12 Fall Hikes on the West Coast

September 14, 2025August 21, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

As someone who grew up on the East Coast, Fall was a very beautiful season. I love living in Vancouver and I would say that seasonally, the west coast is nicer than the east coast in almost every season (winter and spring for sure, summer less so with the forest fires), but Fall is conclusively better on the East Coast. At least, compared to Southwestern BC. If you want sweeping forests of red, yellow, and orange, you likely won’t find it here – there’s too many Douglas Firs and Cedars, but there are still some gorgeous views to explore, especially with a mountain backdrop. Here’s a few of the trails I’ve discovered over the years that really shine in the Fall:

Fall Colours near Vancouver

Mount Strachan – 8.5km, 600m gain

I wouldn’t say Mount Strachan has the most outstanding fall foliage, but it’s the closest hike to the city on this list, which makes it very accessible! The colours on this trail mostly come from the changing colours of the shrubs and it’s a great hike on a crisp Fall day. Get on the Baden-Powell Trail from Cypress Resort and hike parallel to Collins ski run. Then follow the sky chair up to the top of Mount Strachan to enjoy beautiful views of Howe Sound. From here, you can continue back the way you came, or you can make it a loop and hike down through Christmas Gully to catch up with the Howe Sound Crest Trail, checking out the views from Bowen Island Lookout on your way back. Make sure you pick up a free backcountry pass from the BC Parks lodge (at the back of the parking lot) before starting your hike. Take care on Christmas Gully when descending from Mount Strachan, it is easy to get lost or injured here. (photo taken in mid-November)

Flatiron – 11km, 800m gain

The Flatiron hike is located in the Coquihalla Summit Rec Area and shares 80% of the trail with Needle Peak. Both trails could be done in a day if you’re ambitious, but I’d avoid Needle Peak if there’s any snow or ice. It’s a very steep hike up the side of the mountain from the highway, but once you reach the branch to Needle Peak, it levels off. There’s a nice lake below the flatiron and in the Fall the shrubs all turn bright red along the mountainside. It’s relatively bare at the top, but the view of the surrounding mountains is amazing! (photo taken in early October)

Elk/Thurston Mountain – 9-15km, 1000m+ gain

This is a more traditional Fall trail and there are deciduous trees that will be changing colour as you walk through the forest toward the summit. Most of the hike is in the trees, but you eventually pop out along the ridge. It’s a steep hike near the end, but you can see all the way to Mount Baker, with bursts of colour in the forest below. I really like continuing a few kilometres along the ridge towards Thurston Mountain, but the peak itself is pretty uninspiring, so I usually turn around when I hit the forest. The hike is 9km to Elk Mountain and back, and 15km to Thurston. There’s over 1000m of elevation gain, so it’s a good workout! (photo taken in mid-October)

Illal Meadows – 16km, 750m gain

This trail is a bit of a drive and makes for a long day as a day hike, so start early! Illal Meadows is located off the highway along the Coquihalla Summit Rec Area and involves an extra half hour of driving along the Tulameen FSR. The trail starts with a 3km hike up a decommissioned road, and then it’s a steep ascent through the meadows to the alpine. There are lots of small trees and shrubs changing colour and the meadows turn yellow and red. Continue to the base of Jim Kelly Peak, where you have the option to do an additional ascent (it’s a scramble!) or head back the way you came. (photo taken in late September)

Snow Camp Mountain – 17.5km, 900m gain

This is a beautiful hike any time of year. In the summer, the meadows are filled with wildflowers, and in the Fall, the meadows turn yellow and have gorgeous views looking out over the Manning Park backcountry. The trail starts from Strawberry Flats and hikes steadily uphill for 5km. There’s a fantastic viewpoint at the top of Despair Pass, but continue on through the trees to reach the ridge going up to Snow Camp Mountain. I find this trail doesn’t get crowds in the Fall and is a really gorgeous hike. (photo taken in mid-September)

Larch Tree Hikes

If BC isn’t known for it’s Fall colours, it’s definitely known for the larch trees! Larch trees have needles like a pine or fir tree, but these needles turn yellow in the Fall and fall off. There are some really beautiful larch tree hikes on the West Coast. Most of them are located in the Rockies or Washington State, but if you’re willing to drive a little distance, you’ll be rewarded! In the interest of transparency, the only hike in this section I’ve actually done in the Fall is Mount Frosty, the other trail descriptions are based on trips I took in the summer. That’s why my photos don’t show any Fall foliage.

