Elbow Lake & Rae Glacier

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July 13, 2024. An enjoyable journey to a popular lake and diminutive glacier in K-country.

  • Region: Kananaskis Country. Traditional territory of the Stoney, Tsuu T’ina, and Blackfoot First Nations
  • Distance: 8.3 km round-trip
  • Total Ascent: 400 m
  • Elevation of Objective: approx 2350 m
  • Total Time: 3h 48m
  • Safety and Disclaimer

Elbow Lake is a picturesque and easily accessed lake in Kananaskis Country. There’s a backcountry campground on its shore and it’s also the jumping-off point for some longer hikes. Put all that together, and you have a popular and crowded destination. Near Elbow Lake there’s an easily accessible, although very small, glacier. Rae Glacier sits a little southeast of Elbow Lake, north of the col between Mount Rae’s summit and its southwest outlier. Daffern’s Kananaskis Country Trail Guide 4th ed. provides a description of the unofficial route leading to the glacier. It also appears on Gem Trek maps. It held the promise of a satisfying and uncrowded destination. My kids and I decided to spend a few hours on a hot July day checking it out.

Access is via the Elbow Lake trailhead, located 4.6 km north of the Highwood Pass on Hwy 40. The large parking area is typically overflowing and that was the case during this visit, too. Off the start we followed the wide, occasionally steep trail up to Elbow Lake. This only took about 25 minutes. On arriving at the lake we turned right to follow a trail into the lakeshore campground and then beyond it. We continued to an intersection with a very obvious but unsigned trail departing eastward from the northeast part of the lake.

Although this isn’t an official trail, the route sees enough traffic that the way to go is fairly obvious. After a short push through the forest the trail comes alongside a creek and then follows it upstream to the south. Obvious disruption from prior floods interrupts the trail but the way to go is pretty clear and from time to time I saw some flagging or cairns. The trail departs from the creek shore after a while, climbing onto a sparsely treed rise. Eventually the trees are all left behind and the trail re-joins the creek before climbing a terminal moraine and reaching the cirque below Rae Glacier.

This was a very worthwhile hike. It works great as an extension to the popular but short hike to Elbow Lake. I went with a teen and a tween but families with motivated younger kids might also want to give it a try.

The trail to Elbow Lake is an old forestry road.
Wispy clouds arcing above Elpoca Mountain.
Elbow Lake. This is the source of the Elbow River, which supplies 40% of Calgary’s drinking water.
An angler wading in Elbow Lake.
After going counterclockwise around the lake we found the trail departing from the shore of Elbow Lake towards Rae Glacier.
Following the trail alongside a dry creek bed.
There was plenty of flow in the main creek, which the trail followed upstream for a time.
The route was fairly easy to make out, and there was helpful flagging in places.
The trees thinned as the trail gained elevation.
Looking back at Elpoca Mountain.
Almost clear of the trees, heading towards the terminal moraine.
Back alongside the creek. The water actually flows from a valley adjacent to the one where Rae Glacier sits, though I imagine meltwater from the glacier seeps between the rocks and joins the flow somewhere down here.
Climbing up the terminal moraine, into the cirque.
There’s a stick in a cairn welcoming hikers to the cirque, along with a couple of low stone walls to give some shelter from the wind. We were lucky to have almost no wind.
The glacier itself sat quite a ways back in the cirque.
There was a small tarn just inside the cirque.
We spent some time wandering around.
A bit of rock-hopping over glacial melt water.
Heading back down.

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