The nearest town of any size is Squamish, twenty-odd kilometres to the north-east, and Lions Bay, a small village clinging to the opposite shore, is more than thirty kilometres away. What lies between is steep forested slope, small lakes and rock, with the Tantalus Range showing its white shoulders to the east.
What you can ride is the Sea to Sky Highway, number 99, along the far shore of the sound. It begins at Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver and runs north past Lions Bay, Porteau Cove, Britannia Beach and Shannon Falls, with the road sometimes only a few metres above the water and the mountains plunging straight down on the other side. It is the sort of road that makes people slow down simply to look, and that is the main hazard: drivers braking for views, and the odd rock fall on the cliff sections. The surface was widened and improved for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the passing lanes are generous.
Porteau Cove is worth a stop. The old rail line runs along the shore, and the cove is a provincial park with a pebbled beach and a shipwreck that scuba divers visit. The sound itself was once badly polluted by the mine at Britannia, but in recent decades the water has recovered, and you can now see dolphins and even humpback whales some summers. The Gambier, Bowen and Anvil islands sit offshore, and BC Ferries run from Horseshoe Bay to Bowen, a short crossing with its own small, wooded loop of roads.
Fuel is available at Horseshoe Bay and at Squamish, but the long stretch between them has limited services, so start with a full tank. For a good day, begin early to beat the commuter crowd, and ride the highway northbound in the morning light, when the sound is still and the mountains are sharp.