Vancouver Trip Guide
Grouse Mountain
Grouse Mountain is the ski hill and year-round attraction above North Vancouver, twenty minutes from downtown, reached either by a paid gondola or on foot up the free Grouse Grind trail. This page covers what the mountain admission actually includes, the hours, the two ways up, the bus that gets you there and the discount for arriving without a car; the full price grid sits on the Grouse Mountain tickets page, and the rest of the city starts on our independent Vancouver guide.
Quick answer What it costs, what is included, how to get up, in three lines
Mountain Admission is $64.50 (CA$89) for an adult and covers the return Skyride, the grizzly habitat, the lumberjack show, Birds in Motion and the Peak Chairlift in summer. Mountain Access runs 08:45 to 21:00 daily and nothing is timed: you pick a date and an age band, not a slot.
Key takeaways
- The cheapest way onto the mountain is to climb it. The Grouse Grind is free, 2.5 km and 800 m of ascent, and the only charge is the one-way Download Ticket down at $14.49 (CA$20), which is what the tickets page compares against the full fare.
- Arrive by bus and Guest Services takes CA$10 off Mountain Admission, so the 236 from Lonsdale Quay pays for itself twice over. The route and the fares are below, and getting around Vancouver has the Compass rules.
- Buying the mountain's own Skyride admission card or booking a small-group run from your hotel are the two shortcuts if you are not taking transit; the North Shore combinations that add Capilano Suspension Bridge are on the tickets page.
Key facts
Opening hours
| Mountain Access, daily | 08:45–21:00 |
|---|---|
| Guest Services at the base, daily | 08:00–20:00 |
| Alpine Guest Services, Peak Chalet, daily | 09:00–21:00 |
| First gondola descent for Grind hikers, daily | 07:30 |
Closed Not stated. Grouse publishes no annual closed days; the Grouse Grind trail itself closes in winter, and those dates are set by Metro Vancouver, not the resort
Admission
- Adult
- $64.50 (CA$89) Mountain Admission, ages 19 to 64
- Reduced
- $57.20 (CA$79) senior 65+; $50.00 (CA$69) youth 13 to 18; $35.50 (CA$49) child 5 to 12; $3.62 (CA$5) tot 3 to 4; family of four $165.90 (CA$229)
- Free
- Infants 0 to 2. The Grouse Grind trail is free to climb; only the ride down is charged
Planning it
- Time needed
- Not published by the resort. Our routing: 2 hours for the view and one show, 4 to 5 hours to see everything the ticket includes
- Book ahead
- Optional — walk-up usually fine
- Address
- 6400 Nancy Greene Way, North Vancouver, BC V7R 4K9. Phone (604) 980-9311
The five ways onto Grouse Mountain, priced from the resort's own shop at grousemountain.com and from GetYourGuide, both read in Q3 2026. The full age grid, the resident rate and the combination arithmetic live on the Grouse Mountain tickets page.
Are you getting yourself to the base, or paying someone to drive you there?
| Option | Price | Includes | Cancel | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mountain Admission, the resort's own shopAnyone driving or taking the bus. It is the cheapest full admission published anywhere, and the age bands go down to CA$5 | $64.50 (CA$89) adult | Return Skyride or Blue Grouse Gondola, mountaintop attractions | Ticket valid only on the date chosen | Official site |
| Grouse Mountain Skyride Admission TicketTravellers who want a cancellable ticket rather than the cheapest one, and who are happy to pay a few dollars over the gate price for it | $67.80 | The same return ride and the same included shows | Free up to 24 hours before | Check Availability |
| Grouse Mountain Express with gondola, 4 hA group of no more than seven who would rather not work out the SeaBus and the 236, and who want the drive narrated | $130.59 | Downtown pickup, admission, about three hours at the summit | Free up to 24 hours before | Check Availability |
| Grouse, Capilano and the fish hatchery, 6 h 30 mVisitors doing the whole North Shore in one morning who accept a fixed pace at each stop | $206.04 | All three admissions, hotel pickup and drop-off | Free up to 24 hours before | Check Availability |
| Capilano, Cleveland Dam and Grouse, 7 hThe cheapest of the two-park combinations, if the later start time suits you | $191.37 | Both admissions, Cleveland Dam stop, coach transport | Free up to 24 hours before | Check Availability |
The official row is a plain link to the resort's own shop and carries no tracking. Grouse publishes no tax statement on its ticket pages, so we cannot say whether GST sits inside these figures or on top; Capilano, by contrast, states plainly that its rates are subject to GST. Canadian dollars converted at CA$1 = US$0.7244.
