While staying in Manning Park for a few days, we decided to snowshoe the Three Falls Trail from Gibson Pass. We drove up the Gibson Pass Road from the lodge for 10 km then parked at the ski hill area.

After a grey day on he previous day and a heavy snowfall overnight, the skies started to clear from the Lakes Chain up to Gibson Pass.

From the Gibson Pass parking lot, we followed a novice ski run down to the bottom of the slope where there was a signed trailhead bearing west. With about 25 cm of fresh snow, we were breaking trail out to the third falls. The sunny skies above refracted in some wispy clouds above the treetops.

The first 1.2 km was fairly level, winding through the forest to a viewpoint above Shadow Falls. We couldn’t see the falls since drop-offs to the falls weren’t safe in winter, but we could see Nepopekum Creek Gorge and Red Mountain to the west.

Father down the trail was Nepopekum Falls across the gorge, draining the cirque/basin between Lone Goat Mountain, Red Mountain, and Snow Camp Mountain.

We continued on to the third falls and have to cut a new path through the snow on a boulder slope to get a better view of Derek Falls. This was a lovely falls, but it is down deep in the gorge out of reach of the low winter sun.

We stomped back in the established track past Nepopekum Falls.

It was all uphill from Derek Falls to Shadow Falls, but then the final section was on level trail to the ski hill area.

The out-and-back snowshoe from Gibson Pass Ski Hill was 7.65 km taking about 2.5 hours, perfect for a winter day in the Cascade Mountains.