Lake at Heritage Pointe Hiking Club

10/05/2025

Yesterday members of our Lake at Heritage Pointe Hiking Club hiked 6.5 kilometres in the Brown-Lowery Provincial Park located about 50 kilometres southwest of Calgary. It was a cool day with hiking temperature of 7 C, partly cloudy skies and some very light drizzle at times. Thankfully we were all properly dressed for the weather.

History of Brown-Lowery Provincial Park:

a. Brown-Lowery Provincial Park is a provincial park in Alberta, Canada. It is located 27 kilometres northwest of Turner Valley and 49 kilometres southwest of Calgary. It is situated east from Alberta's Rocky Mountains.

b. Brown-Lowery has an area of 3 km2 (1.2 sq mi) and is situated at an elevation of 1,370 m (4,490 ft). It was established on October 29, 1992, and is maintained by Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation.

c. From 1896 to 1915 logging took place on various parts of the property and remnants of this activity including buildings and roads (now part of the parks’ trail system) survive today. Home Oil acquired the land in 1943 and ran seismic surveys in the 1950s looking for oil and gas. Old seismic lines dominate the landscape and like the old logging roads now act as trails in the park. The park is named for the founders of the Home Oil Company, James Lowery and Robert Brown. The company donated the land to the government of Alberta in 1969 for it to be kept in its natural state. It became a Provincial Recreation Area in 1974, and in 1992 was designated as Brown Lowery Provincial Park.

Enjoy the pictures.

09/28/2025

Yesterday members of our Lake at Heritage Pointe Hiking Club drove to Kananaskis Country along with thousands of other people. We hiked 11 kilometres and climbed over 400 metres to Chester Lake and Elephant Rocks. It was a good workout.

The hike was beautiful with fall colours including larch trees in full display. Views of the lake, the alpine meadows and the surrounding mountains were spectacular.

I’ve never seen so many people on a hiking trail. Traffic on Highway 40 was heavy, the large trailhead parking lot was overflowing and we were never alone on the trail.

"Chester Lake is a picturesque alpine lake located in Alberta's Kananaskis Country, a major attraction for hikers and snowshoers in the Canadian Rockies. The trail, accessible from the Smith-Dorrien-Spray Trail road, leads through forests and meadows to the stunning, jade-green lake beneath Mount Chester. The area is particularly breathtaking in autumn during the golden larch season."

After the hike, we had lunch at the Summit Restaurant at the Kananaskis Country Golf Club.

Enjoy the pictures.

09/20/2025

Earlier today, members of our Lake At Heritage Pointe Hiking Club hiked 11 kilometres on the Fish Creek East Loop in Calgary’s Fish Creek Provincial Park. We again lucked out with perfect weather for hiking – sunny skies, 12 C at 9 AM when we started and 22 C at 11:30 when we finished.

This loop hike around the eastern portion of Fish Creek Park is about 50% paved and makes for a great walk or bike ride. There are two pedestrian bridges along this route used to access the other side of the river. The scenery is great, especially from the tops of the ridge in McKenzie Lake, and the open space, fresh air and fall colours in the park on the west side of the Bow River make for an enjoyable journey.

Fish Creek Park is an urban provincial park that preserves the valley of Fish Creek in the southern part of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is bordered on three sides by the city, and on the west by the territory of the Tsuu T’ina Nation, a First Nation. Much of the park remains in a natural, forested state.

The park was established in 1975. Fish Creek Park is the second-largest urban park in Canada after Rouge National Urban Park in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, and followed by Pippy Park in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. It is also one of the largest urban parks in North America, stretching 19 km (12 mi) from east to west. With an area of 13.48 km2 (5.20 sq mi), it is more than three times the size of Vancouver's Stanley Park.

09/14/2025

Yesterday members of our Lake at Heritage Pointe Hiking Club hiked 10 kilometres with 235 metres of elevation gain in Glenbow Park Provincial Park located near Cochrane, Alberta.

One of the newest members of the Alberta Parks’ family, Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park is less than an hour drive northwest of Calgary along the Bow River. A day use park, Glenbow Ranch is a great destination for a picnic, where there are over 28 kms of pathways. The park is still a working ranch and the visitor centre has exhibits that describe the history of the lands where the park has been established. The park is a partnership between the Glenbow Ranch Foundation and Alberta Parks.