Frosty Mountain – 18-22km, 1000m+ gain

This is probably the most well known larch hike in the province, mostly by virtue of the fact that it’s close to Vancouver, so it attracts very large crowds. Definitely arrive early in the morning to get parking and get ahead of the mass of people (or go on a week day). The larch trees generally only turn yellow over the span of 2-3 weeks, so you can expect it to be busy during that time. Frosty Mountain itself is a really big hike, but you don’t have to go all the way to the summit to see the larch trees. After a big climb up to the campsite, you’ll eventually pop out in the larch meadow. But continue to the top of Mount Frosty for some really epic views! (photo taken in late September)

Sentinel Pass – 8-12km, 500-700m gain

The Sentinel Pass trail is a really popular trail in Banff National Park and requires a bit of advance planning to visit. The hike starts from Moraine Lake, which is one of the most popular locations in Banff. You can no longer drive to the lake, so you need to arrange to take the Parks Canada shuttle. From the lake, hike up a set of switchbacks to reach the larch meadows and continue on towards Minnestima Lakes. You don’t have to hike to the top of Sentinel Pass, but it’s a nice add on to enjoy the views looking back towards the lake and the surrounding Mount Temple area. It’s roughly 3.5km to reach the meadows, or 12km round trip if you go to the top of the pass and back. (photo taken in early August)

Floe Lake – 28km, 1000m gain

I would say that Floe Lake is the Moraine Lake of Kootenay National Park. It’s extremely popular, though much less accessible as you can’t drive all the way to the lake. This is a big hike for a single day, so I’d recommend camping one night at Floe Lake if you’re able. That said, it’s a big uphill to the lake and would likely be considerably faster with only a day pack. The larches are actually located above Floe Lake, so you’ll be rewarded with the beautiful view at the lake, but need to push another 3km uphill after the lake to be rewarded with a view of both the larch trees and Floe Lake. In total, be prepared for an almost 30km day, so leave before sunrise. (photo taken in late August)

Lake O’Hara – 7km, 200m gain

Of all the hikes on this list, Lake O’Hara is probably the most exclusive. There’s a permit lottery for bus shuttle passes up and down the 11km access road. You can hike all the way from the base if you’re prepared for an almost 30km day (like Floe Lake), otherwise, the shuttle saves you a lot of time. From the bus stop, you can do a 7km loop around the lake and up to the Opabin Prospect Lookout, which is the most renown view in the park. If there’s no ice, you could also consider hiking the famous alpine circuit, but I wouldn’t attempt it on a slippery day and you might prefer to have more time to enjoy the larches around the lake. (photo taken in early September)

Hiking Near the North Cascades

One of my favourite things to do in the Fall is cross the border and go hiking in the Mount Baker Wilderness area of Washington State. If you drive a little further into the cascades, there’s some really awesome larch hikes like Maple Pass, Blue Lake and Easy Pass. I haven’t done any of these yet, because there are so many colourful hikes to explore closer to Vancouver by Mount Baker.

As a disclaimer: I wrote this blog post at the end of last Fall season. I personally have decided not to travel to the US right now (but I really hope to feel safe doing so in the future). It’s out of my personal comfort zone right now, but no judgement either way, here are some of my favourite Fall hikes south of the border.

