Barrier Lake Dam, take 2

I've got more "hooky" photos coming, but I had to post a shot from today's hike.

Less than three weeks ago, I visited Barrier Lake Dam, and took this shot of the late thaw and all the snow that remained despite the warm weather:




Here's Barrier Lake Dam today, 19 days later:



To quote Kramer from Seinfeld... "Mother Nature is a maaaad scientist!"

Barrier Lake and Highway 40 drivin'

It's been a crazy week here in my world, so it has taken me a while get these photos posted. I hate it when the real world gets in the way.

A couple of weeks ago I was still testing a digital camera, and I wound up playing hooky for the day and going for a drive in the mountains. The weather was just starting to turn nice after a *lot* of late season snow, and now when I look at the photos I can't believe they're only two weeks old....

Anyway, I drove west of the city and took the Kananaskis turnoff at Highway 40. The scenery changes from rolling foothills to the Rocky mountains in the blink of an eye. Only a few minutes and I was at Barrier Lake Dam. I think this is now one of my Favorite Places in the World:



It's so beautiful, but what's amazing is how much snow is still around compared to April of last year. Last year the ice shards from the lake were washing up on the beach and looked just fascinating.

From here I drove further south on Highway 40. It's so stunning there, sometimes it's tough to pay full attention to the road:



I pulled over at Nakiska, one of the ski hills used in the 1988 Olympics.



Right underneath the sign, I found these dried flowers from last season. They must have frozen while still in bloom (I don't remember an early frost, but the weather is a lot more severe out this way). They blended in perfectly with the dried grass, but still kept their form:



Highway 40 eventually goes through the Highwood Pass (at 2,227 meters/7310 feet, this is the highest paved pass in Canada), but the Pass is closed from mid-December to mid-June. I also wanted to make it out to Banff on this day, so I figured it was time to turn around. I found a particularly amazing spot where there were astounding views in all directions. I literally stood in one spot and snapped photos of what was around me.

South -- check out how white the snow at the top is... when clouds were nearby, you couldn't tell where the snow ended and the sky began:



East -- directly across the highway from me:



North -- the snow always looks so crisp against a deep blue sky:



West -- if there's a downside to being this deep in the mountains, it's that you don't see the bad weather until it's almost on top of you. This was another hint that it was time to get back to the Trans-Canada:



That said, it's no hardship to drive out.... amazing drive coming and going:



I'll continue the journey on my next post....

Trail News Round up

Before I get back to posting some older hikes, there are some trail closures and restriction posted today by Parks Canada:

Moraine Lake Highline Trail, from Moraine Lake Lodge to 3.8 km north. - Closed due to berry season

Upper Bryant Creek Valley - Access by special permit only due to prime food sources (berries) in the area. Click the link for a detailed map and more details.

The good news is many of the bear warnings in the Kananaskis area have been lifted (including the Barrier Lake aarea -- one of my personal favorites). Of course, the nicer weather seems to have lifted as well, but you can't have it all.

Barrier and barriers - June 2, 2007

Kananaskis - Barrier Lake - Trail Particulars: From the TransCanada Highway, take Highway 40. Look for the Barrier Lake Day Use/Boat Launch area.

The last time D and I tried to hike Barrier Lake, we were turned back by the closed gates at the Day Use area. We'd debated hiking in, but hiking along a highway for 1 or 2 km just to hike a 2 km trail wasn't too appealing. Plus it was windy. And we were wussy.

So this seemed like a good chance to make up for that. There were a couple of small hikes in the area I wanted to try, the other being a canyon hike much further down Highway 40.

This was one of the first really nice days of the year -- most of the snow was gone, the sun was shining, but it wasn't yet uncomfortably warm for hiking. The mosquitos were just making their first appearance -- by mid-month it would be heavy-duty bug spray time.

There are a series of roads, parking lots and trails at the Day Use Area. We parked in a small lot, found a trail and followed it until we came to a map. There are plenty of maps posted for guidance. The best bet might be to park at the actual boat launch area, since the trail seems to originate there and you can't beat starting by the water.

The trail starts out in thick grass and forest -- lush, damp and green, but not mossy. The trail was not well worn this time of year -- it may be seldom used as there's also a road and parking area about 1 km from the top of the trail -- but hiking it up is a lot more fun. The most interesting thing about the hike is as you start to ascend the trail, the trail overlooks a beach beside the boat launch. In this area, there's just not a lot of hiking along beaches, so it seemed unique. It also looked relatively empty. I'm sure it's not that way in the middle of July, but I can dream.