History of Glenbow Ranch: The lands of the Glenbow Ranch have a history spanning thousands of years:
· native people corralled bison in the coulees and established tipi camps on the uplands and lowlands
· the park used to be part of historic Cochrane Ranch
· in 1891, Glenbow was identified as a water stop on the Canadian Pacific Railway mainline
· by 1903, the Canadian Pacific Railway had established a station at Glenbow
· between 1907 and 1912, a Porcupine Hills sandstone quarry operated here; its blocks and finished decorative pieces were used in construction of Alberta's Legislature Building
· when the quarry closed, a brick plant in the valley was opened; many workers stayed in the valley to continue working, while others moved away to cities or to work on nearby ranches
· with the start of World War I, the brickyards also shut down
· the population of Glenbow slowly declined until the last residents moved away in 1927
· Chester Rhodes de la Vergne sold Glenbow Sheep and Horse Ranch to Eric L. Harvie in 1934
· it remained a private ranch until 2006, when the Harvie family and the Government of Alberta created what would officially become "Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park" in 2008

09/08/2025

This weekend, members of our Lake at Heritage Pointe Hiking Club spent three days at Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park which straddles the south corner of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

We left Heritage Pointe on Friday morning to the town of Elkwater where we stayed for two nights at the Elkwater Lake Lodge and Resort.

On Friday afternoon, we hiked 9.3 kilometres with 288 metres of elevation gain on the Horseshoe Canyon Trail and Beaver Creek Canyon Trail right there at Elkwater.

On Saturday, we drove to Fort Walsh National Historical Site in Saskatchewan where we hiked the 7.7 kilometre (202 metres elevation gain) Battle Creek Trail and visited the Fort Walsh Visitor Centre. The hike also took us to the Cypress Hills Massacre site.

On Saturday evening, we drove back into Saskatchewan and had dinner at the Historic Reesor Ranch.

On the way home on Sunday, some of us visited the Red Rock Coulee Natural Area located about 50 kilometres southwest of Medicine hat.

Elkwater is an unincorporated community at the western edge of the Cypress Hills in southeastern Alberta, Canada, 65 kilometres (40 mi) southeast of Medicine Hat. The former hamlet is located within Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park on the southern shore of Elkwater Lake and consists mostly of a collection of cabins. Its name is a translation of Ponokiokwe, the Blackfoot name for the lake.

Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park is a natural park in Canada straddling the Alberta / Saskatchewan boundary and jointly administered by the two provinces. Located south-east of Medicine Hat in the Cypress Hills, it became Canada's first interprovincial park in 1989. The park consists of two protected areas, the 345 km2 (133 sq mi) West Block, that straddles the Alberta / Saskatchewan boundary between Alberta Highway 41, the townsite of Elkwater, Saskatchewan Highway 615, Saskatchewan Highway 271, and Fort Walsh, and the Centre Block, an additional area of 58 km2 (22 sq mi) in Saskatchewan, west of Saskatchewan Highway 21.

The Cypress Hills plateau rises up to 200 m (660 ft) above the surrounding prairie, to a maximum elevation of 1,468 m (4,816 ft) at "Head of the Mountain" at the west end in Alberta making it Canada's highest point between the Canadian Rockies and the Labrador Peninsula. Eastward across the boundary is the highest point in Saskatchewan, at 1,392 m (4,567 ft) The "West Block" of the Cypress Hills spans the provincial boundary. Battle Creek runs through the central part of the park. Although the hills seem relatively low, in a larger geographic context the plateau does rise gradually from many kilometres away so that the total elevation gain from Medicine Hat is approximately 600 metres (2,000 ft). The vegetation of park is undergoing changes through woody plant encroachment, with a detected 1% increase of shrub cover annually.

08/30/2025

Earlier today, members of our Lake at Heritage Pointe Hiking Club hiked 6.4 kilometres along the banks of the Bow River at Wyndham-Carseland Provincial Park located near Carseland east of Calgary. We hiked from the Carseland Weir up the bank of the river to hole #18 of the Speargrass Golf Course . The weather was sunny with minimal wind and temperatures in the low to mid 20s.

After the hike, we had lunch at the Carseland Restaurant and Lounge located at 104 Main Street in Carseland The restaurant had a good variety of western and Asian food. “Chinese food restaurants in Alberta are as iconic as grain elevators and trains. Almost every small town across the province has a Chinese restaurant that has been an integral part of the community for decades."

