{"id":967,"date":"2015-06-21T12:16:16","date_gmt":"2015-06-21T18:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=967"},"modified":"2019-03-16T11:42:16","modified_gmt":"2019-03-16T17:42:16","slug":"upper-kananaskis-lake-peter-lougheed-provincial-park-alberta-canada-7-17-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=967","title":{"rendered":"Upper Kananaskis Lake, Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada (7-17-14)"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the third day of Lupe’s 2014 Dingo Vacation to the Canadian Rockies & Beartooths, she woke up in Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada.\u00a0 SPHP was disappointed to see that it was still smoky out.\u00a0 Although the area was gorgeous, the heat and bugs hadn’t been much fun on the previous day’s hike to Bertha Lake either.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP had breakfast at a picnic table near Upper Waterton Lake.\u00a0 After breakfast there was\u00a0a stroll along the beach admiring the lake.\u00a0 The lake was fabulous, but it looked like another hot, smoky\u00a0day was on its way.<\/p>\n

SPHP was in the mood to head farther N.\u00a0 Heat, bugs, smoke and lots of people around wasn’t really what Lupe & SPHP were after.\u00a0 So after the stroll along the beach, Lupe bid farewell to Upper Waterton Lake.\u00a0 Back in the G6, Lupe and SPHP headed N on Hwy 6 to Pincher Creek.\u00a0 After a short jog to the W on Hwy 3, there was a beautiful drive N on Hwy 22 to Longview.\u00a0 From Longview, SPHP drove SW on Hwy 542 to Hwy 40.\u00a0 There were lots of cows in this area and Lupe was delighted to have the opportunity\u00a0to conduct\u00a0a dingo-satisfying barking frenzy.<\/p>\n

SPHP turned N on Hwy 40,\u00a0a wonderful drive\u00a0through big mountains.\u00a0 SPHP had forgotten to get water before leaving Waterton Park and stopped at several places along Hwy 40, but none of them had water.\u00a0 Hwy 40 climbed up and over a pass into Peter Lougheed Provincial Park.\u00a0 With no clear destination in mind, SPHP decided to check out the Kananaskis Lakes area.\u00a0 Maybe there would be water?\u00a0 Soon Lupe was at Upper Kananaskis Lake.\u00a0 There were lots of people around here too, but not so many as at Waterton Lakes.\u00a0 SPHP was impressed enough to want to do a bit of exploring.<\/p>\n

\"Upper<\/a>
Upper Kananaskis Lake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lupe’s first exploration at Upper Kananaskis Lake was along a trail\u00a0above the S shore heading W from the SE corner of the lake.\u00a0 Although the day had been bright and sunny earlier (it hit 84 \u00b0F according to the G6), Lupe and SPHP\u00a0didn’t get\u00a0very far along the trail before encountering intermittent rain and thunder.\u00a0 Lots of people\u00a0suddenly appeared on the trail heading\u00a0back towards the parking lot.\u00a0 Lupe got as far as a waterfall where the bridge across\u00a0Sarrail Creek\u00a0was out, if there had ever been one.\u00a0 Three large, wet and slippery looking logs at varying levels\u00a0served as\u00a0the only\u00a0bridge across the stream.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe stopped at this waterfall near the S shore of Upper Kananaskis Lake. The stream comes down from Rawson Lake, which Lupe visited 2 days later.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other people were having no difficulty negotiating the logs across the stream, but SPHP decided against having Lupe try it.\u00a0 The weather was deteriorating and everyone else was heading back to the parking lot.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP retreated to the parking lot, too.\u00a0 Lupe took a nap in the G6 while SPHP wrote.\u00a0\u00a0It\u00a0rained on and off.\u00a0 It even hailed a bit, but the hail was small and didn’t last long.\u00a0 Eventually the rain stopped, and it became sunny and breezy out, although there were still quite a few clouds around.<\/p>\n

The rain had temporarily cleared the smoky haze\u00a0out of the air, and the evening was shaping up to be cool and pleasant.\u00a0 Lupe had snoozed enough and was ready for another exploration.\u00a0 The trail she had been on earlier was part of a trail that circumnavigates Upper Kananaskis Lake.\u00a0 This time Lupe and SPHP took the trail in the opposite direction, heading NW along the NE shore.\u00a0 To get to this portion of the trail, Lupe had to cross a dam.\u00a0 (Although Upper Kananaskis Lake is a natural lake, the level has been raised by the\u00a0construction of two dams.)\u00a0 She picked up the trail on the other side of the dam and continued along the NE shore of Upper Kananaskis Lake.<\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>
Looking back to the SE from the trail on the NE shore of Upper Kananaskis Lake, Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Evening<\/a>
Evening at Upper Kananaskis Lake from near the collapsed section of trail.\u00a0 Photo is looking WNW.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were lots of great viewpoints along the trail, which was typically elevated 10 – 40 feet above the lake.\u00a0 After\u00a0crossing\u00a0the 1st dam, Lupe met no one at all on the entire trail, which was puzzling to SPHP until Lupe neared the 2nd dam.\u00a0 Lupe had\u00a0already traversed about\u00a04.0 km\u00a0of the\u00a04.2 km\u00a0between the dams, when suddenly she could go no further.\u00a0 On a steep slope 40 feet above the lake, a 30\u00a0foot section\u00a0had caved in.\u00a0 The area was taped off and marked as closed.\u00a0 There was no way to continue, so Lupe and SPHP turned around and again got to enjoy\u00a0a private stroll back to the first dam.<\/p>\n

\"Sunlight<\/a>
Sunlight breaks through the clouds to shine on Upper Kananaskis Lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SPHP liked Upper Kananaskis Lake so much that Lupe got to spend several more days in the area.\u00a0 She went on two fabulous daylong expeditions while in the area.\u00a0 One was on the Maude-Lawson Lakes trail<\/a><\/strong><\/span> to the Turbine Campground where she saw three grizzly bears.\u00a0 The other was to Three Isle Lake and South Kananaskis Pass<\/a><\/strong><\/span> where she crossed into British Columbia from Alberta.\u00a0 Oh, and yes, there was drinking water available\u00a0in campgrounds near\u00a0Upper Kananaskis Lake\u00a0– there was even a shower house!<\/p>\n

Links:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Want more Lupe adventures?\u00a0\u00a0Choose\u00a0from\u00a0Lupe’s 2014 Canadian Rockies & Beartooths Adventure Index<\/strong><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Dingo Vacations Adventure Index<\/a><\/strong><\/span> or Master Adventure Index<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0Or subscribe free\u00a0to\u00a0new Lupe adventures<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the third day of Lupe’s 2014 Dingo Vacation to the Canadian Rockies & Beartooths, she woke up in Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada.\u00a0 SPHP was disappointed to see that it was still smoky out.\u00a0 Although the area was gorgeous, the heat and bugs hadn’t been much fun on the previous day’s hike to … Continue reading Upper Kananaskis Lake, Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada (7-17-14)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[105,30,31,106,26,104,103,107],"class_list":["post-967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2014-canadian-rockiesbeartooths","tag-american-dingo","tag-canada","tag-canadian-rockies","tag-carolina-dog","tag-dingo-vacations","tag-lupe","tag-peter-lougheed-provincial-park","tag-upper-kananaskis-lake"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adventuresoflupe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/SDC11656.jpg?fit=1650%2C2200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20808,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions\/20808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}