On the Fourth of July last year, as fireworks boomed loudly for hours in our neighborhood in NE Portland, Lindsay and I decided we would spend the next year’s holiday outside of the city where we might find a little bit of peace and quiet.

In the spring, when we were deciding where to go for the holiday weekend, we threw out a visit to the provincial parks north of Vancouver as an option. We last visited British Columbia in late summer of 2016 and were blown away by the beauty of Canada’s westernmost province. The epic scenery - pristine alpine lakes, towering peaks, rugged mountain ranges - left me speechless.

Squamish is a small town at the northern end of the Howe Sound. The area attracts outdoors-lovers and is well-known as a destination for climbers, hikers, mountain bikers, and trail runners. The granite monoliths that rise thousands of feet from the sea reminded me a little of the majestic granite walls in Yosemite.