Ways up Grouse Mountain compared
Every card links to the operator's own page, where the calendar shows what is open on your date. Prices in US dollars as listed on GetYourGuide in Q3 2026; the mountain's own gate price sits above in the table.
from $67.80
Grouse Mountain Skyride Admission Ticket
The mountain's own ticket: return gondola plus the grizzly habitat, lumberjack show and Birds in Motion in summer, or snowshoe trails and the skating pond in winter. Ziplines, the ropes course and the coaster are charged separately.
Check Availability
from $130.59
Vancouver Grouse Mountain Express With Gondola Ride
Four hours with a group capped at seven: downtown pickup, the drive to the Skyride base, admission and around three hours to spend at the summit. The guide travels with you rather than leading the mountain itself.
Check Availability
from $206.04
From Vancouver: Grouse Mountain, Skyride, & Capilano Bridge
The three-stop North Shore run: Grouse gondola, Capilano bridge and the salmon hatchery, all admissions included, back downtown by mid-afternoon. The zipline, ropes course and coaster at Grouse cost extra on the day.
Check Availability
from $191.37
Certified by GetYourGuide From Vancouver: Capilano Suspension Bridge & Grouse Mountain
Seven hours covering Capilano, Cleveland Dam and the Grouse Skyride with both admissions and coach transport included. Pickup times vary by hotel, so anyone without a confirmed slot has to be at the Residence Inn for 10:35 AM.
Check Availability
from $223.45
Top rated Vancouver: Capilano & Grouse Mountain | Tickets Included
The same Capilano and Grouse pairing in a vehicle capped at 14, with both tickets, hotel or cruise-port pickup and bottled water included. Five hours in total, and a private vehicle can be booked instead of the shared one.
Check AvailabilityPrices, ratings and details are the platform's own, checked in Q3 2026; dollar figures are the listed prices — the platform bills in your account's currency.
What Grouse Mountain is, and what the ticket actually buys
Grouse is a working ski area that spends two thirds of the year as a sightseeing attraction. That double life explains almost every confusion visitors have about it: the price you find depends entirely on which of the two mountains you are buying.
One mountain, two products
In the green season, roughly May to October, you buy a Mountain Admission Ticket: a return trip on the Red Skyride or the eight-person Blue Grouse Gondola, plus the mountaintop attractions. In winter the same cable cars carry skiers and snowboarders on a lift ticket instead, over what the resort describes as 33 runs, 15 night runs, four chairlifts, six terrain parks and nine kilometres of snowshoe trails.
The summit sits above 1,200 metres. The chalet where the Skyride lands is at about 1,090 metres, which is why the Peak Chairlift exists at all: it carries you the last stretch to the actual top, and it is included in the admission rather than sold separately.
The resort is operated by Northland at Grouse, Inc., part of Northland Properties, and the base area sits on District of North Vancouver land at the top of Nancy Greene Way. It is not a national or provincial park, which is why an entrance fee applies at all when Lynn Canyon fifteen minutes east charges nothing.
What the summer admission includes
The resort lists these under mountain admission rather than as extras: the Refuge for Endangered Wildlife with its grizzly habitat, the World-Famous Lumberjack Show, the Birds in Motion demonstration, Ranger Talks, Owl Talks, guided eco-walks on Friday to Sunday, the Peak Chairlift, the Kids Tree Canopy Adventure and Theatre in the Sky. On the current-conditions board read for this guide the shows ran at 11am, 1pm and 4pm for the lumberjacks, midday, 2pm and 5pm for Birds in Motion, and 10am, 12:45pm and 3:30pm for the Ranger Talks.
