP. When the ice finally receded 14,000 years ago, many signs of these glaciers’ powerful action remained.
The summits of Black, Strachan and Hollyburn were rounded by these glaciers, which left striations (grooves) on the rocks, showing the movement of the ice across the peaks. Some large glacial erratic boulders were left behind as the glaciers melted. Examples of these eratics can be seen along the Yew Lake Trail and on Mt. Strachan’s south summit. The Yew Lake area is a buried valley, created by glaciers cutting deeply into the bedrock, and later filled with sediment and glacial till. The channels through which Cypress and Montizambert Creeks now flow down to the sea were also created by this glacial action. A peat bog was created in Yew Meadows, and a series of small terraced ponds formed in the impermeable peat and clay soil. These ponds can be easily seen from the Yew Lake Trail near the Old-Growth Loop. For more information;