Chain Lakes/Ptarmigan Ridge – 12-19km, 600m gain

These two trails share a trailhead from the ski parking lot at Mount Baker. Grab a parking pass online before crossing the border, or pick one up from the visitor centre. If the road is open all the way to Artist Point, park at the top and do the Ptarmigan Ridge hike. If the road is already closed for the season, park at the base and do the Chain Lakes Trail. Both hikes go up towards Artist Point and cross a ridgeline into the backcountry. The Ptarmigan Ridge trail heads out towards the base of Mount Baker, while the Chain Lakes trail goes behind Table Mountain and climbs to the top of a saddle before heading back down to the base. Both hikes are incredibly scenic and colourful in the Fall. Chain Lakes is a 12km loop trail, while Ptarmigan Ridge is 19km out and back to the Portals viewpoint. (photo taken in mid-October)

Yellow Aster Butte – 13-15km, 700m gain

Yellow Aster Butte has gotten incredibly popular in the past few years. Pick up a parking pass online or at the visitor centre, and then drive up a gravel road to get to the trailhead. There’s limited parking, so get there early to avoid the crowds. The trail climbs up through the trees for 3km before you reach the alpine and the beautiful yellow aster meadows. It’s 3km further to get to the sub-peak, and another 1km from there to the true peak. This area can get snow early, so plan accordingly. (photo taken in early October)

Winchester Mountain – 5km, 400m gain

Winchester Mountain is the final hike on the list, and the only trail that requires 4×4 to reach the trailhead. This trail starts at the campsite for Twin Lakes and hikes up to the peak of Winchester Mountain, where there’s an old fire lookout. The trail is only 5.5km round trip and is located past the parking lot for Yellow Aster Butte. So if you don’t have 4×4, you could add on 3.5km to hike up the road each way (or try and hitch a ride on the way up). The entire trail hikes through colourful meadows while the trees change colour. It’s an easier hiking option with a huge payout. (photo taken in early October)

Hiking Sentinel Pass

July 7, 2021June 10, 2021 / Maria / 2 Comments

It’s been almost a year now since I visited the Rockies, but I never found time to post about the 2 hikes I did last August, so it’s time to feature them now! Hopefully it will be helpful if you’re planning to visit Banff this year. Sentinel Pass was my first hike in Banff National Park and I really feel like I started at the absolute best that Banff has to offer. Seriously, this hike was unreal! It’s not too challenging and it has the most amazing views – I loved every second of the day hike.

So first things first, let’s talk about how you get to the trailhead because it’s definitely worth talking about. Two of the most popular sights in Banff National Park are Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Lake Louise tends to get most of the press attention, but for those in the know, Moraine Lake, located just up from Lake Louise, is the real shining jewel of the park. But if you want to experience it, you have to get there early. Lake Louise has a huge parking lot and on summer weekends it usually fills up by 8am. On week days you can probably get away with showing up by 10am, but likely it depends on the weather. I believe you can usually shuttle up to Lake Louise from the village or overflow parking lots, but the shuttles are currently not running because of Covid.

Moraine Lake is located 14km away from Lake Louise on a direct access road up to the lake. The parking lot for Moraine Lake is much much smaller and once it’s full for the morning, park staff will block off the access road to limit traffic up there. So you can’t bank on showing up late and just circling the parking lot – you won’t even be able to get up there. Same as Lake Louise, there is a shuttle bus that runs to the lake, but it’s not running this year. So if you want to visit the lake, your best bet is to come really early or really late. I read online that you need to be at the road by 6am to get a parking spot, which is probably true on a weekend, but we got in around 8am on a weekday. They will periodically open the road up again later in the day, but lucky timing is really everything if you decide to wait.

Once you make it to Moraine Lake, the world is your oyster! This is seriously one of the most beautiful alpine lakes that you can drive to. Canoeing is really popular on the lake – it’s first come first serve for bookings, but I suspect it’s probably not too difficult to rent this year with the limited traffic and shuttles not running. I would love to canoe up around the lake, but on our visit we had other priorities.

