Hoary marmots, large members of the squirrel family with reddish tails as adults, are often found in the slide-created meadows. The trail gives views of the terminal moraine left by the most recent advance of the Lower Victoria Glacier during the Little Ice Age, which peaked circa 1850. The present outlet stream flows through the steep, narrow gorge it has breached in the material deposited at the toe of the receding glacier. Aberdeen and Lefroy. You reach the zone of the subalpine larch at the teahouse.
Larches are unique in that although they are conifers, they shed all their needles in the autumn.
The needles turn a brilliant golden hue before dropping off. Each year's soft-textured foliage grows anew starting in the spring. At the Plain of Six Glaciers teahouse you are also near the high cliff haunts of mountain goats, with their white coats and thin black horns. These sturdy, stocky climbers, who rely on seemingly insurmountable walls as escape terrain, can often be observed on the slopes due north of the teahouse.