Elk mountain has prominence of only 32m and relatively lower altitude of 1432m. We decided to do Elk in one winter just as an exercise and planned to go to Mount Thurston that day but plodding for a long time at the slowest speed ever and carrying a big film camera made it a tiring day since the sun was setting very soon. However, sometime in 2024-25, I would do traverse from Elk-Thurston to Mount Cheam, if possible.
Getting to Elk-Thurston trailhead was relatively easy without a 4×4. The hike is not really steep and there aren’t really any sketchy sections. Just forest throughout until the view to the fraser river opens up. It gets a little slippery near the Summit in Winter. This is one of the hikes that happen to be on my Garmin device despite not keeping track of beta or pictures. The Summit of Elk is very short and doesn’t really feel like a high mountain. However, the views of Mount Baker was stunning atop Elk Mountain.
For some reason, the views of an inhabited valley or ocean aren’t pleasing to my eye. However, that isn’t really the case with Elk Mountain. Of courses views of Fraser Valley do open up on the mountain but aren’t bothersome.