Those times are the whole argument for arriving before 11am. A visitor who reaches the chalet at 3pm has already missed two of the three lumberjack shows and both morning talks, and is paying full price for a chairlift and a view.
What it does not include
Five headline activities are charged on top: the Ziplines, the Mountain Ropes Adventure, the Grouse Gravity Coaster, the lift-access Bike Park and tandem paragliding. So is parking, so is food, and so is skiing. This is the single most common complaint in the reviews on the mountain's own listing, and it is worth reading before you decide the ticket is expensive or cheap.
Kai from Germany, writing after an August visit on the official Skyride card, gave it five stars and still said it plainly: "Lots of things to do on the mountain and a grizzly. The price is still a bit too high, as you have to pay for the add-on things to do." Karen from the United Kingdom, also five stars, took the opposite reading: "A fun interesting day with lots of activities at no extra cost (what we did anyway)." Both are right. The ticket is good value if the shows and the wildlife refuge are what you came for, and poor value if you came for the coaster.
One grizzly, not two
The Refuge for Endangered Wildlife was built around two orphaned grizzly cubs, Grinder and Coola, rescued in 2001. The refuge page now describes one orphaned grizzly bear: Grinder died on 31 July 2026, and Coola is the only bear there. Several guides and several older videos still promise two.
If your children are counting on two bears, tell them beforehand.
Grouse Mountain In Ten Dates
The mountain has been sold, burned, rebuilt and re-lifted more often than any other Vancouver attraction, and the current layout only makes sense in order.
-
October 1894
The first recorded ascent, and the name
The first recorded non-Indigenous hikers to reach the summit named it after the sooty, or blue, grouse they found there. The mountain stands on the traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples.
-
1920s
Scandinavian builders haul the planks up what became the Grind
The first lodge was hand-built by Scandinavian settlers who carried the timber up the line of what is now the Grouse Grind. A rival scheme for a funicular railway never got off the ground.
-
1949
The first double chairlift on the Cut
Grouse has long claimed this as the world's first double chairlift. It was not: Sun Valley had the world's first chairlift in 1936, and Hollyburn at Cypress beat Grouse within Vancouver.
-
Winter 1962
Fire destroys the original lodge
The two original lifts came out in the 1970s, and the provincial government funded a new lodge on the ridge along with an aerial tramway from the valley.
-
15 December 1966
The Blue Tram is inaugurated
Built by the Austrian steel company Voestalpine and opened by Premier W. A. C. Bennett. It still runs, mostly hauling supplies to the lodge.
-
1976
The Red Skyride arrives with new owners
The McLaughlin family bought the mountain and built the Garaventa-made Super Skyride, whose cars hold just under a hundred passengers. It is the tram most visitors ride today.
-
1990
Theatre in the Sky opens in the expanded chalet
Still included in Mountain Admission, and the driest thing to do on the mountain when the cloud is down.
-
5 February 2010
The Eye of the Wind is inaugurated
A 1.5 megawatt Leitwind turbine with a viewing pod in the tower, opened by Premier Gordon Campbell days before the Winter Olympics; tours began on 26 February 2010. It is closed to the general public now.
-
January 2020
Northland Properties buys the resort
The current operator, Northland at Grouse, Inc., took over from CM Asset Management, who had held it since 2017.
-
12 December 2024
The Blue Grouse Gondola opens
Twenty-seven eight-person cabins added to raise uphill capacity, alongside a lift-access bike park and the gravity coaster. It is the smaller of the two cabins you can choose at the base.
History and lift dates from the Grouse Mountain article on Wikipedia, read in Q3 2026; the 2026 refuge and operator details from grousemountain.com, read the same day.
How Much Time To Give Grouse Mountain
The resort publishes no visit length at all, and the only duration it does state is for the Grind: two to two and a half hours to climb. These three routings are ours, built from the posted show times and the mountain access hours.
