Brother’s Creek Loop is another one of the many options for rainy day hikes near Vancouver. The trail is in the forest just below Cypress Provincial Park in West Vancouver. Just like my previous post about the Three Chop trail, hikes in Vancouver’s rainforests are just lovely in the rain (as long as you have a decent water resistant clothing.) This trail is a loop, and fairly consistently uphill in one direction, then downhill on the way back, so it’s a gentle workout. I loved it for the giant trees, the waterfall and the carved tree faces you can spot along the way!

Brother’s Creek Loop Map

The map below is the normal route. We visited when part of the Baden Powell trail was closed, so we followed a diversion, You can see my strava map here

Brother’s Creek Loop – the basics

Distance: 6-9 km (the route we did was 9+km, but normally it’s more like 7km)
Cumulative Elevation gain: 350m (or 410m if you go up to Lost Lake.)
Highest Point: 1591m,
Time: 2-2.5 hours (We recorded about 2hrs 20 moving time, including the hike to Lost Lake)
What to bring: The 10 Essentials
Facilities: Nothing.
Dogs: Great for dogs, but you should keep them on a lead
How hard is it? Easy. This is a good short, dog walking route.
Extra notes: It’s a great option for rainy days. If you do this trail in the winter, there may be snow as you hike higher up the mountain.

Getting Started

The Brother’s Creek trailhead is on Millstream road in West Vancouver. There is space for a few cars to park, and a wooden sign pointing the way. We did a counter-clockwise loop so continued on the Brothers Creek Fire Road. If you prefer to go clockwise; turn left near the start and take the Baden Powell trail until you reach Brother’s Creek, then turn right onto the Brother’s Creek trail.

As you can see from my photos – we did this one on a wet, moody day. I think it was beautiful.

Log faces

This trail had so many mossy smiley faces cut into logs! I spotted 5 smiley faces and a star. Let me know if I missed some. I love the way moss grows around them as they are slowly absorbed back into the forest.

Massive Old Growth Trees

There are so really fabulous tress in the forest here. Some of them are right next to the main trail. Later, I found out there is a mini detour where the Brother’s Creek Fire Trail meets the Incline Railway Trail. You can hike down to a couple of enormous Douglas Fir snags (so ancient trees that have died, but are still standing.)

We did this hike at the end of November, so the snowline started at about 700m elevation. It was a surprised to see a sprinkling of snow (as it was too warm for snow lower down in the city.)

Trail to Lost Lake

The top part of this loop is the new bridge over Brother’s Creek. However it was so nice to hike in the snow, that we continued a little further up to Lost Lake. This section was more rugged and rooty, so really gorgeous.

Lost Lake was totally frozen. By this point the mist was starting to descend, so we decided to head down the mountain too.

Brother’s Creek New Bridge

The highest point of the official loop is the fancy new bridge that was dropped in by a helicopter in 2021. Once you have crossed the bridge, follow the Brother’s Creek trail downhill.

This side of the creek has a slightly narrower, trail that is covered in tree roots. So be extra careful not to slip.

Brother’s Creek Falls

The trail follows alongside the creek, but you are mostly above the creek, looking down on it. Keep an eye out for the two waterfalls next to the trail. They are partly obscured by tree foliage, but still cool to see.

We loved that so many of the trails here are lovingly created with little signs to show when they were updated. You should follow the same trail the whole way down to join up with the Baden Powell trail. Then turn left. We were following a detour, so instead we took the Crossover trail back to the trailhead.

Bring headlamps

We noticed that on wintery rainy days, the forest can get VERY dark after 3pm. We finished at about 3:30pm-ish and needed headlamps within the forest, although it was still bright enough to see once we made it back to the car.

Other fun trails for rainy days:

• Similar to this one, the Three Chop trail on Mount Seymour.
• Waterfall trails are often great in the rain. On Vancouver’s North shore, we love Kennedy Falls, or Norvan Falls for longer walks or Cypress Falls for a mini adventure.
• Lynn Valley – the Sea to Sky trail, Lynn Canyon (for the waterfalls) or Lynn Loop
• Lower Mount Fromme or the Baden Powell trail from Grouse to Lynn Canyon
• Capilano Suspension Bridge and the Capilano River are lovely in the rain too.

Rainy day hikes like this are so good for getting outside and having fun on soggy days!  If you are looking for a fun hike in the rain near Van-city this is a good one to try. It’s not too much effort, but it includes waterfall as well as the mossy forest and faces in the logs. What do you think? Do you fancy exploring Vancouver’s rainforests when they are dripping wet?