After doing some research on different hikes in Banff & Kananaskis that feature the famous golden larches, I stumbled upon Arnica Lake. I wanted to track down a hike that had larches but wasn’t bursting at the seams with tourists. I feel like we struck gold.
The hike starts at the Vista Lake Viewpoint parking lot. Turn off at Castle Junction and take Hwy. 93 towards Radium until you reach Vista Lake (only about 8 km’s). The beginning of the hike is an easy descent to the lakeshore. After making your way around Vista Lake, the trail crosses a bridge and starts a gentle incline. After a 1 km or so, the trail steepens and the real climb begins. From the parking lot to Arnica Lake is a total of 4.8 km’s (with just over 550 meters elevation gain). With that being said, it's short but steep. As soon as we broke the treeline, we were able to see larches. The trail makes its way through a small meadow and then skirts left back into the trees. Climb for a bit more and you will come to the dazzling shore of Arnica Lake. We took a nice break here, before continuing to the ridge. If you want to get a birds-eye view of the lake, continue on the main trail. Climb for another 100 meters and you should see a small trailhead right off the main trail. As soon as you reach the top of the ridge, you will be able to get amazing views of Arnica Lake below. We were spoiled with amazing views of golden larches in every direction! Not to mention, amazing views of Mt Bell, Castle Mountain, Storm Mountain, and the valley to the South. Continuing on this small trail, you should see it veer to the south. Eventually, it pops out at a viewpoint which grants you amazing views of Upper & Lower Twin Lakes. We spent an hour up here just enjoying all the views and the larches. And we only saw a total of four other small groups the whole day! If you are continuing on to Twin Lake and Gibbon Pass make your way back to the main trail. We had reached our desired destination for the day, so we headed back down the mountain. Make sure to save some energy and keep in mind the 100-meter climb at the end of the hike which takes you from the Shore of Vista Lake back up to the parking lot. I would highly recommend this hike for anyone looking to see some fall beauty. Happy Trails
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Of all the paths you take in life make sure a few of them are dirt. John Muir Archives
September 2017
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