What decides your routing is not the mountain, it is the show clock. The lumberjacks, the birds and the ranger talks run on fixed times, and everything else at the summit is a view you can take in twenty minutes. Arrive after the last afternoon show and the four-hour version collapses into the two-hour one whether you planned it that way or not.
| Routing | What you get | What it skips | Door to door |
|---|---|---|---|
| The view and one show | Skyride up, the Peak Chairlift, one lumberjack or Birds in Motion show, the grizzly habitat | Theatre in the Sky, the eco-walk, the summit hike, any sit-down meal | About two hours on the mountain, plus an hour of travel each way from downtown |
| The full green-season day | Every included show and talk in sequence, the Peak Chairlift, the refuge, Theatre in the Sky, lunch at the chalet | Nothing included, though the paid coaster, ziplines and ropes course still cost extra | Four to five hours on the mountain, which is what several reviewers report spending |
| The Grind and the ride down | The free climb, 2.5 km and 800 m up, then whatever is still running when you reach the top | Half the show schedule, since the climb takes two to two and a half hours whenever you start | Five to six hours from downtown, and the only version that costs $14.49 (CA$20) rather than $64.50 (CA$89) |
The Grouse Grind: free to climb, paid to descend
This is the fact that decides the day for a lot of visitors, and almost no guide leads with it. Nothing stops you walking up Grouse Mountain for nothing. What you cannot do is walk back down.
The Grouse Grind is a trail on Metro Vancouver regional park land, cooperatively managed by Metro Vancouver Regional Parks and the resort. Climbing it costs nothing. The resort states 2.5 km (1.55 miles), 800 m of elevation gain from a base at 290 m to a summit at 1,090 m, 2,830 stairs and an average slope of about 56 percent, or 30 degrees; Metro Vancouver gives approximately 2.5 kilometres and a climb from 300 to 1,100 metres. Average time, in the resort's own words: "On average it takes up to 2 to 2.5 hours to complete the hike."
Downhill hiking is not permitted. Metro Vancouver's wording is specific about why: rock fall, trail damage and congestion on the narrow sections. So the descent is the paid part. The one-way Download Ticket costs $14.49 (CA$20) for ages 13 and up and $7.24 (CA$10) for children 5 to 12, is sold online, and is non-refundable and non-transferable. If you already hold a Mountain Admission Ticket you do not need it: the ride down is in the price.
The alternative to paying is the BCMC Route, 2.9 km and about two hours, which is a legitimate walking descent. It is not a shortcut. It is a second hike at the end of the first one, on tired legs, and the first gondola down for Grind hikers runs from 07:30 daily if you would rather not find that out the hard way.
When the Grind is shut, and who decides
Trail hours are Metro Vancouver's to set, not the resort's, and Grouse says so itself: for current Grouse Grind trail hours, check Metro Vancouver's website. The trail closes in winter when conditions are considered too hazardous, and again in spring for maintenance to clear hazardous debris that accumulated over the winter.
Exact opening and closing dates for the coming season are not published by either body. Nobody prints them in advance, which is worth knowing if you are planning a shoulder-season trip around the climb: check Metro Vancouver's current-conditions page in the week before you travel, and have the Skyride as the fallback.
What the summit is at the top of the Grind
The Grind ends at the chalet, not at the peak. From there the Peak Chairlift, included in Mountain Admission, carries you the rest of the way up, and a walking route to the summit takes around 35 minutes on foot. A hiker arriving on a Download Ticket alone has not bought the chairlift, so the summit is a walk or nothing.
That is the arithmetic the tickets page sets out in full: a Grind climb with a Download Ticket saves CA$69 against the full admission, and costs you every included show and the chairlift.
Hours, seasons and what is actually running
Mountain Access runs 08:45 to 21:00 daily as posted on the resort's current-conditions board. Guest Services at the base is open 08:00 to 20:00 and Alpine Guest Services at the Peak Chalet 09:00 to 21:00. The Grouse Grind Coffee Bar opens at 07:00 and Altitudes Bistro serves from 11:00 to 21:00. The Observatory, the mountain's restaurant, runs Wednesday to Sunday from 17:00 to 21:00 and is closed Monday and Tuesday.
