I wanted to do some fishing, so I headed early and made my way up Spray Lakes Trail to Buller Pond. Unfortunately the pond which had been so productive the last time I was there was totally fished out, and I spent more time chasing a frog around than I did fishing.
Barrier Lake
Mountain Meadow
Deer in the Fog
Frog
Buller Pond
I thought I’d get up early and head out to Canmore to drive the Spray Lakes/Highway #40 Loop in search of wildlife. I never spotted any of the big predators, which is always the goal, but three close moose encounters, some very strange coyote behaviour, and fantastic morning light, made for an amazing morning!
Sunrise at Spray Lakes
Sunrise at Spray Lakes
Wild Moose
Buller Pond
Buller Pond HDR
Moose silhouette at Lakes edge
Meadow near Mount Shark
Mud Lake
Mud Lake Panorama
Reflections in Mud Lake
Wild Coyote
Wild Coyote
Wild Coyote
Wild Coyote
Lower Kananaskis Lake
Lower Kananaskis Lake
I went camping down south of Blairmore Alberta at a place called Lynx Creek and decided to take the long way down. Leaving Highway #2 at Nanton and heading west into the mountains (the stretch of road up this hill was pretty rough, but well worth it for the view at the top)! I ended up on Highway #40, which heads pretty much straight south all the way to the Crowsnest Pass. The drive was nice and scenic, but the weather wasn’t cooperating, I actually got snowed on at one point, so I didn’t end up taking a lot of photos. The road itself was better than I had expected, although loose gravel it was pretty well maintained, so I made good time and ended up at the campsite a couple hours earlier than expected.
The campground itself was pretty crappy, and I wouldn’t recomend it, unless you’re going out with quads and motorbikes, which is what most of the other people in the area were there for.
The thing that brought us down to Blairmore was the Rum Runner Days festival and firework show, which got cancelled after a crazy thunderstorm blew through town.
About 10 minutes into the hike back from camping at Mount Romulus we realized that we forgot our bag of trash on the picnic table, and being the responsible campers that we are, had to go back for it. I elected to wait trail-side with the packs, while Chris and Karl went to retrieve it.
This gave me a chance to finally take some pictures (since I had been lugging my camera all over the mountains for the past two days and had only taken a couple dozen photos). The spot we stopped at didn’t have much of a view, so I spent the time crawling around on the forest floor wishing I had a macro lens!
On our second day at Mount Romulus Campground we went hiking with the idea that we would go up to Tombstone Lakes and do some fishing (not considering that it was still way to early in the year and the lakes were probably frozen solid at that altitued still).
We started out on the same easy trail (road) that we took into the campground, climbing up along the edge of the valley. After 8 or 9 Km we ran into an old worn-out sign that said “Tombstone Lakes” and pointed off along a small trail into the forest.
The small trail into the forest quickly turned into little more than a game trail, and then shortly after that it became really muddy and covered over with snow drifts. Eventually it disappeared all together, and we made the decision to leave the forest (disturbingly fresh bear tracks may have aided in the decision to move out into the open) and follow along a little stream that we assumed was and outlet for the lake.
Although it was nice to get out into the open meadow that ran along the banks of the stream, it didn’t take long for us to all end up ankle deep in the boggy conditions around the stream.
The climb got steeper and the snow deeper until at some points we were sinking waist deep in snow drifts (did I mention Chris and I were wearing shorts). We did finally make it to the top, where we expected the lake to be, instead we found nothing but more dense forest, leading back down the other side.
We took a quick break on top of the ridge to wring the water out of our socks and try to figure out where we were going. I had the GPS tracking us on my phone, but it was before you could cache maps on it, so although it showed where we were, there was no map to go with it, so not much help at all.
Eventually we continued on downhill, but after a few minutes decided we had no idea where we were going and should play it safe and head back to camp the way we came.
Of course once we got back to town and looked at the GPS map it showed that we were right on course, and turned back about 250 metres from the upper lake.
The trip back to the campsite was fast and pretty uneventful, other than the weasel that ran across the trail in front of us (I think it was either a Long-Tailed Weasel, or an Ermine, it was too fast to be sure).
My GPS ran out of batteries shortly after turning back, but I figure the whole trip was somewhere around the 20 km mark.
Socks drying by the fire after a long day of hiking.
View 2011-07-01 10:37 in a larger map
Distance – 12.4 km
Elevation Gain – 250 M
The hike to the Mount Romulus Backcountry Campground begins at the end of Hwy. #66 on the Bragg Creek side of Kananaskis Country where the paved road ends and turns into the seasonal PowderFace Trail. A little ways past “Forget Me Not Pond” there is a parking area for backcountry campers. Which is pretty ridiculous, because it’s about a kilometer hike up the road and through the Little Elbow Campground which was full of families barbecuing, before you actually get to the hiking trail.