From the lake, there are tons of hikes to explore! The most popular trails seem to be the Rockpile Trail and the Moraine Lake Trail. Rockpile is located right at the parking lot and I regret not doing it because it’s pretty short and I imagine it gives you a great view of the lake. Moraine Lake Trail is about 3km long and goes up to the end of the lake. We had planned to do this trail at the end of our hike up Sentinel Pass, but ended up skipping it because Sadie was really tired. There’s several other trails leaving from the lake, but the other two main trails are Sentinel Pass and Eiffel Lake/Wenkchemna Pass. I’ve heard Wenkchemna Pass is also amazing because it hikes into the continental divide, but it’s a bit longer, so we opted for Sentinel, of which I have no regrets.

Sentinel Pass starts off with a climb up the mountain to get into the alpine. It’s steep, but nothing too crazy and the trail just switchbacks up and away from the lake. The advantage of starting early was that the temperature was still chill, so it wasn’t too bad climbing up there. After about an hour, you pop out of the woods into the alpine meadows, and from there the rest of the hike is super scenic. There’s some more climbing through the meadows before you come to a large meadow with two lakes, known as the Minnestimma Lakes, and the most amazing view looking back at the ten peaks surrounding Moraine Lake. It was especially beautiful when we visited in early August because the meadows were filled with wildflowers! I have a real weakness for meadows and wildflowers, they’re pretty much my favourite alpine scenery, so I was in hiking heaven.

From the meadow, you can see that the trail continues up the side of the mountain and then switchbacks through the pass between Pinnacle Mountain and Mount Temple. This is where the hike gets a little more challenging. If you’re afraid of heights you might find this part a little scary, but I never felt unsafe on the trail at any point. There was still a little bit of snow left in one section, but it was easy enough to pass across. Watch for wildlife as you make your way through the meadows and up the final climb because we saw so much wildlife on this trail! The first meadows earlier on are filled with ground squirrels, and the higher meadows have tons of marmots! We could also hear lots of pika, which are harder to spot than the marmots, but we did spot one later in the day thanks to Seth’s determination.

The view from the top of the pass is incredible, but honestly, so was the view from the meadow. It is worth pushing to the top of the pass to see down the other side, but if it’s too much, don’t sweat it, the views from the lakes are honestly just as good. It was pretty hot when we hiked the pass, but it gets chilly and windy at the top, so be prepared. It is possible to seek shelter while you eat lunch at the top, but we opted to just brave the wind so we could enjoy the views.

While we were on top, there were some other hikers coming up the pass from the other side. I could see a map for this trail on my GPS, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re experienced. It’s hard to discern any path from the other side and you mostly just create your own path up the boulder field. The trail officially ends at the top of the pass, but we decided to explore a little bit further. There is an unofficial path up Mount Temple, but again, it’s more of a climbing path – it’s misleading how long it is to get up to the top of Mount Temple and I wouldn’t recommend doing it without a helmet. We just went about 100-200m further, snapped some photos, and then started to make our way back down the pass.

It was an early morning, but the trail was pretty empty, which made for a great hiking experience. There were definitely more people coming up when we were on our way down, but it never felt overly crowded. We took our time on the way down, enjoying all the beautiful views, taking pictures of the wildflowers, and looking for marmots. Sadie did well on the hike and had a great time, especially on the snow section, but after Banff we decided it was probably a bit too much for her, so we’ll probably wait a few more months before taking her on any more large hikes. Like I said, we wanted to do the Moraine Lake trail, but eventually abandoned the idea to give Sadie a rest.

So in conclusion, this was really an excellent hike. I would absolutely recommend taking the time to do it and know I’ll have to return again some day to do the Wenkchemna Pass hike and the rest of the trail around the lake!

Banff National Park

September 2, 2020August 21, 2020 / Maria / Leave a comment

Banff was our second stop on a weeklong holiday in August. Check out my post about our first stop in the Okanagan.

