Rawson Lake 312062 and a little beyond Trail hike on 6-Nov-2026

Participants: Gordon, Jenny, Chris, Peter, Jiaping

With the forecast for strong winds, we decided to pick a shorter trip that would be partly in the trees but with great views and potential for a bit of extra wandering. We were thrilled that the winds never did materialize, allowing us to have a decent lunch break on our high point of the day at the west end of the lake. Also curious about the early season ski conditions, we can confirm that it was winter hiking right from the trailhead but other areas looked a bit thin yet for the skinny skis. While Upper Kananaskis Lake was completely open, Rawson Lake was fully frozen – although none of us were keen to test the ice thickness and stuck to the shoreline. It was 0°C at our start around 10:40 am and 6°C when we headed out around 3 pm.

Clearly there had been a lot of boots on the trail and it was well packed to the junction and up to the lake. We took in the first view of Rawson Lake and decided to continue around the shoreline to the far end along a partly packed trail and then a bit of deeper snow, but thankfully not exceeding gaiter height. We chose the highest of the treed moraines for lunch and only saw another group of three hikers while on our way back along the shoreline.

We all agreed that the weather was much better than forecast and were happy to have made the trip. Thanks to the easy-going, jovial group and our star hiker Kazy who got lots of pats and made sure all lunch crumbs were vacuumed off the snow.