The trail is actually an old fire road so it’s wide and even and really easy going. It is part of the Big Elbow Little Elbow Loop which is a very popular mountain biking trail that follows along both rivers in a 44 km loop until they meet up by the parking lot and form the Elbow River. On the way in we had the trail almost all to ourselves, but coming home on Sunday morning it was quite busy with bikers. At about 12 kilometres to the campground it’s pretty decent in length with a backpack on, but the flat smooth trail made for a really easy hike in.
The route is pretty straight, following along the Little Elbow River, with minimal ups and downs, and only about 250 metres of elevation gain over it’s entire length. It’s a nice hike through the mountains, but there’s nothing exceptionally scenic about it, at least when we were there in early July.
The campground was completely empty when we got there but we did have a run-in with a really friendly park ranger on a bicycle, who checked our camping permits (so don’t forget them), and was nice enough to pick up one of our fishing rods that had fallen behind somewhere on the trail, and drop it off at the visitor centre. The campground was really nice, although the wind blowing through the valley kept up relentlessly all weekend. But with a massive pile of firewood and freshly raked ground (I think we were the first ones of the year to use it) it was a really nice place to camp.
Elbow Lake HDR
Elbow Lake is my favourite place in Kananaskis Country, of course it’s just about as far from Calgary as you can go in the park. About 5km North of the Highwood Pass (the highest paved road in Canada) on Highway #40 its almost exactly at the halfway point of the Highwood Loop. The trail-head is only accessible from mid June to December, as the Highway is closed in winter to accommodate animal migration.
The Hike to the lake is a short 1.4 kilometres, but is pretty much straight up, with an elevation gain of 125 metres. I’m not sure if it’s the climb or the high altitude of the lake (2,120 m (6,960 ft). But every time I do it I’m amazed at how exhausting it is for such a short hike (of course I might just be really out of shape).
The Hike is not especially scenic, but it does cross through the path of an old rock slide where Pika and Hoary Marmots can usually be seen, and a bit of an open meadow where on this particular trip there was still about five feet of snow on the trail where an avalanche had obviously come down during the winter.
Elbow Lake HDR
Elbow lake is the head-water for the Elbow river which eventually runs into the Glenmore Reservoir providing water to the city of Calgary, before continuing on to join up with the Bow river.
There is a back-country campground on the south side of the lake. and trails that lead north following the river (it’s barely a stream when it leaves the lake), to Tombstone Lakes, Mount Romulus, and Little Elbow Campgrounds where it comes out by “Forget Me Not Pond” at the end of Highway #66 (on the Bragg Creek side of Kananaskis).
Elbow Lake
The lake itself is surrounded with mountain peaks and is quite scenic but unfortunately because of the high altitude the weather is unpredictable and almost always windy, and summer snow storms are always a possibility.
One of the best parts about the lake is the fishing. Although the fish are extremely small, there are so many and the water so clear that sight fishing from the shore with a dry fly is a lot of fun. I heard somewhere that the lake winter-killed a few years ago, so i’m hoping that accounts to the lack of big fish, and it will change in years to come.
There’s typically a lot of grizzly bear activity in the area (not that I’ve ever encountered any). So be sure to be on the lookout, and don’t forget the bear-spray.
Mountain Range at Elbow Lake
Elbow Lake
Cut-Throat Trout
Cut-Throat Trout
Elbow Lake
Elbow Lake
Hiking and fishing Elbow Lake.
I did a bit of hiking into the meadows on the north side of the lake and fished my way around the shoreline on this trip.
View Elbow Lake in a larger map
Created by My Tracks on Android.
Total Distance: 6.62 km (4.1 mi)
Total Time: 3:39:12
Moving Time: 1:19:26
Average Speed: 1.81 km/h (1.1 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 5.00 km/h (3.1 mi/h)
Max Speed: 13.97 km/h (8.7 mi/h)
Min Elevation: 1952 m (6403 ft)
Max Elevation: 2119 m (6954 ft)
Elevation Gain: 535 m (1757 ft)
Max Grade: 0 %
Min Grade: 0 %
Recorded: Wed Jun 22 17:50:28 MDT 2011
Activity type: Hiking
Calgary to Elbow Lake via the Highwood Loop, Highway #40.
I headed out from the south side of the city, and tried to find a shortcut highway #40, and ended up at a couple dead ends and farmers fields, so it didn’t exactly work out very well. The proper way is to take Hwy. #22 all the way down to Longview and then head west into Kananaskis Country.
View 2011-06-22 15:28 in a larger map
Elbow Lake to Calgary, via the Highwood Loop, Highway #40.
View 2011-06-22 21:33 in a larger map
We spotted a couple of Elk while driving the Bow Valley Parkway on out way back from Jasper.
Elk in Banff
Elk in Banff
It was a really cold wet spring in Alberta, which was pretty evident in Jasper. Going into the third week of June It was still cold and rainy and foggy, and the lakes and river between Jasper and Hinton were all flooded right up to the edge of the Highway. But It made good light for taking pictures.
Medicine Lake
We spotted this one hiding behind some bushes on the side of the road eating grass, and had just enough time to snap a couple of photos.
Black Bear eating leaves.