Bow Valley Provincial Park is a lovely frontcountry campground close to Canmore, Alberta, in the eastern slopes of the Rockies where there is a wealth of gorgeous hiking accessible by a short drive from our campsite.   There are some serviced sites but mostly this park has unserviced sites, although there are shower facilities.   This park, as everything in the area, is extremely popular as it is close to Calgary.    Many of the hikes in this area are good to do in late June when some of the higher elevations are still snow covered.

Drive day from Kamloops will be Tuesday June 25th (about a 6 hr drive) and you will need a Kananaskis pass to access these hikes.  If you do not stop in the Banff/Yoho/Mt Revelstoke parks en route you will not need a Parks Canada pass.   Hike days will be Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  Overnight then drive home on the Saturday 29th.  So you will need 4 nights camping reservation – 25th to 28th inclusive.

The hikes proposed are two full day and one half day hike.   None of the hikes need hwb or 4×4 so we will carpool to trailheads as they will be busy and parking at a premium.   For this reason we will be making early starts each day.  As we are hiking on weekdays and before the school holidays it will not be as crazy as later in the season.   Windtower is a fabulous view hike off the Smith-Dorrien highway south of Canmore about a 30 minute drive.   This is a 10 km hike with 1,000 m elevation and the longest of our hikes.  If you Google it you will probably find only the scramble directions but we will be doing a gradual trail that encircles the scramble route and has incredible views as you ascend.   As the title suggests it is a very windy place normally at the top but there is a neat shelter in the rocks at the top.

Another hike proposed is Heart Mountain horseshoe.   This is another 10 km hike of 900 m and is only a 15 minute drive from our campsite.   A very well defined trail up and around Heart Mountain.   Some rock hopping involved in this one, but a marked route.

For our half day hike (just to give our wee legs a break) I propose Ha Ling Peak out of Canmore.  This is only a 3.5 km round trip with a well graded trail to the summit for awesome views of the Bow Valley and Canmore area.  The other option for this day is to hike Yamnuska mtn trail, a 4 km, 450 m to lookout, then options for a little further.

There are many other options close to the campground for not so good weather days.  It will be cooler in the evenings here than in BC but the days will be long at this point.

Booked now on this trip are Sheila, Tracy Clarke, Janice Kika,  Sandra Crocker, Camilla Dahl, Jeff Stone, Mari Smabi-Stone, Alison Bowers.

THIS TRIP IS NOW FULL.