Located high above North Vancouver, Grouse Mountain offers numerous great activities regardless of the season including in summer.
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Admission | Location | Year-Round Activities | Skyride Tram | Chairlift Rides | Lumberjack Show | Birds in Motion | Disc Golf | Ropes Course | Grizzly Bear Viewing | Dining & Movies | Eye of the Wind | Mountain Ziplining | Grouse Mountain Coaster | Grouse Grind | Hiking | Other Information
Summertime at Vancouver’s Grouse Mountain
There are lots of things to see and do at Grouse Mountain in the summer (and late spring and early fall). Activities include Skyride tram rides, hiking, chairlift trips, the Grouse Grind, Lumberjack shows, Birds in Motion demonstrations and mountain disc golf. There is also a grizzly bear habitat area, fine dining, free movies, a ropes course, the Eye of the Wind turbine views and Ziplining Adventures.
For information about the resort in the snowy season, click Grouse Mountain in Winter. For information on Grouse Mountain in the late spring, summer and early fall, see below.
ZIPLINING IN THE LOWER MAINLAND
Grouse Mountain isn’t the only place in the region that offers ziplining and ropes course adventures. Some of our favourite venues for these kinds of things are WildPlay in Maple Ridge and Superfly Ziplines and the Aerial Obstacle Course in Whistler. All three of these places are amazing!
TIP: With WildPlay, if you use the promo code VBP15 you’ll save 15%!
Grouse Admission Cost
For most of the summer in 2024, the Skyride trip up Grouse Mountain when not skiing cost $80 for adults, $70 for seniors (ages 65+), $60 for youth (ages 13 to 18), $40 for children (ages 5 to 12), free for children 4 and under, and $205 for a family of four.
The above prices were for a Mountain Experience ticket which includes access to the movie theatre, rides up the chairlift, mountain disc golf, hiking trails, grizzly bear habitat and Peak Chairlift. It also includes access to live entertainment like the Lumberjack performance and Birds in Motion show when in season.
Attraction Location & Directions
Grouse Mountain is located at 6400 Nancy Greene Way in North Vancouver.
Coming over from Vancouver via Stanley Park and the Lions Gate Bridge, veer right onto Marine Drive towards North Vancouver. (Do not veer left as you will be heading in the oppositive direction towards West Vancouver.) At the first traffic lights turn left onto Capilano Road and continue on up the hill until you reach Grouse Mountain.
Grouse Mountain Year-Round
The following activities are what you can do at Grouse Mountain during the summer, and most other times when the mountain isn’t blanketed in snow.
Skyride Tram and Fabulous Views
The trip up to Grouse Mountain from the parking lot is a fabulous experience. The views are stunning on any day of the year (when it’s not too cloudy of course).
The Skyride aerial tramway ride up offers breathtaking views of Vancouver, the ocean and all the surrounding area. Departures take place year-round about once every 15 minutes between around 8:45 am and 10:00 pm.
Chairlift Rides
Grouse Mountain is a fantastic place for hiking in summer. It’s beautiful, not too hot and has unbelievable views. It doesn’t cost anything to hike around Grouse Mountain once you’re on the hill, and you can hike right up to the top.
One hike that we recommend is to Goat Mountain. It’s a higher peak that features a panoramic view of the city, water and mountain ranges.
There is also the Peak Chairlift you can take to the top of the hill from May until October (weather permitting). Interact with the 360-degree photo below for an idea of what the experience is like.
Lumberjack Show Entertainment
In the summer at the top of the mountain there is live entertainment including Grouse Mountain’s popular Lumberjack Show. The show features a comedy competition by a pair of Canadian lumberjacks.
The 45-minute Lumberjack performance includes axe throwing, pole climbing, wood chopping and log rolling. It’s all wonderfully fun and stereotypically Canadian.
The Lumberjack Show runs about three times a day from late May until early October.
Birds in Motion Show
Another great exhibit that you won’t want to miss at Grouse Mountain is the Birds in Motion show. Here, you’ll get to see trainers with their hawks, falcons, owls and possibly even an eagle.
The bird demonstrations also take place from early May until the beginning of October. They are entertaining, educational, lots of fun, and included with the general price of admission.
Grouse Mountain Disc Golf
Grouse Mountain features a great 18-hole mountain disc golf course. A round is included with your tram ride Alpine Experience ticket or Annual Pass, and discs are available for purchase. It’s lots of fun, and good exercise too!
Mountain Ropes Adventure
The ropes courses at Grouse Mountain are divided into four levels based on your height, weight, age and athletic ability. It costs $50 per person when booking online or $55 per person when purchasing a ticket in-person at the mountain. The cost is the same regardless of age but you must be at least eight years old to participate. The route lasts about two hours depending on how fast you go.
Grizzly Bear Viewing
Grouse Mountain’s two resident grizzly bears, Grinder and Coola, enjoy a large enclosure full of nature, trees and lots to eat. Visitors can see these two massive creatures meandering around, except in winter when there is a live video showing them fast asleep enjoying their hibernation indoors.
Dining and Movies on Grouse Mountain
At the top of the Skyride tramway at Grouse Mountain is the main lodge, the Peak Chalet, which has two restaurants, a cafe/cafeteria, ski and gift shops, and a movie theatre. The theatre features free films including ones about Vancouver and the lives of Grouse Mountain’s two resident grizzly bears.
