Lake Alta and the Remarkables ♦

July 11, 2019 tarannosaurus

Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → New Zealand → Otago → Lake Alta and the Remarkables

♦ Intrepid Top Pick!

Location: Queenstown area, Otago, New Zealand

Time Required: 1-3 hours

Distance: 3.5 km roundtrip to Lake Alta, 4km roundtrip to Shadow Basin Lookout

Elevation Gain/Loss: 207 m (to Lake Alta), 400 m (to Shadow Basin Lookout)

Red Tape/Notes: The route to Lake Alta is marked from the lodge – our route was not.

What’s Nearby?: Queenstown, Queenstown to Milford Helicopter Tour, Rob Roy Glacier Valley Track, Mt. Aspiring Packrafting, Robinson Creek Canyon, Wilson Creek Canyon, Cross Creek Canyon, Bendigo Ghost Town, Haast Pass

The route to Lake Alta is probably the most popular hiking route in the Remarkables area, followed by the Shadow Basin Lookout trail. The drive up to the Remarkables Ski Lodge is worth it if you have no time or interest in doing a hike – beautiful views abound and it’s a fun, winding road (although I can imagine it would be terrifying if it were icy). The added benefit of this scenic drive is that you get a massive elevation boost for you hikes, giving you easy access to some great alpine terrain. I did some poking around online and kept finding posts from people on the Shadow Basin Lookout trail that are posed to make it look like some sort of epic mountaineering adventure. This could hardly be further from the truth, although I suppose you could choose an absurd route up the side of the mountain to reach it – and perhaps this is what people are doing. I somehow doubt it. There’s a perfectly serviceable (although admittedly rather steep) road that can be used for most of it, and the last stretch is on a totally reasonable trail through the rocks. The trip reports for Lake Alta are less embroidered – this trail is well-marked, traversing through some interesting bogs until you reach the rocky upper section just prior to the lake.

We optioned to go off trail and summit the peak next to/in front of Lake Alta (essentially between the ski routes “The Elevator” and “The Escalator” if you’re looking at the ski maps – our route was admittedly a little bit sketchy; I’m quite certain there are better approaches than the one we took) and then traversed across the scree slopes to reach the Shadow Basin Lookout. We then headed over to the top of the Shady Lady run before hiking down and rejoining the ski field road. The total circuit took us about 3 hours to complete, and the views were absolutely stunning. Lake Alta was shimmering in all her crystal deep blue glory, we could look down through wisps of cloud onto Lake Wakatipu and see the distant glacier-covered peaks of Mt. Earnslaw, Mt. Christina, and the Fiordlands. Quite a lot for only three hours of work!