Grouse states no annual closed days. What changes instead is the season. Green-season inclusions, roughly May to October, are the shows, the wildlife refuge, the eco-walks and the Peak Chairlift. From December to April the mountain turns over to snowshoe trails, the sliding zone, an outdoor skating pond and the Light Walk, and skiing is a separate lift ticket. The transitional weeks in October to November and April to May are weather-dependent, and the resort itself warns that activity availability varies then.
- Emptiest: the first cabins after 08:45, and after 18:00 when the day visitors have gone but Mountain Access still has three hours left
- Busiest: 11:00 to 14:00 on a clear summer weekend, which is also when the lumberjack and Birds in Motion shows stack up
- Book nothing: entry is not timed, and the resort states advance purchase is not required
- Online orders are capped at ten tickets, and each ticket is valid only on the date you selected
Grouse against Cypress and Mount Seymour
The three North Shore mountains compared on what they publish and what they charge, read on grousemountain.com, cypressmountain.com and mtseymour.ca in Q3 2026. Two of the three publish no winter lift price at all, which is the finding, not an omission on our part.
| Mountain | Published summer price | Winter day ticket | Getting there without a car | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grouse Mountain | $64.50 (CA$89) adult admission | Not stated; only season passes from CA$399, and "prices go up October 14" | SeaBus then the 236 bus, about 25 minutes from Lonsdale Quay, and CA$10 off admission for arriving by transit | Open year round, no closed days published |
| Cypress Mountain | Free in summer, parking included | Not stated; the 26/27 store had no lift tickets loaded, and taxes are excluded from every figure | Cypress Coach Lines private shuttle, CA$35 return adult plus fees and GST, cash only, booked in advance | "Between mid-November and mid-December", closing date not published |
| Mount Seymour | Not applicable; the winter operation is the attraction | Not stated; snowshoe day pass CA$17, tobogganing CA$10 weekday and CA$15 weekend | Resort shuttle CA$15 return from Rupert SkyTrain, CA$10 from Parkgate, prepaid online only | Anticipated 11 December 2026 to 4 April 2027 |
Only Grouse publishes a headline admission price you can read without entering a booking flow. Cypress and Seymour both push prices behind a date picker, and Seymour additionally voids third-party resales on the hill. Winter tyres are mandatory on the Mount Seymour road from 1 October to 31 March; Grouse publishes no equivalent rule for Nancy Greene Way.
Getting to Grouse Mountain without a car
Grouse is about twenty minutes from downtown by road and roughly an hour door to door by transit. The transit route is genuinely straightforward, and the resort pays you to use it.
From downtown the route is SeaBus from Waterfront Station to Lonsdale Quay, twelve minutes across the inlet, then the 236 bus from the quay to the base of the Skyride, which the resort describes as about a 25-minute ride. Coming from the east side of the North Shore, the 232 runs from Phibbs Exchange instead. Guests who arrive by transit are eligible for CA$10 off Mountain Admission or a ski ticket, redeemed at Guest Services and not combinable with other offers.
That discount matters more than it looks. A weekday round trip by SeaBus and bus costs about CA$10.20 in contactless fares, so the discount covers the journey and leaves change. On a weekend or after 6:30pm on a weekday the whole system charges a single one-zone fare, which drops the return to CA$7.00.
