Ptarmigan Cirque Hike in Kananaskis

The Ptarmigan Cirque hike is a very popular Kananaskis trail near the Highwood Pass (the highest paved pass in Canada). This fun, kid-friendly Kananaskis hike offers hikers a wide variety of excellent mountain scenery over a relatively short distance.

Being a highly scenic and relatively easy Kananaskis hike, Ptarmigan Cirque is popular all throughout hiking season, but its popularity explodes in fall as it is a well-known Kananaskis larch tree hike. If you time it right, you’ll enjoy hiking through large patches of golden larch trees along the base of a beautiful mountain cirque.

For this popular hike in Kananaskis, you’ll want to go early and avoid weekends when possible! The parking lot for Ptarmigan Cirque serves as the starting point for other hikes (like the Pocaterra Ridge trail – another popular Kananaskis larch hike).

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Ptargmigan Cirque Hike Highlights

From the Ptarmigan Cirque parking lot, head west on the Highwood Meadows Trail. You’ll cross a bridge over a river almost immediately, which incidentally, is the same river you’ll cross at the top of the Ptarmigan Cirque hike, near a series of beautiful waterfalls.

The Highwood Meadows trail is a very easy hike along a flat, crushed gravel trail through an open meadow along the base of Highwood Ridge (2,697m). The open mountain meadow is flush with wildflowers (in season) and affords hikers some nice views of Little Arethusa (2,767m), Mt. Rae (3,218m) and Storm Mountain (3,095m) across the highway.       

At 0.4 km on the Highwood Meadows Trail you’ll reach a bridge. You can go straight and finish the final 200m of the Highwood Meadows hike, or you can turn onto the trail to the right to begin the Ptarmigan Cirque hike. (You won’t miss much if you skip the final 200m of the Highwood Meadows hike).

After a few seconds, you’ll need to safely cross Highway 40 to continue hiking the Ptarmigan Cirque trail. There’s a crosswalk but given Highwood Pass is the highest paved road in Canada, it’s a popular highway with a speed limit of 90 km/h, so please cross carefully.

After crossing Highway 40, the Ptarmigan Cirque hiking trail starts to climb gently uphill into a mossy, coniferous forest. In contrast to the well-groomed Highwood Meadows Trail, the Ptarmigan Cirque trail is a real mountain hiking trail with plenty of rocks and roots protruding.

There are many numbered interpretive signs along the Ptarmigan Cirque trail. In days gone by there would have been printed trail guides at the trailhead, but thankfully you can download a pdf copy of the Ptarmigan Cirque interpretive trail guide before leaving home (you can’t do it there as you’ll be in a huge dead zone for cell coverage).

The Ptarmigan Cirque trail gets steep for a few short sections at the 0.9 km mark. If the hiking trail is wet, the roots can be slippery. There are several breaks in the trees allowing wildflowers to grow and affording you nice views of Highwood Ridge across the Kananaskis valley.

You’ll enter a beautiful little meadow after hiking 1 km on the Ptarmigan Cirque trail. Enjoy views of the rocky cliffs of Little Arethusa ahead on the right, before reentering the forest.

The loop portion of the Ptarmigan Cirque hike begins at the 1.2 km mark. This portion of the Ptarmigan Loop trail is one way, so follow the signs to the left.

You’ll leave the forest behind at the 1.3 km mark of the Ptarmigan Cirque hiking trail as you reenter a large open meadow. This is the beginning of a long stretch of outstanding Kananaskis mountain views. You’ll see the first few larch trees of this hike at the entrance to the meadow. As you’d expect, there are an abundance of alpine wildflowers in this meadow (in season).

After 100 m of meadow hiking, you’ll pass through a small cluster of trees. Upon emerging from the trees, you’ll get your first glimpse of the cirque beneath Mt. Rae which you’ll be hiking through. There are a few larch trees along this portion of the hike, scattered here and there.

As you gain elevation, look for the other side of the Ptarmigan Cirque hiking trail on your right. While you’re looking around, look ahead for first glimpse of the pretty waterfall you’ve been hearing for a while and then look behind you for a wonderful view of the beautiful lines of Highwood Ridge.

