TLDR; My family and I hiked to the tree line to see some golden larch trees. We also summited Frosty Mountain. It was very tiring but the view was nice. Here are some pics below the wall of text.
My wife joined an online hiking group when she got into hiking in 2020. One day in October, 2020, she was telling me about these larch trees that would have their needles turn yellow and was a sight to see. Apparently, they are called alpine larches and only stay golden for a few weeks between late September to early October, then they would quickly shed their needles for winter. These trees mostly grow on high altitudes in Northwestern North America, in other words, hiking to high elevations is required to witness the view. The nearest place from home where we can see golden larches is high up in the Frosty Mountain Trail within E.C. Manning Park.
I told my wife that there is absolutely no need for us to drive more than 2 hours to E.C. Manning Park, spend the whole day hiking a difficult and long trail, then drive more than 2 hours home. We can simply walk 2 minutes around the neighborhood and see just as many, if not more, golden trees. Of course, I slept on the couch that night.
Because she already had other hikes planned for the couple weeks following her discovering the golden larches in 2020, the larch season was already over by the time we were available to go. Then come October 2021, and of course my wife had plans to hike the Frosty Mountain Trail, a 22km out and back trail with 1160m elevation gain, during the golden larch season. Naturally, I'm in full support of her plan because sleeping on the couch really sucks.
Our whole family left home very early on October 3rd, 2021 and made our way to E.C Manning Park, parking at the Lightning Lake parking lot. We quickly found the trailhead to the east of Lightning Lake. The beginning parts of the trail were underneath some very dense trees. There were some fall colors, but most trees were evergreens. The trail inclined gradually, yet steadily. We kept climbing, taking breaks here and there. About 6km into the hike, we saw a campsite where a lot of hikers were taking a break. We pressed through and did not rest at the campsite. Around 8km into the hike, we began to see the golden larches. I guess my wife was right, these trees are quite different from the golden trees around our neighborhood.
My wife only wanted to see the larches and suggested we head back down, but I told her that we came all this way and are only a few kilometers from reaching the summit. We should push for the summit and not call it quits three quarters of the way. Being led by a sunk cost fallacy sucker, my family kept going, past the tree line, towards the summit. Once we passed the tree line, the terrain changed dramatically. There were loose rocks all around and nothing grew. With tired legs and cold hands, we reached the summit of Frosty Mountain, which sits at 2408m elevation. We marveled at the beautiful view of the surrounding mountains and landscape. After a short break and some photos, we headed back down to the parking lot.