| Fare | Price | Covers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two-zone contactless or cash, adult | $3.69 (CA$5.10) | SeaBus plus the 236, one direction | Weekday before 6:30pm; the 90-minute transfer window covers the bus |
| Two-zone Compass stored value, adult | $3.04 (CA$4.20) | The same trip on a Compass card | The card carries a CA$6 refundable deposit |
| One-zone fare, adult | $2.54 (CA$3.50) | The same trip after 6:30pm on weekdays, or any time at the weekend | All bus trips are one-zone at all times |
| DayPass, adult | $9.09 (CA$12.55) | Unlimited travel across all three zones for the day | Worth it only if Grouse is one of three or more transit trips |
| Transit arrival discount | CA$10 off | Mountain Admission or a ski ticket | Redeemed at Guest Services, not combinable with other offers |
The free shuttle, and the one that has stopped
Grouse does run a free shuttle from downtown, and it is not the same arrangement as Capilano's. The resort's bus runs between Canada Place and the mountain, first come first served, and only with the purchase of a round-trip Mountain Admission Ticket or a Grouse Mountain Pass. Pickup is at the front of Canada Place between the Pan Pacific and the Fairmont Waterfront; on Sundays it moves one block south, between Cordova Street and Howe Street. The published schedule runs from 09:00 to 18:10 out of Canada Place and 09:35 to 18:40 coming back.
So it is free transport for ticket holders rather than a public bus, and it does not help a Grind hiker who has only bought a Download Ticket. Reviewers also report it getting stuck in traffic: Harriette from the United Kingdom, five stars, wrote that "the free shuttle bus did get held up in traffic so I ended up having to take public transport back to the city, but this was pretty easy."
The other shuttle, the free hourly North Shore Shuttle from The Shipyards to Grouse, Capilano and Edgemont Village, was published as operating until 7 September 2026. If you are reading this after that date, treat it as finished until the resort posts a new season.
- SeaBus first sailing from Waterfront: 06:01 weekdays, 06:16 Saturday, 08:16 Sunday
- Last SeaBus back from Lonsdale Quay: 01:00 weekdays and Saturday, 23:00 Sunday
- Bus 236 from Lonsdale Quay to the Skyride base: about 25 minutes
- Bus 232 from Phibbs Exchange if you are coming from the east North Shore
Driving and parking
Every lot at the base is pay parking: CA$10 for a three-hour ticket, CA$12 for the day, CA$60 for an annual pass, paid through PayByPhone or at the lot machines, which take coins, Visa, Mastercard and Amex. Evo car share trips can be ended at Grouse and park free, and Club OpenRoad members with the branded plate frames park free too. The electric-vehicle charging stations have been temporarily removed, so do not plan on arriving on a low battery.
Wheelchair users should use the upper lot, Lot A, which has designated stalls in the first row nearest the Skyride and the access ramps. A covered walkway links the Peak Skyride station to the top floor of the chalet, and a paved outdoor ramp reaches the mountaintop plaza and the paths to the wildlife refuge, the Owl Talks and the Lumberjack Show. The Peak Chairlift cannot be used by wheelchair users and there are no paved paths at the summit itself; peak access is arranged through Alpine Guest Services. There are no elevators inside the chalet.
Five Things Most Visitors Do Not Know About Grouse Mountain
Each of these comes off an official page, and each one changes what the day costs or what you see.
- The Eye of the Wind is shut, and the page describing it has gone. The turbine's viewing pod is closed to the general public, the resort's own page for it now returns a 404, and it does not appear anywhere in the current attractions and hours list. Anyone still selling Grouse on the wind turbine is working from an old brochure [grousemountain.com/eye-of-the-wind and /current_conditions, read in Q3 2026]. - The resort contradicts itself on toddlers. The Mountain Admission table prices a Tot aged 3 to 4 at CA$5, while the general admission product page says tots four and under are free but still require a ticket. Take the CA$5 as the figure you may be asked for, and ask at Guest Services [grousemountain.com/skyride/buy-mountain-admission and /products/general-admission]. - Locals pay a fifth less, and the rate is published, not hidden. The Lower Mainland Resident rate is $53.60 (CA$74) adult against $64.50 (CA$89), and $129.70 (CA$179) for a family against $165.90 (CA$229).
