One of my favourite hikes near Vancouver is the lovely trail to Goat Mountain from the top of the Gondola on Grouse Mountain. However, it is possible to go beyond, to a teeny summit on Goat Ridge. This route curls behind the front layer of North Shore Mountains, so it feels like you’ve made it deep into the wilderness. What’s more, hardly anyone goes beyond the main summit for Goat Mountain so you might get some fabulous scenery to yourself.

Goat Ridge – the basics

Distance: 13km
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 690m
High Point: 1401m (at Goat Mountain)
Time: 3-4 hours
What to bring: Water, snacks and your camera! The 10 essentials.
Facilities: There’s a gondola! Plus a cafe, restaurant, shops, loos and a water fountain on Grouse Mountain.
Dogs: No dogs allowed on the gondola.
How hard is it? Intermediate – It’s harder than I expected from the stats.

Goat Ridge (via Goat Mountain) Map

This is the view of Goat Ridge. The summit is the small bump in the middle.

Wait, what is Peak Bagging?

Peak Bagging is where hikers and climbers try to reach a collection of summits in one geographical area. Every summer people compete to see who can bag the most North Shore peaks. I joined a facebook group of friendly peak baggers in Vancouver. There are loads of peaks around Grouse Mountain! I have trip reports about Grouse (via the BCMC or the Grind), Dam, Crown, Goat Mountains as well as Beauty Peak.

Dam Mountain

There are a few different options for the start of the walk. You can hike up the Grouse Grind, or take the alternative route up the BCMC trail. We fancied an easy-ish day so we took the gondola up to the chalet on Grouse Mountain. From there, follow the trail around the back of the bear enclosure towards Dam Mountain. Then, take the Ridge trail to Dam Mountain and Little Goat Mountain; Or take the Alpine trail (which is easier, but you miss some peaks.)

Little Goat Mountain

We decided to follow the Peak-baggers route, so we visited Dam Mountain (view above) as well as Little Goat (view below.) It took me a while to find the sign for Little Goat Mountain as it is a bit hidden by the small trees.

Goat Mountain

Continue on to Goat (keep going straight and avoid the left turn towards Crown Mountain. There are a couple of different routes up to the summit of Goat Mountain. Previously, we always took the easier route; You turn right at the base of the peak, go around the back and hike up where it is not too steep. This time, we fancied a challenge so we took the direct route straight up the cliff.

It turns out the direct route is great fun! It looks terrifying from below; But once you’re up to the rock face, it’s not too hard to find your feet and scramble up. Can you see me attempting it in Marc’s photo below?

Views from Goat Mountain

The summit of Goat Mountain is quite wide, so you can choose which direction to have a break and admire the views. I’ve included Marc in my photo below so you can see the scale.

I’ve written about this lovely route before so I won’t dwell on the epic vistas at the top. But it’s one of the coolest views of the city, with Grouse and Dam Mountains in front.

Continue on to Goat Ridge

Once you’ve relaxed at Goat Mountain you can climb down to hike along Goat Ridge. This small section is only 2km. There are two bumps that you need to hike up and down (you can see them both in the photo below.) This part of the trail is rugged and beautiful.

I absolutely love the views of Crown Mountain and Crown N1 from this part of the trail.

This section was slightly harder than I expected. The path is obvious, but you need to climb down quite a steep section from the bump between Goat and Goat Ridge.

There are magnificent views to the rest of the North Shore. Below you can see Cathedral Mountain, Mount Burwell, Coliseum Mountain as well as Paton Peak and the Needles.

This is the view looking up the final climb to the summit of Goat Ridge. It only has 50m prominence but it’s it still feels worth all the effort to visit a peak surrounded by so many mountains that we love.

The terrain is lovely. Covered in berry bushes and wildflowers.

Goat Ridge Summit

This jump photo is looking back towards Goat Mountain and Crown Mountain. The views are fabulous.

Here are a couple of panoramas of the views from Goat Ridge. Gorgeous eh!? We had all this to ourselves.

Heading Back

When you are ready to return, follow the trail back past Goat Mountain and along the Alpine Trail back to the Gondola. There are a couple of points along the way where you can see back over to Goat Ridge.

Once you’ve made it back to these cliffs, the Grouse Mountain resort is around the corner.

Visit the bears

We normally pay a visit to the two beautiful grizzly bears of Grouse Mountain on our way home. This is Grinder and Cooler.

We opted to take the Skyride back down to the base of Grouse Mountain. I didn’t take any photos on this occasion, but I have several already. It’s always a pleasant ride.

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Goat Ridge may not be a particularly famous hike in Vancouver but we really loved it. The effort to view ratio is incredible (especially if you take the gondola up.) Do you like the look of it too? Or, do you prefer to stick with the crowds on the Grouse Grind?