Every year I feel I ask this to a variety of people and noone EVER has a clear answer (including the people at Hollyburn on the phone).

For those just wanting to walk/snowshoe into the lodge, I suspect Hollyburn wants you to have a $10 pass whether or not you use the designated snowshoe trails or not.

Before you answer,.. I'm aware that the little trail from the parking lot is a designated area, but surely the people that have private cabins over to the SE of the lodge don't pay if they hike the trail from their area. So,.. what if someone snowshoed from the lower parking lot and just wanted to drop in for a hot chocolate and to see the cabin at night, but not use the trails at all.

If anyone knows, or can offer an opinion, please state it here (and yes, I do know that for music nights they only want paying customers - ie. paying for a pass, not food).

Pay the 10 bucks. The folks that look after Hollyburn Lodge and the all the trails there do a ton of work to maintain things. It costs a bunch. If you want to continue to ski/hike/snowshoe the area and enjoy the lodge, please help support them and the ongoing work to keep the place running.

Don't pay the 10 bucks. If the x-c trail is groomed walk on the ungroomed edge of the trail. Cross x-c trails at 90 degrees. I don't know about the regulation for the snow shoe trails. I occasionally use sections of them but they are really mindless tracks if you're a skier. Know where the hiking trails are in summer and just follow them in winter. Cut through the woods anywhere.

I always take the fire access road from the end of the cross country parking lot. It doesn't say it's a paid trail, in fact once you get to the lodge there's a sign saying the trails are paid beyond this point (implying it's not to there)
The trail even has a BC parks sign on it. Never had a problem and isn't anywhere near the cross country trails until you get to the lodge.

The trail that goes from the far eastern end of the xc parking lots intersects with an old gravel access road that comes up from farther down the main Cypress Park road. To get to the lodge, you turn north at the intersection of the trail and road.

There are no fees to use the trail or road, nor are there fees to use the other trails through the cabin area. There have never been any signs indicating you have to pay to use those routes, and Cypress Resort is very thorough at posting what you have to pay for. The lodge probably is happy to sell food to people whether they arrive via paid xc trails or these other trails.

Would the funds to to "Hollyburn Lodge" and its upkeep, or does "Cypress Mountain" get it? Just curious, because I haven't been up that way in a few years, didn't know about the 10 bucks, and would be happy to support a heritage structure but not so happy to give Cypress Mountain, the ski resort, any money unless it was to use their stuff (ie I do have a downhill pass).

Thanks all, I think you confirmed what I was hoping to know.

I'm ok to pay when I use the tracks and trails, but to just pop in when I'm dragging other people with less funds than I I'd rather just spend at the lodge to eat (in order to offer my support).

Lol if you/they are short on funds, it's not the place to purchase a burger! Just sayin'.