PWhat do you do when you meet a grizzly mom and her cub? This is what happened to us between the junction of Frozen Lake and Fox Lake. The grizzlies were spotted in a heavily vegetated meadow about 30-50 m to the right of the trail. They stood on their hind legs to have a better look at us. No aggressive behaviour was displayed by the grizzlies and they were not frightened by us being there either, but for safety reasons we decided to take a detour and continue our hike on the alternate Elkan route. We had a short break at the old warden’s cabin (which is now part of the Alpine Club of Canada) and informed the warden there of our sighting then continued our hike to Petain Falls. The campground at the end of Upper Elk Lake was closed again. All the campsite frames had been removed and the outhouse was no longer there either. Because of the flooding in that area the last few years it seem the campsite has been permanently closed. A new trail to the falls is well marked proceeding toward Coral Pass at the far end of the closed campground. Not far will be a junction and you take the trail to the right leading you to a beautiful newly constructed bridge that will take you over the deep fast flowing Petain Creek. Continuing on the trail you will eventually join with the old trail to the falls.


Elk Lakes BC, Eva

Higher up in a clearing we found the campsite frames and outhouse equipment (perhaps this will be the site of the new campground – definitely looks safer from the flooding).


Petain Falls, Elk Lakes BC

We spent about an hour at the falls for lunch enjoying the spectacular views around us (B.C. had more favourable weather than Alberta). Because of time limitations we decided not to proceed to the plateau and returned to the cars via the Fox Lake route. And to cap off the day about 20 minutes after departing the parking lot for home, Eva almost hit a grizzly bear cub that darted across Highway 40. The hike was 31 km with accumulated elevation of about 730m. We enjoyed lovely alpine flowers in the avalanche slopes. Because of the all the rain mushrooms were in abundance in the forested areas in all different shapes and sizes and some very interesting colors too. What a delightful day we had. Many thanks to our coordinator Ivan, accompanied by Renata, Peter, Eva, Paul and Christine.