As summer air cools down with autumn breath, people from Alberta and beyond explore the Canadian Rocky Mountains in their full gleaming glory.
It’s brief yet beautiful, and a viral environmental sensation: it’s larch season.
Unique in their golden-yellow needles, alpine larches are deciduous conifers that shed their needles in the winter. The trees put themselves under a spotlight with their gold needles, which tend to go on display within a brief window during the last weeks of September to the first week of October.
While popular hikes like Larch Valley or the Big Beehive near Lake Louise attract large crowds and tourists, people looking to beat the rush and still enjoy the larches in their full season may opt for the Arethusa Cirque Route — a well-loved but moderately known trail.
