Kananaskis

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At Kananaskis Village

Kananaskis Country, south-east of Banff National Park, is an area we had not explored on our previous visit to the Canadian Rockies. This time, we enjoyed a stay at Kananaskis Village – basically, Delta Lodge and a few attached businesses. Originally developed for the 1998 Winter Olympics, it was later chosen to host the G8 Summit in 2002 for its get-away-from-it-all ethos – what world leader could complain at being surrounded by scenery like the above?

The main hike we did here was a lovely trail round Upper Kananaskis Lake, starting at the Upper Lake parking lots at its south-east corner.

Upper Kananaskis Lake near parking lot

From there, we crossed Upper Lake Dam (both Upper and Lower Kananaskis Lakes are now reservoirs).

Upper Lake Dam

We continued round the lake drinking in the views:

Upper Kananaskis Lake
Upper Kananaskis Lake

On the north shore, the path began to climb above the trees –

View from north shore

– ending in a huge boulder field, dazzling in the sun.

Climbing to boulder field
Boulder field
Boulder field

After picking our way down through this, we encountered rivers and falls as we made our way back along the west shore.

Upper Kananaskis Lake
Upper Kananaskis Lake Trail
Kananaskis River
Upper Kananaskis Lake Trail
Sarrail Creek and Falls

Two final panoramic views – as we neared the parking lot we could see people out on the lake enjoying the boating life.

I admit my feet were sore after this walk – our first of the holiday and yet, as measured by Fitbit, the longest of all at over 30,000 steps (although there wasn’t much climbing: we did much steeper hikes later on).

A last word on Kananaskis Village. There are two routes in and out.  On the way in, we took the long way round – the unsealed Smith-Dorian Road via Spray Lakes.

Spray Lakes Reservoir
John at Spray Lakes

On the way out, we stuck to Hwy 40. When we woke up that morning it was pouring with rain, but by the time we got out onto the highway this had cleared to leave a pleasing mist over the mountains. I also include what I think is the only picture of our hire car, a Nissan Rogue, which served us well for three weeks.

On Highway 40
Our Nissan Rogue

Where were we headed? Into British Columbia’s Glacier National Park. Nostalgia is involved. In the meantime, I’m linking this visit to Jo’s Monday Walks. She takes us to Northumberland this week.

Alberta, Canada , ,

96 Comments »

  2. Fantastic views. Makes me want to put on my boots and get on a plane. Mind you perhaps I need to get up to the Scottish highlands first. Other than a couple of brief business trips to Inverness I’ve never been there

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  6. Pingback: Jo’s Monday walk : The beauty of Bamburgh | restlessjo

  11. So pretty! We enjoyed our Canadian Rockies trip a lot, but like all traveling tour, it didn’t spend a lot of time at each spot. ;-( I like the way you travel a lot. Thanks for sharing your trips with us.
    Have a wonderful day.

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  12. Congratulations on such a wonderful trip, Anabel and John. You have definitely motivated me to get back to the Canadian Rockies. John’s photographs are stunning. I’m envious how you have displayed them so creatively. I definitely need some tips in this area. I look forward to your upcoming posts!

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  14. That scenery is spectacular! I love that color blue of the lakes. 30,000 steps; that is a lot. I speak from experience, as we did the same amount of steps on Sunday, descending a mountain. My record since owning my Fitbit. It compared to 12 miles (18km) and we are still sore, three days later. 🙂

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  18. Outrageous images Anabel – well done John! The colour of those lakes is stunning, I remember that from our train journey through the Rockies. And I had a big smile when I saw your photo of the hire car, I thought I was the only person who did that!!

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  25. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in that part of the country. Thanks for taking us on the hike with you. It was a wonderful reminder of how breathtakingly beautiful it is there.

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  27. Canada! – it never disappoints whatever the weather. Lovely photographs. Most of South Australia is flat / desert with great distances between places. I miss the mountains..

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  29. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing this gorgeous scenery. I’m quite emotional at the thought of being somewhere so glorious. I must need a holiday! Glad you enjoyed yours.

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  32. The more I read in your posts about Canada and the more of those great pictures I see, the more I want to go and see Canada. But … the time, the time! We already have so many places on our 1st bucket list [that one for NEW places] and we also have our 2nd bucket list [that for places we want to RE-Visit] that we don’t know how to do all this. Maybe we need to live to 120 years. 😉 At least! 😉
    But things being as they are, I love your posts so that I can at least see those places virtually.
    Have a wonderful week,
    Pit

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  35. What a fabulous hike with breathtaking scenery! 30,000 steps?? Wow. How long did it take you to do that hike? Lucky for you it didn’t involve much climbing. What was the weather like – hot or pleasantly cool? 🙂 I know I would love this.

    I love the picture of you and John together. You look so relaxed and happy. Who takes your pictures of the two of you together? Do you ask kind tourists, or do you carry a tripod?

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