You’ll reach a rock pile at the 1.8 km mark of the Ptarmigan Cirque hike. Look up at it for a hiking sign to indicate where the official hiking trail goes. (The more obvious lower trail goes to the base of the waterfall, but please respect the “Stay on the Trail” signs and don’t go here. Stay on the real trail and you’ll get great waterfall pictures on other side)

At the top of the little rock pile, you’ll cross the stream on an easy bridge of large rocks. Remember, this is the same stream you crossed at the very beginning of the Ptarmigan Cirque hike. As you cross the stream, there’s a smaller waterfall on your left, with the larger waterfall below on your right.

After crossing the river, the Ptarmigan Cirque trail starts heading back towards the parking lot. You can get nice pictures of the waterfall from here. Try to stay on the rocks to reduce erosion.

The Ptarmigan Cirque trail follows the top of a rocky berm, with boulders from Little Arethusa all around. The scenery is very nice here, so watch your step.

As with most boulder fields, this is prime pika territory. Stay very still and quiet and listen for their telltale “eeeeeeep” sound. If you’re lucky, you just may see one of the incredibly cute little pikas.

At the 2.2 km mark of the Ptarmigan Cirque trail, you’ll leave the rock pile and reenter the meadow. You’ll cross the stream again at the base of a short, beautiful waterfall over an easy bridge made of rocks.

Shortly after the second Ptarmigan Cirque waterfall, you’ll pass a few larch trees. This is the beginning of the larch tree hike portion on the Ptarmigan Cirque trail.

At the 2.4 km mark, there’s a spur trail to the left for a viewpoint of a small canyon. There’s a bench to stop and enjoy the views.

If you go straight, you’ll enter a meadow with many larch trees. This is the best section for larch trees on the Ptarmigan Cirque trail. While there are many beautiful larch trees on the Ptarmigan Cirque hike, this is one of the easiest hikes to enjoy larch trees so it’s likely to be busy!

Just 100 meters after the beautiful meadow of larch trees, you reach the end of the loop portion of the Ptarmigan Cirque trail. From here, you follow the same trail back to the Highwood Meadows trail, then back to the trailhead.

Ptarmigan Cirque Trailhead

To reach the Ptarmigan Cirque trail, you first head west on the Highwood Meadows Trail from the Highwood Meadows Day Use Parking Lot. The Ptarmigan Cirque trailhead is found across Highway 40 approximately 400 m in on the Highwood Meadows trail. There’s a white hiking sign indicating the Ptarmigan Cirque hiking trail continues to the right, where you’ll cross the highway then join the start of it (again it’s signed on the other side of the highway).

The Highwood Meadows Day Use is just over 1 hour and 20 minutes from Banff and 1 hour and 40 minutes from Calgary. You reach the Ptarmigan parking lot by taking the TransCanada Highway 1 to Kananaskis Trail (Highway 40). You’ll head south on Highway 40 for approximately 67 km before reaching the parking lot on your left.

The Highwood Meadows Day Use parking lot will get extremely busy during larch season, as it also serves other nearby hikes.

If you’d like to improve your odds of getting a coveted parking spot during the Kananaskis larch season, consider staying overnight at the 4-star Kananaskis Mountain Lodge in Kananaskis Village. The Kananaskis Mountain Lodge is a mere 35-minute drive to the excellent Highwood Pass larch hikes. After a day of hiking among golden larches, soothe your sore muscles at the Kananaskis Nordic Spa.

Keep in mind that this section of Highway 40 is closed from December 1^st to June 14^th every year.

Ptarmigan Cirque Hike Stats

How Long is the Ptarmigan Cirque Hike?

The round-trip distance of the Ptarmigan Cirque trail is a short 3.6 km. It’s one of the shortest larch tree hikes in Kananaskis, which adds to its popularity.

How Hard is the Hike to Ptarmigan Cirque?

Due to the length and incline, we rate the Ptarmigan Cirque hike as “easy”.

At 3.6 km and 267 m elevation gain, the Ptarmigan Cirque trail is an easy Kananaskis hike.

Aside from some roots that might be slippery and one short steep section, most people will find this to be an easy kid-friendly hike in Kananaskis.

How Long Does the Ptarmigan Cirque Hike Take?

It should take a typical adult around an hour to hike Ptarmigan Cirque.

We did this hike with our two kids (8 and 6 years old) and it took us 1.5 hours.

