Arethusa Cirque

Elevation: 2380 m
Elevation Gain: 250 m
Arethusa Cirque is the glacier-carved alpine basin that sits below Mount Arethusa’s south face. Mount Arethusa (and the cirque at its base) were named for the British light cruiser Arethusa. The HMS Arethusa was sunk by a mine in 1916 and the peak was named in her honor in 1917.
My Ascents:
August 3 2020
Trailhead: Arethusa Cirque Parking (Roadside Pullout)

After celebrating my 37th birthday atop magnificent Crowfoot Mountain the day prior, a tired Brianne and I realized that our long outing had deprived the rest of our family of their opportunity to celebrate my annual aging. Seeking to right this awful wrong, we quickly organized an extended family hike for ourselves, our girls, and their grandparents on Monday August 3 (my actual DOB).

In search of a favorable scenery to suffering ratio, but weary of August long weekend crowds, we selected Arethusa Cirque as the hike du jour/fête. Arethusa is located near Highwood Pass (which happens to be the highest paved road in Canada). As a result, amazing alpine scenery is all but assured. Better still, Arethusa Cirque’s trailhead is an unofficial roadside pullout which attracts fewer weekend warriors than other official trailheads nearby. Still somewhat exhausted from our 23-km, 1350 vertical meter birthday outing the day prior, Brianne and I packed up the kids and plotted a course back towards the Rockies for Matt’s Mountain birthday bash (take 2!).

After meeting Grandma, Grandpa, Nannie and Papa at the trailhead, 4-year-old Mera quickly located the trail to the Cirque and rushed upwards riding her “mountain goat” hiking pole.

LEFT: 2-year-old Penny still hasn’t mastered riding her “mountain goat” so Grandma happily lent her a hand as we started up the easy and obvious trail.
RIGHT: After hearing rushing water, Mera (who was leading our group of intrepid hikers) followed a small spur trail which led to this scenic waterfall. After enjoying the view and a small rest, we retraced our steps and returned to the main, more forested trail.

LEFT: Downed trees in the forest provided much-sought opportunities for monkeys to climb…
RIGHT: Un autre singe montagneux.

Happy hiking Hobbs sisters.

LEFT: After hiking in the woods for about a kilometer, the terrain opened up dramatically near a meandering alpine stream.
RIGHT: Crux performs his obligatory inspection of the area’s largest mud puddle.

With peak-full panoramas like this only a kilometer from the car, Arethusa Cirque provided the perfect scenery to suffering ratio for little ones, grandparents and parents who were still exhausted from their alpine adventure the day prior. Click to see larger.

LEFT: Penny toddles through wildflower-filled alpine meadows chasing after her Nannie and Papa.
RIGHT: Storm Mountain rears skyward beyond the cirque’s flowery, larch-filled, alpine environs.

LEFT: Pasqueflowers, paintbrushes, asters and arnica, oh my!
RIGHT: a closer look at one of the area’s many asters.

After the trail followed the lovely creek upstream for a short distance, it passed by an impressive rockpile. Click to see larger.

A quickly crafted cairn atop a large rock proved to be a capable “tripod” for an extended family birthday photo in the scenic alpine meadow.

Thank you all for celebrating my birthday with me in the mountains (again)!

LEFT: In addition to serving as a photo-op, the rockpile ended up being a great spot for a family lunch.
RIGHT: Penny enjoys lunch with a view!

It seems that we weren’t the only ones eager to set up shop in the rockpile! As we noshed, whistles quickly alerted us to the presence of many, many marmots.

Mera makes her way awkwardly across boulders hoping to get a better look at a baby marmot (near the top on the left of the photo).

LEFT: A baby marmot watches intently as our party goes about its lunchtime business.
RIGHT: Crux watches intently and, importantly, on-leash as marmots paraded about the rockpile all around us.

A quick climb up the side of the rockpile revealed the best panorama of our surroundings to date. Click to see larger.

Little Arethusa is a wonderfully scenic outing for more energetic parties.

Mount Arethusa is a frightful combination of exposed knife-edge ridge and dangerously steep slab. Arethusa’s descent gully (obvious as the snow-filled crack which descends from a large notch on the left of this photo) still gives me nightmares to this day!

LEFT: Mera and her Mom below majestic Storm Mountain.
RIGHT: Penny scours the rockpile for marmots.

In addition to marmots, the rockpile also yielded a fossil or two!

We even found this “fossil” photographer flaunting his wares. Silly Grandpa…

LEFT: After an eventful lunch, hunting for marmots and fossils in the rockpile, we continued upwards. As we did, the lazy alpine stream soon became an ebullient little cascade.
RIGHT: Although the Family Hiking guidebook indicated not to cross the stream, a recent washout made that advice impractical. Where once a path passed, now we found only creek. Fortunately, a new path had already started to take shape on the stream’s north bank.

LEFT: Mera and her “mountain goat” tackle the, still-rugged, new path up towards the cirque’s alpine bench.
RIGHT: Steep hiking for grandkids and their grandparents!

Pleasant views towards Little and “Big” Arethusa from the alpine bench. Following a quick break to catch our breath here, we contemplated traversing the bench and descending near the evergreen forest on the far left of the photo. This notion was quickly dashed, however, as the wind picked up and the cloud at left began to rumble…

LEFT: A final quick look towards Storm Mountain from the cirque’s alpine bench before we started to retreat from the incoming storm which was rapidly honing in on its namesake mountain!
RIGHT: Papa lends a hand to Nannie while Brianne has her hands full with Mera and Crux descending the steep slopes below the bench.

Lovely lichens in the cirque’s old-growth forest.

LEFT: Pleasant views of nearby Highwood Ridge and Mount Pocaterra were our companions as we descended back to the babbling brook.
RIGHT: Papa does his best to make sure that Nannie doesn’t end up taking a high-altitude bath (the stream was surprisingly deep here)!

LEFT: Nannie, Papa and Mera make haste down towards the shelter of our vehicles as the clouds above continue to rumble.
RIGHT: As the wind really picked up and the rain began to fall, we arrived back at our vehicles in the nick of time. Of course, we couldn’t just pack up and leave…after a second consecutive birthday hike, birthday beers were in order!

Thanks to beautiful alpine scenery and the company of family, 2020’s birthday hike #2 proved to be a most successful endeavor! We may need to go for a hiking “hat trick” when it comes to next year’s annual alpine aging affair…