Compared to some of BC Parks campgrounds, I wasn’t overly impressed with the campgrounds in Banff. That said, Banff is really a tourist town and I think the campgrounds were more about quantity than quality. We stayed at Tunnel Mountain Village II, which has over 600 sites. Coupled with Tunnel Mountain Village I and the trailer park, that’s a lot of camping just outside Banff (and there’s still loads more campgrounds throughout the rest of the National Park). The benefit to Tunnel Mountain though is that is super close to Banff town and there’s even a shuttle bus that runs between the campground and the town.

We had 3 full days in Banff National Park, so we were planning to do two hikes, spend some time at the lake, and explore the town. Banff really has the look of a ski town, but I’ve only ever travelled there in summer – hopefully one day I’ll make it over there to go skiing as well. Fortunately, the weather in Banff was a lot more comfortable than the weather in the Okanagan. It was still hot in the day, but it properly cools off in the night, making it much easier to sleep. One of the cool things about the National Park is that they provide firewood! There’s a lot of education about not transporting firewood because you can introduce invasive bugs to new areas, so I suspect that’s one of the reasons why it’s provided. You can just drive to the wood lot, take as much as you want, and just make sure to leave behind whatever you don’t use.

On our first day, we decided to go hiking. It’s unreal how many trail options there are in the Rockies. There are tons in Banff alone, without including all the trails in the neighbouring parks. The top two trails on my list were Plain of 6 Glaciers and Sentinel Pass. The problem is that both are super popular and involve getting up early. 6 Glaciers leaves from the Lake Louise parking lot, which I’d heard filled up my 8am, and Sentinel Pass leaves from the Moraine Lake parking lot, which is really small and I’d heard filled up by 6am! The drive from our campsite was about 45 minutes, so we weren’t willing to get up quite that early. We figured things might be a little less busy since it was a Tuesday, so our plan was to aim for Lake Louise for 8am, but to turn up to Lake Moraine if that lot was still open when we passed (Parks closes the lot once it’s full and limits traffic access). When we passed Moraine Lake at 7:45am, the sign said lot full, but we could still see some cars being let up the access road, so we decided to try and were thrilled to be admitted up to the lake! We grabbed the first parking spot we saw and then got ready for the hike. In retrospect, a good idea would be to make your breakfast once you’ve parked to save a bit of time in the morning.

Moraine Lake is a dream. It was my first time there and it was absolutely gorgeous. You can visit the lake from the parking lot, but Sentinel Pass trail continues on from the lake. I think I will write separate posts about Sentinel Pass and Plain of 6 Glaciers, but Sentinel Pass was by far the highlight of the trip to Banff for me. We had gorgeous weather for it and the meadows at the top were filled with wildflowers! You get the most amazing view from the pass and the entire hike was really a joy. Sadie did really well on the hike, though she’d been having some tummy issues over the past few days and Seth was getting a little concerned about her. We ended up calling the animal hospital in Canmore because she’d had diarrhea for 3 days and Seth was concerned about parvo. They said to try feeding her a bland diet of chicken and rice, so our first stop after the hike was to the grocery story to pick up chicken breasts for Sadie. I boiled them, which was a new experience and pretty much the grossest way I can think of to eat chicken. It worked like a charm though and the next day she didn’t poop at all! (TMI?)

Our second day was intended as a relaxing day between the two hikes. We slept in and then went into Banff town to do a bit of shopping. We’d been dismayed throughout the trip by the lack of people wearing masks. Whenever we stopped anywhere we would wear our masks, even just using the bathroom at gas stations, but very few people seemed to be doing the same. So it was nice to see some pretty strict rules about masks in Banff. I assume it’s because it’s mostly a tourist town, but they’d converted the main street into a pedestrian road and masks were required everywhere along the stretch. We got some new gear at the Smartwool and North Face stores and me and Emily had a lot of fun tea shopping at Banff Tea Co. We’re both tea addicts, so we picked up a few new flavours.

