The views from Panorama Ridge are some of the most scenic in the area and certainly the best in Garibaldi Provincial Park, with a full panoramic view of Garibaldi Lake, Black Tusk, and the Helm Lake area. Visiting the park without taking the short detour to the summit would be a real shame.
There are quite a few route options. The ridge can be reached from either the Cheakamus Lake trailhead just south of Whistler or from the Rubble Creek parking lot just north of Squamish. It can be done either as an out-and-back from either point directly to the ridge, or as a point-to-point along the Rubble Creek Classic 25k route by shuttling two vehicles.
In addition to (or perhaps instead of) Panorama Ridge, you could do a summit of Black Tusk, although I hear it gets pretty busy up there and the view looking back at Black Tusk from Panorama Ridge is much more dramatic. A short detour down to Garibaldi Lake is another great option.
We decided to do what seems to be the most popular option for trail runners of a point-to-point, dropping off one car at Rubble Creek before starting the trip from the Cheakamus Lake Trailhead.
It was my last big weekend of training before Waldo 100k a few weeks later and the trip marked my second fairly epic run of the weekend, after having done a loop through Hanes Valley the day before on Saturday. My Instragram feed that weekend was gold, I tell ya!