Kananaskis Canyon -- June 29, 2008

Peter Lougheed - Kananaskis Canyon Trail. Directions: Take Highway 40 to Kananaskis Lakes Trail. Turn right into Canyon Campground. Look for Loop C and a small turnout for parking. Trailhead is across the road.

Kananaskis Canyon is one of those trails that is beautiful and sobering at the same time. This quick 1.2 km takes you through a stunning canyon carved by water flow, but the very creation of this trail is thanks to the fact the river that used to run through here has been dammed and now flows through a pipeline going directly to a power plant.

The trail begins in a slow descent through forest toward what remains of the Kananaskis River. It was a nice break to be heading *downhill* at the beginning of a trail. After only a few minutes, we were beside the river and the trail was heading toward the canyon.

Then out of nowhere, the canyon appeared, along with a pond, bridge, bench and falls. It was all so park-like:





We crossed a bridge and the trail immediately led uphill to overlook the area. Again, it seemed almost too perfect:




Ironically, just a few feet from this lookout spot, the true Kananaskis River flows by in a pipeline. Amazingly, this is just off the trail itself:



The trail comes back down on the other side of the falls. Once again, we were surrounded by a peaceful quiet setting, calm waters, the canyon walls, the silence.. it was more a stroll than a hike, but it some ways it had the same effect:

Peter Lougheed Visitor Park -- June 29, 2008

... our next stop on our drive was a quick interpretive loop beside the Peter Lougheed Provincial Park Visitor Centre. Unfortunately, when we arrived the trail and most of the area around it had been blocked off due to bears in the area.

Bear warnings aren't terribly unusual in this part of the world, especially in the spring. The big beasts are waking up and they're usually quite grumpy and hungry. It's in our best interests to stay out of their way.

What was surprising though, was the extent of the closures. Many of these trails directly surround the Visitor Centre, an area that has heavy vehicular traffic, not to mention a large parking lot that serves as a trailhead for multiple trails. Not the area you'd expect bears to be spending much time in.

The Visitor Centre itself was a border for some of the closures. The picturesque meadow directly behind the Centre was closed due to bear activity. We could go no further than the gate connecting the front deck of the Centre to the back deck.

Hard to believe such an area had to be closed, but there it was:



Yeah, if I were a bear, I'd wanna live there too...