It is on the same page as the visitor price, which is unusually candid [grousemountain.com/skyride/buy-mountain-admission]. - No tax figure is published anywhere on the ticket pages. Grouse states nothing about GST on admission, where Capilano says outright that its rates are subject to it. So the CA$89 may or may not be what leaves your card, and the resort does not say which [grousemountain.com ticket pages, checked in Q3 2026]. - Winter day lift prices are not published at all. The ski and snowboard ticket pages carry no per-day figure for the coming season, only early-bird season passes from CA$399 and a warning that prices go up on October 14. If you are planning a ski day here, you cannot budget it from the website [grousemountain.com/ski-board-tickets and /tickets-passes-winter].
At Grouse Mountain: What To Do, And What Not To
Every line here is a decision argued above, compressed into something you can act on that morning.
Do
- Arrive by SeaBus and the 236 and claim the CA$10 transit discount at Guest Services before you buy anything else
- Be at the chalet before 11:00 so the lumberjack show, Birds in Motion and a ranger talk all still fit in the day
- Take the Peak Chairlift, which is included; it is the only way to the actual summit without a 35-minute walk
- Buy the one-way Download Ticket if you are climbing the Grind, and buy it before you start
- Check Metro Vancouver's current-conditions page for the Grind in the week before you travel, not the resort's
Don't
- Don't plan to walk back down the Grind: downhill hiking is not permitted, and the BCMC Route is a second two-hour hike, not a shortcut
- Don't count on two grizzlies. Grinder died in 2026 and Coola is the only bear in the refuge
- Don't budget a ski day off the website; no winter day lift price is published for the coming season
- Don't assume the coaster, ziplines and ropes course are included. They are not, and neither is parking
- Don't rely on the free North Shore Shuttle from The Shipyards; its published season ended in September 2026
Grouse Mountain map: the base, the trailhead and what is nearby
The Skyride base, the Grouse Grind trailhead a little to the south, the downtown shuttle stop and the two North Shore alternatives within a short drive.
Next stop from Grouse Mountain
All three are on the North Shore and all three are reachable from the base without going back downtown first.
Capilano Suspension Bridge
The paid bridge, and the one North Shore attraction with a genuinely free year-round downtown shuttle of its own. Capilano Suspension Bridge has the hours and the seasonal Canyon Lights dates, and the Capilano tickets page carries its prices.
Same 236 bus routeLynn Canyon
A suspension bridge 50 metres above Lynn Creek that costs nothing to cross, in a park run by the District of North Vancouver. Parking is CA$3 an hour in the main lots from March to October and the east lot is free. Lynn Canyon is the free counterweight to a CA$89 mountain.
228 bus from Lonsdale QuayNorth Vancouver and Lonsdale Quay
The SeaBus terminus, the market and The Shipyards, and the place to eat before or after the mountain. North Vancouver covers the quay, the market hours and the Friday night market season.
Where the 236 startsGrouse Mountain questions
Is it free to go up Grouse Mountain?
Climbing is free, riding is not. The Grouse Grind trail is on Metro Vancouver park land and costs nothing to walk up, but downhill hiking is not permitted, so you either buy the one-way Download Ticket at $14.49 (CA$20) or descend the BCMC Route on foot. A Mountain Admission Ticket at $64.50 (CA$89) covers the ride both ways plus the shows; the tickets page sets the two against each other, and the official Skyride card is the cancellable version.
How long is the Grouse Mountain Skyride ride up?
Eight minutes, on either the Red Skyride or the Blue Grouse Gondola, which opened in December 2024 with eight-person cabins. Reviewers on the Skyride admission card recommend the larger tram for the view. The base is at 6400 Nancy Greene Way, the chalet at about 1,090 metres, and the included Peak Chairlift carries you the rest of the way to the summit.
Is Grouse Mountain worth it?
It depends entirely on whether you arrive in time for the shows. The included lumberjack show, Birds in Motion, ranger and owl talks, the grizzly refuge and the Peak Chairlift are what the admission buys, and they run on fixed times that finish in the late afternoon. Arrive at 3pm and you are paying $64.50 (CA$89) for a gondola and a view. If the view alone is the point, Vancouver Lookout downtown is a fraction of the effort, and Lynn Canyon is free.
How do I get to Grouse Mountain from downtown Vancouver?
