Hiking

Peter Lougheed Provincial Park [1] offers a number of interesting interpretive trails and more strenuous hikes. Most trailheads are along Kananaskis Lakes Road, a paved road that leads off Highway 40 to Upper and Lower Kananaskis Lakes. Rockwall Trail, from the Visitor Information Centre, and Marl Lake Trail, from Elkwood Campground, are wheelchair accessible and barrier-free, respectively.

The Boulton Creek Trail (4.9 km/three mi, 90 minutes round-trip) is an easy loop that begins from Boulton Bridge, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from Highway 40. A booklet, available at the trailhead, corresponds with numbered posts along this interpretive trail.

From the Upper Lake day-use area, at the very end of Kananaskis Lakes Road, the trail to Rawson Lake (3.5 km/2.2 mi, 1.5 hours one-way) begins by following the lakeshore for just over one kilometer (0.6-mile). Just beyond the small waterfall it begins an uphill climb (305 m/1,000 ft), ending at a picturesque subalpine lake surrounded by a towering, yet magnificently symmetrical, headwall.

The setting of Elbow Lake (1.3 km/0.8 mi, 30 minutes one-way) is almost as spectacular as Rawson, but the trail is shorter (and therefore busier). The trailhead is the Elbow Pass day-use area, beside Highway 40, 13 kilometers (eight miles) south of Kananaskis Lakes Road.

Continue south along Highway 40 to Highwood Pass [2] (four km/2.5 mi) to the Ptarmigan Cirque Trail (5.6 km/3.5 mi, 2 hours round-trip), a steep (elevation gain is 230 m/750 ft) interpretive walk that climbs high into the treeless alpine zone. Along the way you’re likely to see numerous small mammals—Columbian ground squirrels, pikas, least chipmunks, and hoary marmots are all common.