The Ashlu River Quarries can be accessed from Squamish by logging road upstream along the Squamish and Ashlu rivers. The quarries are owned and operated by Garibaldi Group Inc.

The quarries are located in the lower part of the Ashlu River valley. The two properties are in a similar type of granite about 100 metres apart. Because of its distinctive colour, the stone on the west side of the river is called Garibaldi Golden while stone on the east side is called Garibaldi Grey.

Both quarry sites display widely spaced natural fracturing and allows quarrying of 5 to 10 cubic metre blocks with a minimum of waste. In outcrop, the stone has a smooth, slightly pitted surface indicating an absence of microfractures and exfoliation features. The stone has a uniform look without dark knots or inclusions. The granite is part of the Cretaceous-Tertiary Coast Plutonic complex.

The granite (Garibaldi Golden) on the west side is covered by thin patches of clayey till with water seepage along the till/bedrock interface. While the clayey till is dark grey in colour, the seepage is characterized by a rusty yellow layer a few centimetres thick. This yellow, clayey material has soaked into the bedrock along joints and microcracks, resulting in the unusual colour of the stone when it is cut and polished.

Garibaldi Golden is a grey-blond, fine-grained granite. The rock is distinguished by a slight, pervasive yellow staining and some banding of a darker stain. This appears to be related to successive weathering/alteration fronts that introduced the stain from overlying till. The authors and the operator anticipate staining will diminish with depth. Major mineral constituents are orthoclase, quartz, plagioclase and microcline. Minor constituents are magnetite, biotite, clinopyroxene (augite), chlorite, apatite, sphene and clinozoisite. Most crystals are cracked at the microscopic scale and appear to be the conduits through which the surface waters can migrate. The mafic minerals are fairly fresh with minor chloritization and the feldspars are weakly sericitized. The rock takes a fair polish (7-8/10) with some pitting at biotite grains. There is no fabric or fracturing and the microcracking of grains is not visible macroscopically.

Garibaldi Grey is a fine-grained, grey, salt and pepper granite. Major constituents are white plagioclase and orthoclase, grey quartz and black biotite. Minor constituents are chlorite, pyroxene, magnetite, pyrite and clinozoisite. The texture is uniform with a coarse sugary appearance and no fabric. The rock polishes well (7-8/10) to a bright finish with minor, shallow pitting at the corners of biotite grains. The rock appears quite fresh with minor chlorite after biotite and some sericitization of the feldspars. There is a trace of pyrite present but no visible staining.

Garibaldi Granite Group Inc. began production in August 1996 and has just surpassed $1 million in sales. One of its major contracts is supplying and installing its 'Glacier White Granite' on the new Mont Blanc hotel project in Whistler (T. Schroeter, personal communication, 1997).