Rae Glacier - September 18, 2011

Rae Glacier trail details: Take Highway 40 to the Elbow Lake Day Use Area. First 1.5 km or so of the trail is to the Elbow Lake campground. Go through the campground along the south side for the trail to Rae Glacier. Trail is about 3km with an incline of about 425m.. not for the faint of heart!

Usually Nat leaves the trail selection to me. I'm a bit of a trail geek, I like figuring out the places to go and find stuff we haven't seen. But when Nat picks, it's always something off my radar, and something so damn good!

 She outdid herself with Rae Glacier. After breaking myself in post-twins with a familiar and comfortable workout, I wanted something to push me. And I wanted something we hadn't seen before.

The first part of Rae Glacier is simply the trail to Elbow Lake. Even this was new to us!

 We crossed a rock glacier a few minute in. I've seen something similar along the highway near Highwood Pass and since we were so close, this wasn't terribly surprising, but still pretty cool to look at. Didn't see any picas though.

 Ah, beautiful trail, mountains ahead, perfect hike as far as I can see...

 Approaching the lake. The hike-in campground was pretty full, and it's really easy to see why.

But we were on our way to a glacier! Somewhere over there! But first, we had to go up. Way up. Love this terrain... always reminds me I'm somewhere so few people get to be.

I have to admit it... we nearly packed it in around here. We'd been hiking on rock and shale for a good 30 minutes, and the payoff didn't seem to be much. But the people passing us and going over that little hill.... yeah, we'd come too far to turn back now.

So we made it! We got to see what remained of the glacier... which has been receding for many years now. In all my excitement, I forgot to actually take a photo of said glacier. But that's ok. It's really worth seeing for yourself. But we do have a photo of our feet. On a glacier.

Nat did take a photo, you just have to ignore the goofy looking hiker in the middle of it...

Awesome hike Nat! Keep them coming!

Ptarmigan Cirque - August 24, 2008

Ptarmigan Cirque - Highwood Pass: Take Highway 40 south past the Kananaskis Lake turnoff to the Highwood Pass day use area. Trail head is the same as interpretive trail. Highwood 40 is closed at the Kananaskis Lakes junction from Dec 1 to June 15.

Ptarmigan Cirque is an amazing hike for so many reasons. On paper it doesn't look like much -- it's short (4.5 km total), the incline isn't much (225m), and the drive out to the Highwood Pass can take a good couple of hours from the city area. But everyone should do this hike at least once -- and preferably during wildflower season.

For starters the trailhead is beside the highest paved pass in Canada. This hike starts from an altitude of 2206m/7239 ft. And that 225m in altitude gain? That's pretty much all in the first kilometer. Suddenly, it's no walk in the park.

But the big draw of this hike is the terrain. You start from sub-alpine, and hike into true alpine terrain, the land of former glaciers and hardy vegetation. Even from the trailhead, one can tell that only the stronger trees, plants and critters survive. This particular area and altitude sees snow approximately 9 months out of the year (as evidenced by photos taken in late June).

The hike leads into what can only be described as a high plateau in the mountain, almost a bowl among the peaks, and is utterly unique.

The trailhead is shared with a short interpretive walk that is also worth the drive. The walk explains the climate and issues surrounding life in such an area:



The trail splits from the interpretive walk, crosses the highway and immediately begins the sharp ascent. It can a tough go -- especially if you're not used to high altitude -- but you're rewarded pretty quickly. This is looking across the highway, west:



I first encountered these flowers -- known as Chalice Flower or Western Anemone (Pulsatilla occidentalis) while hiking near the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park. Their life is fascinating -- they exist mostly in alpine areas with short summer seasons. They bloom as small white flowers, and are covered in small hairs to protect them from the cold.

The bloom only lasts a short time -- maybe 2 weeks -- and then it is replaced by the "pod" seen here, known by many names such as "mops" "shaggy heads" "towhead babies" and my favorite "hippies on a stick". There were hundreds on this particular hike, and I picked this one because it looked, for the moment, almost entirely perfect:



After the climb, the trail meanders slowly toward the "bowl". As it transitions from sub-alpine to alpine, it almost seems like you're walking through a slowly rising meadow:



Looking south at the Highwood Range:



Nat and I are usually first on the trail, but this trail runner beat us to it. On the first photo I zoomed in on the man in red, but then I took a shot from a normal range, just to see the enormity of the area we were in (click on the second photo to see the man in red):





Though it was late in the season -- especially in a climate like this -- there were plenty of flowers along the trail. These Alpine Forget-Me-Nots (myosotis alpestris) were plentiful:



Another look down the Highwood Range from higher up the trail:



More wildflowers -- and a pretty one I just can't seem to identify. I'd like to call it a type of Cinquefoil, but it also resembles a buttercup. I'll keep looking. The distinctive star shape really caught my eye:



Even in late August, there were plenty of streams and falls throughout the meadow. I'm itching to hike this area come spring!



Another look at the "bowl". The trail makes it way through and over boulders and little creeks, but it's generally a flat meadow. The trail follows a "U" shape to the back of the plateau and around the other side to the front. All of this was carved out by glaciers:



Looking west:



Nice shot of the "bowl" from a spot near the end of the "U":



Pretty sure this is Slender Beardtongue (penstemon procerus). Stunning colours:



Sometimes those short hikes turn out to have the most interesting sights.

Highwood Pass -- June 29, 2008

Our last stop along Highway 40 on this day was at Highwood Pass -- the highest paved road pass in Canada (2227 m/7310 ft). Anything living up here exists under very harsh conditions where there is snow on the ground up to 9 months of the year, and temperatures hover around freezing for a good percentage of that 9 months.

Even in late June, with a few weeks of sunny conditions, there were still patches of snow throughout the area:



Highwood Pass is pretty close to the treeline, and there was plenty of snow high the mountains around us as well:



As we drove away from Highwood Pass, we passed by a historical landmark sign documenting the story of the Lost Lemon Mine, a local historical legend. The sign reads:

According to legend these mountains harbour a motherlode of gold. Is it still out there? Or, was it ever?

In the spring of 1870, two miners, Blackjack and Lemon, passed through the foothills on their way from the North Saskatchewan River to Montana. It is said they stumbled across a rich vein of gold. Overcome by greed, Lemon murdered Blackjack -- an act which was to haunt him for the rest of his life.

The Stoney Indians are said to have placed a curse on the gold in an attempt to keep the white man out of their hunting ground. A number of mysterious events occurred around that time including an unexplainable cabin fire, sudden deaths, and even a rumour of skeleton being found clutching a bag of gold.

Does the gold really exist? Some believe so. But others claim it was a hoax started by a false priest; that the gold was on the other side of the continental divide; or that it had been hijacked from miners who were returning from the goldfield of British Columbia.

We may never know the truth about the Lost Lemon Mine. But if the legend is all that ever comes from the mine, it has greatly enriched the folklore of Western Canada.

I'd always thought the legend was more focused on an area in a more southern part of Alberta. In any case, this was an odd place for such a sign, but still gave me chills, knowing some of the history I read and write so much about may have taken place where I stood.

The full story (legend) is fascinating. I'll write about it in a future post.

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....