Squamish

Squamish sits at the head of Howe Sound — known in the Squamish language as Átl'ḵa7tsem — where the Squamish, Mamquam, and Cheakamus rivers spill into the ocean and the Coast Mountains close in on every side. Roughly midway between Vancouver and Whistler along the Sea-to-Sky Highway (Highway 99), the town is hemmed into a narrow valley dominated by the Stawamus Chief, the granite massif that rises straight up above the rooftops. With the Sea to Sky Gondola and Shannon Falls just to the south, the landscape is impossible to ignore — it shapes how the town moves, where it builds, and how people spend their weekends. Incorporated in [1964](https://squamish.ca/) and home to about 23,800 people, Squamish is one of Canada's fastest-growing communities, with its population rising roughly 22% between the 2016 and 2021 censuses according to [Statistics Canada](https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/). Long a forestry town, it has reinvented itself as the self-described "Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada," with more than 1,500 rock-climbing routes plus extensive mountain-biking, hiking, and kiteboarding terrain. That reputation has drawn a wide mix of residents — recreation enthusiasts, young families, remote workers who relocated from Greater Vancouver, alongside long-time forestry-era families and tradespeople. The district spreads across distinct pockets, each with its own feel: an oceanfront downtown on the Mamquam Blind Channel, the central flats of the Garibaldi Estates, the hillside Garibaldi Highlands — home to Capilano University's Squamish campus — and riverside Brackendale to the north. The guides that follow walk through each of these neighbourhoods in turn.