Ptarmigan Cirque Trail Map

The Ptarmigan Cirque trail is easy to follow the entire way and it’s well signed. If you are feeling uncertain, you can use the Alltrails app while hiking to Ptarmigan Cirque, but you likely won’t need it.

To find the Ptarmigan Cirque trail map in Alltrails, simply search for “Ptarmigan Cirque”. Be sure to download your hiking maps prior to leaving.

Enjoy map downloads and many more premium features with a 7-day free trial of AllTrails+!

A paper map isn’t required for this Kananaskis hike, but if you prefer to hike with a paper map and compass as an additional safety layer, we highly recommend Gem Trek hiking maps. We own the entire set of these excellent Banff and Kananaskis hiking maps. They are exceptional 3D topographic maps which we love looking at for hiking inspiration.

The Ptarmigan Cirque trail map is found in the “Kananaskis Lakes” map. You can order it before your trip, or you can pick it up here as they are widely available.

Hiking Ptarmigan Cirque Trail with Kids

If you are hiking in Kananaskis with kids, this is an excellent hike for the entire family. We first hiked Ptarmigan Cirque when our kids were 3 and 1 years old. Our three year old was able to complete most of the hike herself.

Now with our 8 and 6 year old children, we were able to pair up this hike with nearby Arethusa Cirque and they were able to do both without any issue.

With an easy trail, impressive views, waterfalls, rocks to climb on PLUS pikas to spot, there’s plenty to keep kids interested on this hike.

Where to Stop for Lunch or a Break

The obvious place to stop for a break or lunch is along the rocks near the waterfall. There’s also a bench on the way back down.

Ptarmigan Cirque Hiking Safety

Aside from a few sections covered in roots that you’ll need to climb over, there are relatively few hiking hazards along the Ptarmigan Cirque hiking trail. The trail is well maintained and easy to follow up all the way to the Ptarmigan Cirque.

It is important to educate yourself on Bear Safety in Kananaskis. This should entail carrying bear spray, hiking in a group and making plenty of noise on the way up. It’s not unusual to encounter grizzly bears in this area, especially when larch season is upon us. To make matters worse, the bears are focused on fattening up before the winter so make a lot of noise as you hike.

Cougars also live in Banff National Park. Learn more about Cougar Safety.

Chances of a dangerous wildlife encounter in Kananaskis are very low, but you never know what will happen with Kananaskis wildlife, so be prepared.

We recommend you check the Ptarmigan Cirque trail report for the Ptarmigan Cirque trail conditions, wildlife warnings and possible closures before you head out.

Ptarmigan Cirque Trail Logistics

• On-leash dogs are allowed on the Ptarmigan Cirque hike.
  
  
• Mountain biking is not allowed on the Ptarmigan Cirque trail.
  
  
• There are toilets in the Highwood Meadows Day Use area.
  
  
• Plan to pack plenty of water and snacks for this hike. Fill your hydration packs before you leave. The closest place to get food is Kananaskis Village.
  
  
• You won’t get cell service for the entirety of your hike, so don’t count on it for your safety.

What to Bring for Hiking Ptarmigan Cirque Trail

This isn’t a very long hike, so you don’t need to be as prepared with all the proper hiking gear. Check out our list of hiking essentials with the hiking gear and clothing we recommend to get the most enjoyment out of your hike, regardless of the variable Kananaskis weather and trail conditions. The Ptarmigan Cirque trail is a short Kananaskis hike, but there are still a few items that we recommend bringing:

• Bear spray is a must. Cannisters are available to buy or rent at many locations in Canmore and Banff. Carry your bear spray in an easily accessible location.
  
  
• Water – A hydration pack is an effective and eco-conscious way to bring enough water for a hike.
  
  
• Bring several layers of clothing with you. The temperatures can be much lower up at the Highwood Pass and cold winds will cool you down quickly! Bring a daybag as you can expect to put on and take off layers all day.
  
  
• We don’t use trekking poles, but they can help with balance and to take pressure off knees on the descent.

Ptarmigan Cirque Footwear Recommendation

The Ptarmigan Cirque trail is in decent shape for most of its length, you don’t need proper hiking boots or hiking shoes for this hike.

A truly enjoyable hike that makes it easy to see golden larches!

Other Larch Hikes in Kananaskis

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