Little Arethusa Hike

Where:

• Little Arethusa

 

When:

• July 26, 2025

 

Where:

• Ed, Craig, Neil, Erin

 

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
• 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 keep heading up through the larch trees straight to the top
• the East ridge of the final climb provides the best views of a cliff face and the cirque and valley

 

 

Degree of difficulty:

• 6 km (4.8 to Little Arethusa and back)
• 625 meters
• 3.5 hours total time on the trail (we took a side diversion on the way down around the Arethusa Cirque)
• 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:

• 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 eminate from this same parking lot in the Arethusa Valley