SeaBus from Waterfront Station to Lonsdale Quay, twelve minutes, then the 236 bus to the Skyride base, about 25 minutes. A weekday round trip costs roughly CA$10.20 in contactless fares and the mountain then takes CA$10 off your admission for arriving by transit. Full fare rules are on getting around Vancouver; if you would rather be driven, the small-group express picks up downtown.
Is the Grouse Grind open right now?
Metro Vancouver decides, not the resort, and Grouse points hikers to Metro Vancouver's own page for current trail hours. The Grind closes in winter when conditions are judged too hazardous and again in spring for debris clearance, and neither body publishes the dates in advance. Check in the week before you travel and keep the Skyride ticket as the fallback.
What is included in Grouse Mountain admission?
In the green season: the return Skyride or gondola, the Refuge for Endangered Wildlife, the World-Famous Lumberjack Show, Birds in Motion, ranger and owl talks, weekend eco-walks, the Peak Chairlift, the Kids Tree Canopy Adventure and Theatre in the Sky. Not included: the ziplines, the Mountain Ropes Adventure, the Grouse Gravity Coaster, the bike park, tandem paragliding, parking and food. The tickets page lists what each option adds, and the three-stop North Shore tour bundles admission with transport.
Are there still two grizzly bears at Grouse Mountain?
No. Grinder and Coola were rescued as orphaned cubs in 2001 and lived in the Refuge for Endangered Wildlife together for a quarter of a century. Grinder died on 31 July 2026, and the refuge page now describes one orphaned grizzly. Coola is still there, and the ranger talks that explain the refuge are included in the mountain admission.
Can you ski at Grouse Mountain, and what does it cost?
You can. The resort lists 33 runs, 15 night runs, four chairlifts, six terrain parks and the North Shore's most extensive snowmaking, and its first official season was 1926. What it does not list is a day lift ticket price for the coming winter: the ticket pages publish only early-bird season passes from CA$399 and a note that prices rise on October 14. For a priced winter day, Mount Seymour publishes snowshoe and tobogganing rates, and Vancouver in winter compares the three mountains.
Where Grouse Mountain fits in a Vancouver day
Grouse is a half-day, not an afternoon add-on. Take the 09:00 or 10:00 SeaBus, be on the mountain by 11:00, and you catch the show schedule at its fullest and are back at Lonsdale Quay for a late lunch. Pairing it with Capilano Suspension Bridge in one day works because both sit on the 236 route, and that is exactly what the combination tours sell; pairing it with anything downtown does not, because you lose an hour each way.
If the cloud is down on the North Shore, the mountain is a gondola ride into fog and the day is better spent on the rainy-day list. If the budget is the constraint, free things to do in Vancouver starts with the Grind and Lynn Canyon. And if you are choosing between mountains rather than planning one, the guide post on Grouse Mountain or the Sea to Sky Gondola sets the two against each other on price, drive time and what is at the top. The full list of paid entries in the city is on the Vancouver attraction tickets hub, and everything else worth an afternoon is on things to do in Vancouver.
Grouse Mountain on Film: the Skyride, the Summit and a Full Day
Three walk-throughs filmed on the mountain itself, useful for judging what the included attractions actually look like and how much of the day they fill. Watch one before you decide between the two-hour and the five-hour version.
GROUSE MOUNTAIN, VANCOUVER. What it's like and things to do when you visit.
A straight run through the summit area, the shows and the refuge, which is the clearest answer to what the admission buys.
Video: Globetrotting GraemeI Spent a Full Day at Grouse Mountain and Here's Why You Should Too
The five-hour version of the day, filmed in sequence, so you can see how the show times stack up.
Video: LuluGROUSE MOUNTAIN - My Old Stomping Grounds
A local's take on the mountain, including the ski terrain the summer visitor never sees.
Video: Rise & AlpineVideos load from YouTube only when you press play.
Reviewed Q3 2026 (July–September 2026); next review Q4 2026. Prices, hours and terms are set by the venue or operator and confirmed at checkout.
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