It was getting progressively hotter, so we went out to Lake Minnewanka in the afternoon. It was super busy at the lake and we had to circle the parking lot for a bit, but eventually we did find a spot. The lake is really interesting. It’s a huge reservoir and you can rent motorboats and canoes. There’s a trail that goes along the edge of the lake and instead of one big beach, there are lots of little beaches along the lake where you can hang out for the day. We found a spot to set up in the shade of the trees and finally decided to blow up the rubber dinghy we’d brought on the trip. It was a good time for the dinghy because Minnewanka was a lot colder than Okanagan Lake. We went for one little swim, but as gorgeous as the lake was, it wasn’t really a swimming lake. So instead we took the boat out for a little spin and marveled at the gorgeous mountains surrounding the lake.

We returned to the campsite for dinner, but after that Seth and I decided to take Sadie for a walk. There’s a nice trail running all along the campsite and we walked to what was labelled as the “hoodoo viewpoint”. We didn’t know what a hoodoo was, but learned it’s basically just a name for a weird rock feature. The viewpoint was gorgeous! It looked out at Rundle Mountain and from it we could look down at the Bow River, see the hoodoos, and even glimpse the fancy Banff Springs Hotel. It’s just off the main road, which is one of the things I love about the Rockies, you don’t even really have to hike anywhere to get amazing views.

On our last full day in Banff we headed back to Lake Louise to do the Plain of 6 Glaciers hike. Lake Louise is gorgeous, but a little overwhelming. We came back at 8am again and had no trouble finding parking in the massive lots. The crowds were a lot though. Moraine Lake is busy, but because of the size of the parking lot, it didn’t feel too busy (usually there’s shuttles that run up there, but not this year because of Covid). Lake Louise had a very different feel and I didn’t want to hang out for too long because of all the people.

Both mornings had been chill when we started hiking, but while Sentinel had gotten really hot later in the day, 6 Glaciers remained cool throughout. I’m glad we got up early for the hike though because we finally saw a bit of rain for the first time on the trip. It was gorgeous blue skies when we started, but as we continued to hike, the clouds started to move in. Again, I think I will write a second post about the particulars of the trail, but the highlight for me was that there’s a tea house located at the top, so we were able to each get a cup of tea at the top and shared a scone. It was also a gorgeous hike, but I’d still give Sentinel the edge over 6 Glaciers. The glacier hike is a lot more barren, whereas I liked all the meadows and wildflowers at Sentinel. It started raining on our way back, but fortunately it was after we’d seen the view, so we couldn’t complain about it.

Though it rained in Lake Louise, there was no evidence of rain at our campsite and we enjoyed one last lazy night and campfire. Sadie was beat after the hike and took it easy for the rest of the night. In the morning we packed up again and started to head home. It was too far to drive all the way home in one day, so we had a hotel booked in Salmon Arm. The main motivation for getting a hotel was that all the shower houses in the National Park were closed because of Covid. I get it… but like, also you should want people to be bathing themselves. We made a stop at Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park on the way home (another park I’d like to explore more), but we ran into some trouble in Glacier National Park. We’d planned to stop there again for lunch, but it poured when we passed through, so we held out until the end of the park, when we saw a rest stop with covered picnic tables.

After that we drove straight to Salmon Arm and had a lazy night swimming in the pool and ordering take-out. On the final day, we made a stop in the morning in Kamloops where we took Sadie to this awesome dog park. It’s located right on the river and she had a great time running around the beach and in the water. We’d intended to stop at Falls Lake for a walk when passing through the Coquihalla, but the lot was closed, so we pushed through to Hope. After that it was just a quick lunch before heading home. It was a great trip, but it’s always nice to arrive home again. I really loved hiking in the Rockies and I think I might have to try and make it an annual thing since there’s just so much to explore! We only visited a small part of the Rockies and I can’t wait to go back for more!