Bow Valley Trails

Trail Name	Distance	Features	Level	Elevation
1. Grotto Canyon Trail	2.1 Km	S	E	+100 m	Map
From Canmore, take Highway 1A and turn left at Grotto Mountain Day Use. There is a nice picnic area to the right and the trailhead is to the left. It is recommended to wear waterproof hiking boots for this trail. You will be walking on a stony creek bed - late summer and fall are the best times for low water levels. Watch for indian pictographs along your trek. These can be anywhere from 500 to 1000 years old. There is a fork marking the end of the trail. The right leads you to a waterfall (about 50 m away) and the left keeps going for 2 Km to an open valley and hoodoos. Take note that the last part of this hike is on an unmaintained trail. Back to Hiking/Trails page Home

2. Yamnuska Ridge Trail	3.5 Km	S	M	+425 m	Map
From Canmore, follow Higway 1A and turn left onto an unmarked gravel road. The parking lot is 300 m up ahead. You might think at first that this is a mistake and that Yamnuska mountain is unaccessible but there REALLY IS a trail there... Follow the trail to the signed junction (appr. 1 Km). Turn right here. The trail will then devide in two. Stay right for a less steep approach. As you near the top of the ridge, stay left twice. You will eventually get to a cliff which lets you know the trail stops here. An unmarked trail actually does go on from here but it is not recommended unless you have scrambling experience. Back to Hiking/Trails page Home

3. Trans-Canada Trail:	19.9 Km	F, S, B	E	minimal	Map
There are several access points for this great mountain bike trail as it goes all the way form Dead Man's Flats to the Barrier Dam Day Use area. I order to do so, this trail borrows bits and pieces of several other trails along the way. From Dead Man's Flats, its first 7 Km run parallel to the Trans Canada Hwy and take you to Heart Creek Day Use, across from Lac des Arcs. You then hop follow Heart Creek Trail for about 800 m and hit Quaite Creek Trail for 5.7 Km all the way to Jewell Pass Junction. Here, the trail takes a right onto Jewell Pass Trail, then a left onto Stoney Trail followed by a right to end up at Barrier Dam Day Use. Back to Hiking/Trails page Home

4. Heart Creek Trail	2 Km	F	E	+100 m	Map
Follow the Trans-Canada Highway to the Heart Creek/Lac des Arcs exit and turn South. Park in the large parking lot. A nice, short walk that takes you up to a hidden waterfall. It is very popular and an ideal outing for kids of all ages. Follow the trail to the left after the parking lot (if you go right, it's the Trans-Canada Trail) until you cross a small bridge. After the bridge is a junction, turn right. You will cross Heart Creek several times on small footbridges along your 1.2 Km walk to the hidden waterfall (you won't see it but you can sure hear it). Back to Hiking/Trails page Home

5. Quaite Creek Trail	5.7 Km	F, B	E	+290 m	Map
Access this trail the same way as you wold Heart Creek Trail (described above). While this is a popular trial with mountain bikers and hikers headed for a backcountry campsite, it doesn't offer much for hikers out for a scenic walk. It does, however, give an alternative (or an add-on) to the ever popular - but short - Heart Creek Trail. Follow Heart Creek Trail for the first 800 m. After the first footbridge, stay straight and you will hop onto Quaite Creek Trail. At the next junction (about 1.7 Km later), stay straight once again. Another junction about 400 m farther on asks you to go right. This will take you roughly 3.6 Km farther to Jewell Pass Junction. You can make a partial loop back by turning left at this junction (this is an unmaintained loop however), head back the way you came or hike all the way to Barrier Dam or Kananaskis Village by turning right. Back to Hiking/Trails page Home