The rest of the trail to the second trailhead is unremarkable. Most of the trail travels slightly uphill, and is not especially strenuous. After the initial views of the beach and lake, there isn't much to see. It's not an unpleasant trail (and definitely much better than just driving to a 1 km trailhead), but nothing stands out either. We could tell we were getting close to the "official" trailhead by the picnic tables that started appearing among the trees.

We stepped from the trail to a small parking lot. From here, there is a set of stairs from the top part of the parking lot loop to a well signed trailhead (it's actually pretty tough to miss). At the top of the stairs is another collection of picnic tables. Actually, even though it wasn't a terribly strenuous hike, this isn't a bad place to stop and have a bite -- the scenery is gorgeous.

But better is to come...

This part of the trail is obviously more popular and more seriously maintained. Even so, we did not see a single other person on the trail this entire hour-long hike. At the beach, yes. Driving to the second trailhead then turning around, yes. But no actual hikers. It struck me as odd, because it's a short hike to a magnificent view, clearly marked and not at all intimidating.

The last km of the hike -- the official part -- is definitely more strenuous than the first part, but for only 1 km it's easily manageable. By the time you're starting to get out of breath, you're there.



The above shot is looking south from the end of the trail. The below photo is a similar view, zoomed in a little more. Notice how little water is in the lake.



This shot below is looking north. Barrier Lake Dam is at the far end of the lake.



That was Barrier Lake Trail. We made it in about 40 minutes and were back down at our car in just over an hour.

On the way back down, we spotted this flower. We've seen plenty of these close to the ground (and I'm sure I've taken enough photos to bore people to tears), but this particular one was growing as a vine between the trees. It was actually taller than me. I'm rotten with all flowers, but from what I've been able to look up, this is normal. It looks pretty cool to see a flower in amongst the trees. If you're not paying attenting it looks like the trees are sprouting flowers!

We returned to the car far too quickly. We had another hike planned -- much closer to the Kananaskis Lakes. Highway 40 is such a beautiful drive and there are so many things to see. There are plenty of little (and big!) hikes along Highway 40 if you know where to look.

It being June, it never even occured to me parts of the highway would still be closed, but as we approached the turn off for the Kananaskis Lakes, that's exactly what we saw -- the same type of gates that drove me crazy by Elbow Falls throughout April and May, complete with all the cars parked along the highway. The news was good though: the gates would be opened before the next weekend, and the turnoff to the Kananaskis Lakes was not affected by this closure.

The access to the trailhead, however, was within a campground that was closed. Funny, the week we finally get to do a hike we'd been unable to complete, we wind up with another hike we cannot complete.

Seven bridges trail

Bow Valley - Heart Creek Trail - Trailhead is just off Highway 1 at Lac des Arc. One way trail, 4 km total (return). Little incline.
Kananaskis - Barrier Forestry Trail - Near Barrier Lake just off Highway 40 in Kananaskis. Look for signs leading to Colonel's Cabin historical site. All three loops are a total of 2.7 km.


Think about the Eagles song and the title makes sense. Really.

What a beautiful day for hiking! I had been bugging D to try out Heart Creek for a couple of weeks now. No real reason, I just wanted to do a hike that was near Lac des Arc, and Heart Creek is an early-spring hike that seemed easy enough, yet interesting.

The trailhead is immediately off the Trans-Canada (you can see the parking lot from the highway) and while this makes it easy to get to, it also means the initial part of the hike is marred by plenty of highway noise. After the first ten minutes or so, the hike veers away from the highway and into the creek. The scenery is still amazing -- this photo was taken from the parking lot at Heart Creek trailhead.

Heart Creek is an easy walk -- few inclines. It crosses the creek many times over the course of the trail and each bridge is a sturdy log bridge such as this one (ok, they're a lot wider than they look in this photo -- trust me!). Each crossing provides a great vantage point of where you're going and where you've been.

D and I dipped down creekside at one particular turn, right beside a huge rock wall. No photo could do the rock wall justice, but you'll know it when you see it. The day had started out grey and misty, but as we walked the sun started to come out, even while a little rain was falling. Inside the canyon, it was a calming yet energizing feeling, if you can have the same two feelings at once.