Grouse Mountain Restaurants
The Observatory is Grouse Mountain’s fancy restaurant and it features great food and amazing views.
Altitudes Bistro is another great restaurant; it’s a little more casual but with equally impressive window-side scenery.
Theatre in the Sky
Films are shown in the Theatre in the Sky in the Peak Chalet and they are free with your Alpine Experience pass trip up in the tram. It’s a tiny theatre and the films are short, but they are well worth seeing.
Films run all day and start about once every half hour.
TIP: Arrive early and find a seat near the top where there’s something to rest your back up against.
Movies on the Mountain
During the summer there are extra movie screenings at the Birds in Motion viewing area. The movies are shown on a big screen with the surrounding mountain range as the backdrop.
The screenings aren’t free unless you have an annual pass. Otherwise, you must pay $25 for a sunset rate ticket (which also included access to the rest of the mountain after 7:00 pm from June 14th to September 30th in 2024).
The 2024 movie schedule was as follows. All movies started at sunset (between 8:00 pm and 9:00 pm depending on the night).
- Thursday, August 1st – Encanto
- Thursday, August 8th – Barbie
- Thursday, August 15th – Jurassic Park
- Thursday, August 22nd – Grease
- Thursday, August 29th – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Eye of the Wind
One of the newest additions to Grouse Mountain is the Eye of the Wind. It’s a massive wind turbine at the mountain’s summit that you can go up inside (for an extra $15 or so for people ages 17+). The views from there are out of this world!
As of the fall of 2024, this attraction is temporarily closed to the public.
TIP: When open, make sure to go up on a beautiful sunny day when you can see the entire Lower Mainland for miles around. If it’s overcast, then it’s not so exciting.
Mountain Ziplining
Ziplining at Grouse Mountain is amazing. The views are incredible and the thrills are even more so.
A 90-minute five-line Mountain Zipline Tour costs about $119 per person when booking online or $124 per person when purchasing a ticket in-person at the mountain. (Note: Rates are in addition to general admission to the mountain and are subject to change.)
The ziplining doesn’t run year-round. It usually starts up in May and finishes around the Thanksgiving Long Weekend in October.
For more information, click Grouse Mountain Ziplines.
Grouse Mountain Coaster
2025 is set to be the first year with the Grouse Mountain Coaster. Very similar to the Cypress Eagle Coaster over on Cypress Mountain, the Grouse ride is nearly a kilometre and a half long and is powered entirely by gravity.
Riders travel down the mountain either solo or with a child in the passenger seat. A brake lever allows you to control the speed of the descent, before a pulley system drags the cart back up to where it started.
As of the fall of 2024, there’s not yet an exact date for when the coaster will open, or how much it will cost.
To learn more, click Grouse Mountain Coaster.
The Grouse Grind
If you have the crazy urge for some serious exercise and want to avoid the expense of the tram ride up, an alternative route to the base of Grouse Mountain is via the more than 2,800 stairs on the Grouse Grind Trail.
The Grouse Grind is not the most scenic part of Grouse Mountain, at least not until you reach the top. It is, however, where you’ll get the best workout for your legs!
The Grind is a fairly grueling hike up hundreds of stairs in the middle of the forest. If you want exercise, this is a great place to come. And it’s not so hard on the knees as you aren’t allowed to hike back down. Everyone has to descend by the aerial tramway (but the one-way ticket down is less than half the price of a ticket both ways).
The Grouse Grind is a 2.9-kilometre hike that takes a typical novice around two hours to complete. Fitness addicts who run up, however, can complete the course in as little as 30 minutes.
The Grouse Grind trail is closed in winter and open in the summer. Depending on the snow conditions, it usually closes shortly before the ski season starts up (in late November or early December). It then re-opens a week or two after the end of the ski season (so sometime in May). In June most years, the Grouse Grind is one part of the 16-km Seek the Peak racing event on the North Shore.
TIP: If you want to climb a mountain, and you have a car, visit the Stawamus Chief in Squamish which is about a 45-minute drive from Vancouver. The Stawamus Chief hike is almost as grueling as the Grouse Grind, but with less stairs and even more impressive scenery.
Hiking at Grouse Mountain
The Grouse Grind isn’t the only hiking trail at Grouse Mountain. Another great one is the hike to Goat Mountain. It’s about a four-hour trek there and back. It’s not overly challenging, and the views are amazing.
There are other trails on Grouse Mountain itself too. And if you want to hike up to the top from the parking lot, in addition to the Grind, there is the BCMC Trail.
Other Information
To learn more about the attraction in summer, see the Grouse Mountain website.
For more ideas on other great things to do in the Lower Mainland, check out Vancouver’s Top Attractions.
For a list of what’s happening around town, check out the Vancouver’s Best Places Events Calendar.
And for information on Grouse Mountain in Winter or Metro Vancouver’s other great ski hills, check out Lower Mainland Ski Hills.
For information about Grouse Mountain and its year-round activities in general, click Grouse Mountain.
ACCESSIBILITY NOTE:
Grouse Mountain is actually fairly wheelchair-accessible in the non-ski season – just not when there’s snow, although many people with mobility issues do still find it a great place to ski.
Wheelchairs can’t get everywhere at Grouse Mountain (like up the summer lifts, except for the aerial Skyride tram), but there are paved pathways to most places of interest.
