The Diez Vistas trail is one of my favourite walks near Vancouver. The first time I came here was with a lovely group of Wanderung people. I loved it instantly!

This time, I wanted to show Marc the prettiness. Plus we need to strengthen our legs for some big walks in the summer, and this seemed like it might be a good warm up for springtime. It’s not the easiest walk (click here for lots of easy options) but it is not too hard either. It just feels a little longer than you would expect from looking at a map.

Diez Vistas Trail Map

Diez Vistas Trail – the basics:

Distance: 15 km (if you go around one side of the lake, and back the other side.)
Time: 4.5 hours if you’re speedy – 6 hours at a more leisurely pace
Elevation gain: 460 m
Facilities: There is water and toilets at the South Beach, and then more toilets at the North Beach
What to bring: The 10 essentials, plus swimwear.
Swimming: This lake is looovely to swim in once the weather improves. The North Beach is edged with blackberries, so at the end of the summer, bring swimming things and a pot for berries!
Public Transport: From July – September you can take Bus No. 179 from Inlet Centre Skytrain Station. 
Can you do it: There is one steep section that takes about 20-30 minutes. Apart from that, it is all quite easy. Once you’ve found the path, just following it the whole way! When I did this walk with Wanderung folks, we took it a lot slower, but everyone made it without any issues.

Gorgeous rain forest walk

One of the nicest things about the Diez Vistas trail is walking through the varied rain forest. The first part of the walk has a gentle slope up along the ridge, and then once you’ve gained some elevation, you keep walking under the canopy. You can spot flowers and fungi and a beautiful networks of tree roots. After about half an hour you arrive at a clearing (for the power cables.) The steep section starts after that.

The Diez Vistas

This trail is named after the 10 gorgeous vistas that you see along the walk. The first one appears quite soon before you reach the summit of the hill. This is not bad for a first view of the day eh!? That island in the middle is jug island, and the town on the other side of the water is Deep Cove, where we had the pretty walk to Quarry Rock.

Vista Views

After this, it’s quite a long distance to the second vista. But when you get there it is soooo pretty! This was actually the most busy out of all the views. Maybe lots of people just pop up for this first view, and then head back without doing the whole walk? Anyway, from this second viewpoint you can see all the way back to Vancouver, and as far out to Vancouver Island. Well, you can see that far with eyes. You can’t quite see it with my photos!

We stopped here for a banana and I persuaded Marc to take a jump photo. He was a bit embarrassed as there were so many people sitting behind us when we took this shot!

Some of the vistsas are now ex-vistas. The trees have grown a lot in the last century, so some places that used to be good spots to see the views have been closed off my new trees. I liked the views further along the trail once you can look out to Mount Seymour. You can see there is still plenty of snow on the top of Mount Seymour, but it was all snow free on our trail.

The ten vistas are spread out all along the top of the hill, so the trail has plenty of small up-and-downs following the ridges of the hill.

Between each of the vistas you get to walk through more of the forest. There are quite a few cliffs and massive rocks covered in moss. There are also roots growing over the rocks. I was quite glad to have my walking poles, as although the path is obvious, it is quite uneven with all those roots.

Final Vista at the northern end of the hike

Once you make it down the other side of the Diez Vistas trail, you are rewarded with a view of the northern side of Eagle Mountain and Swan Falls. You can just about see the waterfall in the center of this photo. It was soooo loud and gushing! We’ll have to climb up to see it at some point!

We walked along McCombe lake, and over the bridge at the end of Buntzen lake to reach the North Beach and then stopped with all the other picnickers (and doggos) for lunch.

Marc pulled a scary face, but this was a gorgeous place to eat lunch! It was the first really warm weekend in a while so there were looooads of people who had hiked around the lake for a picnic. There were even some lucky people with a canoe.

This really is a lovely place to relax and eat.

Heading back…

The final part of the walk isn’t part of the Diez Vistas trail.  We just followed the path through the forest on the Eastern side of Buntzen lake. I love the way the tree branches are covered in moss. The sun shines through the moss and lights up the ground underneath.

This last section is pretty easy compared to the hike on the main part of the trail.

So, that was another pretty weekend adventure around Buntzen lake and the Diez Vistas trail. I’ll finish off with a couple of the spring flowers we saw along the way. I have no idea what they are, but I appreciated their colours anyway.