This photo is from the rock wall, looking North, the direction we'd come from. The skies were just clearing and everything on the trail smelled amazing. It's hard to believe we're maybe only 10 minutes from the highway. We spent a good deal of time at this corner of the trail -- taking photos, testing the water, just looking over the area in detail.

We'd gotten to the trail early enough there was not another soul around, which only added to the moment.

The rain had literally just stopped falling when the sun came out. Droplets were dangling from tree branches, leaves, pine cones, log bridges. I'm still getting used to the close-up feature on my digital camera, but this image came out ok.

Another bridge. I just couldn't believe the care put into building these crossings. Each bridge was sturdy and perfectly maintained.

And, of course... snow. In April I guess no hike is complete without some sort of snow sighting. Can't see it lingering the background against the canyon wall? Here it is a little closer:


There is a waterfall at the end of the trail, but it's hidden from view from the trail. There is a series of rocks one could scramble up, I suppose, if one had that ability. I would have tried to climb further, or make it up another way, but the rock face was way too slick from the rain. Without the proper equipment -- or dry shoes even -- it just wasn't safe.

At least that's what I keep telling myself. Ultimately this is a walk where the journey far outdid the payoff at the end. Those might be the best hikes anyway.

We spotted next to no wildlife on the way in or out, but this little creature did fly by us at one point, only to hide in the grass beside the path. He's tough to see in the first photo, but once he spread his wings...



From there we headed back to Kananaskis. My next bright idea was to do a quick hike to a viewpoint over Barrier Lake, but the gate blocked the access to the rec area and boat launch. 2k of walking on a paved road to do a 1k hike? Didn't really thrill me, so we moved on. Only after did I realize we could have hiked out through the boat launch area, but oh well.... the gate will be opened up on May 11, so we'll head back then.

Just down the road is the Barrier Forestry trails - a combination historical site and forestry education trail. The area was used as a POW camp during the Second World War, and some structures remain, despite going through multiple incarnations and sometimes multiple locations around Kananaskis. The Colonel's Cabin now acts as an information centre for the area. The tower also looks like it houses historical photos and relics. Both were closed when D and I were there.




The trail actually consists of three loops, one historical, one forestry, and one eco-system. The forestry and eco-system loops are actually the same loop -- when you hit the end of one loop you have the option to continue onto the next one, or loop back. The historical loop is a small loop at the beginning, and I hate to say, the most disappointing. After the two buildings, the trail sort of went off in multiple directions and you really only knew which path to take by looking for the next sign. The signs themselves were weather-beaten and some outright impossible to read. I know it's tough to keep up such things, but it was disappointing.

The forestry hike was better -- trail was clearer anyway -- but the signs were not terribly informative, the ones we could read anyway. Now, after the fact, I've found the University of Calgary has a document that goes along with the hike located here: http://www.kfs.ucalgary.ca/pdfs/TrailGuide.pdf. If you're super interested in forest cycles and management, then bring it along. Actually, I'll bet as a guided hike (for schools and such), the whole thing kicks-ass. I imagine there are a lot of things to point out.

D and I? Well, from the looks of it, we even missed the viewpoint of Mt. Baldy. But I did take this lovely photo from another viewpoint of Barrier Lake.



I forgot to mention the any colony right at the beginning of the hike! Definitely cool to watch. I didn't even notice the swarming stump until I started reading the sign and learned there were a few thousand ants crawling around right beside me. I noticed D started scratching as soon as he saw the colony! Clearly not for the squeamish, but I still got a couple of close-ups.



That was to be the end of our hiking in Kananaskis, but we made one last stop at the Barrier Lake Dam turn off. There was still some ice covered part of the lake, and I wanted a closer look. It seemed like the ice was floating on the water. I wanted to see how it all went together.


Sometimes those last minute stops are the most interesting. There's no real beach on this side of the lake, just rocks. But once in a while there would be a collection of ice crystals among the rocks.

When we got to the edge of the water, we saw why. The ice floating on the water wasn't one large sheet of ice, but thousands of little ice crystals, maybe 10 centimetres long at the most. Every time another wave came in (and it was *windy*) these crystals would shift and smash together and some would wash up on the beach. On the biggest waves it would all sound like breaking glass as those crystals smashed together. To be honest, I probably could have sat there and watched for hours (ok, maybe not in that wind).



From there we hit Kananaskis Village where we sampled some of the best desserts ever... but that's a whole other discussion.