Winter Joffre Lakes, Whistler & Shannon Falls Day Tour — Frozen Turquoise Lakes Near Vancouver

A cold hush settles over the Sea to Sky highway as the minivan peels away from Vancouver. Frost crystals cling to roadside pines and the air tastes like iron; by the time you crest the pass, the world has been reduced to a palette of white, glass-blue ice, and the dark ribs of granite. At Shannon Falls the water leans into the cliff and then tips—frozen ribbons mid-fall—while the trail crunches satisfyingly beneath cramponed boots. Later, at Joffre Lakes, the middle lake glares an impossible turquoise through its icy skin, and Matier Glacier looms, patient and slow, above the basin.