Little Arethusa Hike

Where:

• Little Arethusa

 

When:

• September 12, 2026

 

Where:

• Ed, Reggie, Neil, Jeff, Rod, Dally, Shonda, Dave, Janet, Kardy

 

Trailhead:

• on Highway 40, drive south from the Trans-Canada Highway for 69 km (1 hour) or 1.3 km south of the Highwood Pass
• the parking is in a dirt parking lot on the east side of the road
• the trail starts near the north end of the parking lot
• you walk along the south side of the creek and eventually walk past a waterfall that is on a short side path to the left
• shortly after this you enter the meadow where there is a log crossing across the creek
• after the creek crossing, the trail becomes more sparse, but keep heading north/northwest
• you will come out of the treeline on a sloped meadow, which you turn left heading up through the larch trees straight to the top
• from the creek crossing it’s a steady, unrelenting climb and the mud from the snow made it extra challenging
• the east ridge of the final climb provides amazing views of a cliff face, the cirque and valley

 

 

Degree of difficulty:

• 7 km
• 625 meters
• just over three hours total time on the trail
• it is a short but very challenging hike with a significant amount of elevation gain on some scree leading up to the summit
• there are a number of cliff bands as you approach the summit that are dramatic but you need to be careful

 

 

Interesting notes:

• the clouds that rolled through the entire valley along with the fresh skiff of snow and sun made for a magical day

• there are beautiful views of Mt. Rae, Ptarmigan Cirque, Highwood Ridge, Pocaterra, Mt. Arethusa, Storhusa Ridge, Storm Mountain, Mist Mountain and many others
• Little Arethusa Mountain is an outlier of Mount Arethusa, which gets its name from the British light cruiser HMS Arethusa, which was sunk by a mine in 1916
• there are several other trails that emanate from this same parking lot in the Arethusa Valley