Yesterday’s sunrise and moon set revealed a covering of fresh white snow over the peaks of the Canadian Rockies. As soon as the lads were off to school, Mr. GeoK and I loaded our day packs and trekking poles into the car and headed for Highwood Pass. We had high hopes of photographing golden larches against a backdrop of mountains dusted with snow. Since we hiked Pocaterra Ridge on the weekend and we promised to hike Arethusa with the lads, we opted to head for the short and easy Ptarmigan Cirque trail.

Traffic was quite light as we left Calgary. After we turned on to Highway 40, we realized there was more than a dusting of snow on the mountain peaks. And as we approached the summit of Highwood Pass, we observed 2 -3 cm of accumulated snow on either side of the road. We also spotted an impressive buck (elk, we think) that ran for trees before we were within zoom lens range.

There were only 3 other vehicles in the Highwood Meadows Day Use parking lot at 9:30 a.m. – and one of them turned around and left after taking a few photographs! Perhaps they weren’t prepared for the snow? We followed two sets of boot prints over the footbridge, across the highway and up through the forest to Ptarmigan Cirque. The snow-laden evergreen branches regularly shed their loads, and Mr. GeoK experienced up with a shock of cold down his back a couple of times.

We hoped to see lots of golden larches once we emerged from the forest. On that front, we were somewhat disappointed: the larches were still mostly lime green. They’ll become increasingly golden over the coming days, probably peaking in about a week to 10 days, so we recommend waiting a few more days if you’re planning to hike Ptarmigan Cirque this fall. The few partly-golden larches we did see were fairly obscured by snow cover, although they grew more noticeable as the morning passed and they shed their snow loads.

(click on any of these photos to view larger size)

We reached the front rim of Ptarmigan Cirque around 10 a.m. and saw that the larch trees wore shrouds of snow. Fortunately for us, as the morning wore on, the trees dropped their snow loads and we saw a little more colour.

Mrs. GeoK on trail to Ptarmigan Cirque, making her way past a gold sentinel. Pocaterra Cirque is across the valley.

A small creek winds its way down Ptarmigan Cirque, past a snow-covered scree field and the occasional large boulder. The north end of Highwood Ridge is directly across the valley from the creek, and Pocaterra Cirque is across the valley towards the right. Mount Tyrwhitt is obscured by fast-moving clouds. Down at the shoulder of the cirque, there’s a nice stand of larch just beginning to turn yellow.

Here’s a slightly closer look at the larches at the entrance to Ptarmigan Cirque, as viewed from the bowl of the cirque. Give them a few more days and they’ll be bright yellow!

Great colour contrast along the second half of the loop…green and golden larch trees against a bright blue sky.

Mount Arethusa serves as a dramatic background for this group of larch trees in the early stages of changing from dark green to gold.

A couple of larch trees beside the trail provide a nice contrast to the imposing Highwood Ridge that stretches down the valley to the south.

Despite our disappointment over hiking this trail several days too early to view the larches in their full golden glory, we found lots of other things to photograph – the fresh snow fall, cairns and trail markers, a couple of nice waterfalls, and dramatic skies. It was quite interesting to look across the valley to Pocaterra Ridge, which we hiked just a few days ago.

(again, click on any of these photos to view larger size)

Mount Arethusa dominates the skyline from this position in the lower reaches of Ptarmigan Cirque. Large “steps” mark the gradual elevation loss down through the cirque and a couple of larger steps feature nice waterfalls. The approach to Mount Rae is around the corner from the bluff on the left.

This carefully constructed cairn is topped by a sculpture of sorts – some rocks carefully positioned to create the strong impression of a hiker – torso, pack and head. Do you think the hiker’s gazing a Ptarmigan Cirque, Mount Rae or across the valley to Pocaterra Cirque and Mount Tyrwhitt?

These stubborn stems of Western Pasque Flowers gone to seed stick out through the first snow of the season.

It was interesting to see a jumble of orange-coloured rocks on either side of the creek…must be some iron oxide in the rock that’s “rusted” due to exposure to the creek water.

We stopped at the lower falls for lunch. And although we hung around for a while, it was challenging to time our longer exposure photographs to exclude all of the hikers that were trekking past on the left.

There was a pretty good breeze and the recurring strong gusts chilled the air and swept wisps of cloud along the spine of the ridge at the far end of Ptarmigan Cirque.

Mr. GeoK and I photographed the upper falls from almost the exact same spot. This pair of photographs demonstrates how we each bring a unique perspective to the landscape around us…and to our image processing…

We took photos of the upper falls from almost the same position. Interesting to compare the compositions. This one is Mr. GeoK’s, which includes a little bit of the ridge at the far end of the cirque.

And this photo of the upper falls was taken by Mrs. GeoK, who wanted to show the animal tracks in the snow and the corner of the bluff running along the north side of the cirque.

By the time we stopped for a quick lunch, more than 50 hikers had joined us in the cirque. The crowd prompted us to get going back to the parking lot so we headed down right after lunch. We overtook a couple of small groups who were also heading down and encountered another 8 or 10 people on their way up. The trail was pretty messy on the way back down, as the snow was melting quickly. And with so many boots packing it down, the remaining sections of snow were pretty icy. We were glad we had our trekking poles along (MICROspikes would have been even better).

All-in-all, this was an easy, half-day outing that allowed us to enjoy the first snowfall of the season and get a sense of the larch viewing potential at Ptarmigan Cirque. And to top things off, we spotted a small herd of sheep on our return drive!

SUMMARY:
Total hiking distance = 5.7 km
Net elevation gain = 350 m
Total hiking time = 3 hours (including lots of time for taking photographs and a brief stop for lunch)

In our experience, this is one of the easiest half-day hikes in Kananaskis Country. It’s a great option for young children, out-of-town relatives who’ve never hiked before and anyone else who needs an “easy” option for their hike in the mountains. We first hiked the Ptarmigan loop in 2003. In fact, that was the very first hike we did with our boys!! K was about 3 1/2 years old at the time. And it marked the start of our “out and about” adventures.