It felt a lot like the West Coast Trail with the sound of waves crashing on the rocky shore just beyond the old growth forest, but we were indeed in the Rocky Mountains and Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, circling the Upper Kananaskis Lake.

Upper Kananaskis Lake

The wind was stiff and chilly as we headed off on the dam by the Upper Lake parking lot, but it was a fine, sunny day, and much warmer as we rounded the east shore onto the north shore, and no longer downwind of the cold water. Here we saw a notice that Kananaskis Country management has sprayed the buffalo berries (favored food of bears) with chemical that makes fruit ripen prematurely. This is to keep the bears away from the trail in berry season. I wonder how long it will take the bears to figure out that the berries are ripe early? We had lunch on the limestone karst area below the big rock slide, in sun and out of the wind.

Lower Kananaskis Falls

We saw some serious cave-ins on the east shore, and the Lower Kananaskis Falls of the Upper Kananaskis River were in full, muddy flood. The bridge above the falls is getting rather rickety, so we went across one at a time.

Spring runs two ways

On the south shore, in the logged area below the high water mark, there is a large and most unusual spring, which issues from the top of a knoll and runs two ways. Ginger and Alastair check it out.

Group at Rawson Creek bridge

The group on the bridge over Rawson Creek: Narayan, Ken, Karen, Anne, Alastair, Gin, Del. The creek just east of the Rawson Lake trail was a terrific torrent and the bridge deck was covered with water and spray.

Picnic at Lower Kananaskis Lake

Back to the cars at 4, we dropped down to the Lower Kananaskis Lake to enjoy a lovely pot luck cook out. Ginger, Del, Alastair, Narayan, Ann, Ken.

Carl, coordinator and scribe.