Rawson Lake

February 8, 2020. An straight-forward, all-season hike to a gorgeous lake in Kananaskis Country. Distance: 7 km round-trip to and from the nearest part of the lake Total Ascent: 292 m Elevation of Objective: 1997 m Total time: 2h I have visited Rawson Lake a few times over the years. It’s the first “real” hike that my wife and […]

Troll Falls & Marmot Creek Upper Falls

February 7, 2020. A trip to K-country’s most famous accessible waterfall, followed by an exploration of a new trail to the less frequently visited Upper Falls. Distance: 5.4 km round-trip Total Ascent: 100 m Elevation of Objective: 1,538 m Hiking time: 1h 30m Virtually every hiking book, map, or blog detailing the Kananaskis area features Troll Falls. It’s […]

Pocaterra Cirque

July 21, 2019. A hike with kids to a lovely but lesser-visited cirque just across the highway from one of K-country’s most heavily trafficked trails. Distance: 3.67 km one-way Total Ascent: 415 m Elevation of Objective: 2435 m Hiking time: 2h 13m ascent Pocaterra Cirque is accessed from the same trailhead as the massively popular Ptarmigan Cirque, but draws […]

Star Creek Falls

June 9, 2019. An easy hike to a waterfall in the Crowsnest Pass. Perfect for young kids. Distance: 1 km one-way from the parking area to the best views of the waterfall Total ascent: Approximately 90 m Star Creek Falls is a picturesque waterfall accessible by a short trail. There’s actually a loop route that […]

Black Prince Cirque

August 21, 2018. A short hike with kids to a rocky cirque in Kananaskis Country. With summer holidays approaching their conclusion, the family and I have once again had a chance to spend a few days in K-country. Looking over our hiking options, it struck me that over the preceding years we’d hit most of […]

Goat Lake

July 17, 2017. A moderately challenging hike to a lake in a hanging valley in Waterton Lakes National Park. I’d been promising my 9-year-old daughter that we could do a hike together, just the two of us. Last year she made it up and around Bertha Lake with no problems, so I figured she’d be […]

Hiking with kids

July 9, 2017. Today was day 2 of a short family hiking vacation. We did this last year with our kids, doing one short hike a day. Last year we hiked Rawson Lake, Ptarmigan Cirque, Grassi Lakes and Elbow Lake. This year we only have 3 days but the intent is the same: short, fun […]

Ptarmigan Cirque

July 8, 2017. This was a family outing with kids, aged between 5 and 11. Ptarmigan Cirque is definitely in my top 3 in terms of best hikes to do with kids (Grassi Lakes and Bear’s Hump would be the other 2 on that list). There’s a bare minimum of uphill slog followed by amazing […]

Writing on Stone Provincial Park

June 17, 2017 This isn’t really a report on a hike, but rather a nod to one of our family’s preferred outdoor playgrounds. Today was a “free” day for our family, and I was anxious to do a hike, specifically Goat Lake in Waterton. We didn’t have anyone to watch the kids, though, so we […]