There was a lot more snow than I would have anticipated for this trip with sections of post-holing , thankfully not very long. It would appear that the snow storms which Crowsnest received in March/April extended up to this area as there was a fair amount of residual snow especially in the sheltered north facing slopes. Adding to this, was more recent snow probably having fallen in the past few weeks.

The south facing steep slope up to Indian Graves ridge was totally clear of snow.

view of Indian Graves Campground and our cars at the trail head

at the first high point on Indian Graves Ridge

There were patches of snow along the ridge until Daignard's Coulee.


hiking along Indian Graves Ridge

At this point, there was a significant increase in post-holing on sections up to the old reclaimed well-site. Beyond this point, there was generally slushy snow with some post-holing, mainly on north facing ridges/slopes.

The snow on top of the trail made for a slower trip as we had to check that we were still on the trail on a regular basis - lots of animal trails which made for confusion as well.

The trick to doing this trip is to stay close to the fence which the trail parallels for most of the distance to Gardener's Gate. The coordinator added a small additional loop when the group managed to cross this fence line, possibly to more closely follow the ridge line for views. Fortunately, the mistake was discovered and using a combination of map and GPS this problem was soon rectified. The most challenging route finding occurs within one kilometer of the gate where the trail veers away from the fence to climb over a ridge and heads back toward the fence line . Daffern's instructions, we found to be a little vague until we realized that the trail was in fact being described as doing this.

The trip ended up taking longer than originally anticipated due to route finding and the snow. It took us until lunch to get to the well-site.

lunch spot

One of the participants was having an "off" day so elected to take a long lunch and have a snooze until the group returned from Gardener's Gate. We left the well-site around 1:15 pm. hoping to get to Gardeners Gate, a distance of 2.9km, around 2:00 pm. our proposed turnaround time. By 2:00 pm. we were on the ridge looking down on the col where Gardener's Gate was probably located.


continuing along Gardner's Ridge

The group opted to head down to check it out but did not arrive until near 2:30 pm.


at Gardner's Gate

I think everyone was glad that we did get to our goal as there were some great views to the prairie and to the mountains to the west. We didn't spend much timer as we were concerned about getting back to the well-site to pick up our other participant and the day was getting to be a little longer than anticipated. The group was split into two with a few faster people heading out to get to the well-site to let our one participant know that we had not forgotten them. It all worked out fine. The group opted to take the same route along the ridge for the return "sans" the coordinator's "snafu" loop.


returning along Indian Graves Ridge

There is another option to take the abandoned well-site road back to Willow Creek and the cars.

This last part was uneventful with the group arriving at the cars around 5:45 pm.

view from Indian Graves Ridge

crocuses on the steep slope down from Indian Graves Ridge

A thank you to Andra for providing photos.

Stats for the hike as provided by Barb's GPS, are
Total hike distance (return): 15.65km
Distance from start to Gardner’s Gate: 8.5km
Return from Gardner’s Gate along fenceline & direct to cars: 7.15km
Moving time: 5 hours 17min (Stopped time: 2 hours 34 minutes, but includes some time getting organized to set out from the road)
Net elevation gain: approx. 330m Cumulative climb: approx. 475m

Thanks to participants: Arnold, Mohsen, Nancy, Manfred, Douglas, Janice, Inge, Barb, Krystyna, Deborah, Andra and Janet for joining me and the assistance with route finding. It was a satisfying day out with a good workout and new to many who had not been in this area before. Although the wind was cool at the start, the weather ended up being quite nice towards the end of the day.

Bob - c/s/p