The Weir:
1. There is a weir on the Bow River at the park. The weir is a great place to birdwatch a large variety of birds, such as hawks, pelicans, herons, and other water birds, as well as other wildlife.

2.All the water to irrigate nearly 300,000 acres in the Bow River Irrigation District (BRID) and 5,000 acres in the Siksika Nation is diverted from the Bow River near Carseland. A concrete weir across the river and a gated diversion structure direct water into the canal that supplies not only irrigators but many other uses including municipal water supplies, wildlife habitat projects, intensive livestock operations, and recreation on McGregor, Travers, and Little Bow reservoirs.

Enjoy the pictures.

08/24/2025

Yesterday 10 members of our Lake at Heritage Pointe Hiking Club hiked the Boom Lake Trail in Banff National Park, We hiked around 10.7 kilometres and climbed around 270 metres while doing so.

The weather was spectacular with clear sunny skies, no wind and noon temperature of 20 C.

This fairly easygoing, half day outing involves hiking on a well graded trail to Boom Lake, a scenic lake framed by glacier-capped peaks and the wide north face of Boom Mountain. On route, Boom Lake Trail passes through a lush forest offering peek-a-boo mountain views, then terminates at the site of a rock slide at the eastern end of the lake. A wide-open trail begins after crossing a bridge over Boom Creek, and climbs through a forest of pine, fir, and spruce. This gradual and easy ascent leads hikers through a picturesque forest to a large alpine lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains.

We did not see any bears on this hike but other hikers did see a black bear and we did run across a very large pile of bear s**t as you’ll see in one of the pictures.

If you would like more information about our club, please email [email protected].

08/10/2025

Yesterday was a full day adventure with members of our Lake at Heritage Pointe Hiking Club hiking the Forum Falls and Forum Lake Trail in Waterton National Park. We hiked about 9.5 kilometres and climbed 510 metres doing so. The weather was perfect for hiking with mostly sunny skies, 10 AM temperature of 12 C and 2 PM temperature of 22 C. We left Heritage Pointe at 7 AM and got back at around 7:30 PM.

Yesterday’s hike was much more exciting than usual as we had a closeup encounter (20 feet!) with an adult grizzly bear. We had been forewarned a few moments earlier by other hikers and we were ready with several of us having bear spray in hand. He was not aggressive per se but when he got too close, we scared him off with an air horn. We did not get any pictures of him as we were otherwise preoccupied but the first picture below (from Google) is quite representative of our initial sighting.

On our drive to the trailhead, we saw two other bears – a grizzly bear and a black bear. The YouTube video in the first comment shows a video taken by Greg Hine of that grizzly.

Although the area in which we hiked had been ravaged by a forest fire in 2018, the hike was very scenic with lots of new growth on the forest floor with many wildflowers and new 3 to 4 foot tall pine trees.

After the hike, we had lunch at the Thirsty Bear Kitchen and Bar in Waterton and we stopped for ice cream at The Grumpy Goat in Twin Buttes on the way home.

All in all, it was a great day which will be talked about for years.

07/22/2025

Our Lake at Heritage Pointe Hiking Club has seven more hikes scheduled for the season. If you would like to join us for any of these hikes and get more information about our club, please send an email to [email protected].

1. August 9 - Waterton National Park - Forum Falls and Forum Lake- 8.7 kilometres long, 433 metres of elevation gain

2. August 23 - Boom Lake in Kootenay National Park - Boom Lake Trail - 10.5 kilometres, 609 metres

3. September 4 to 7 – Hiking Weekend- Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park – Elkwater

4. September 13 – Brown Lowery Provincial Park near Priddis - Brown Lowery Provincial Park Perimeter Loop – 6.6 kilometres, 228 metres

5. September 20 - Two Larch Tree Options (TBD):
a. Ptarmigan Cirque in Kananaskis Country - Ptarmigan Cirque Interpretive, Alberta – 3.4 kilometres, 249 metres
b. Chester Lake Loop in Kananaskis Country- Chester Lake Loop, Alberta – 9.5 kilometres, 409 metres

6. September 27 – Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park near Cochrane - Glenbow - Yodel Loop - Bowbend - Badger Bowl - Tiger Lilly Loop - 9.8 kilometres, 231 metres

7. Oct 6 - Full Moon Hike - McKinnon Flats Bow River near Indus - 5 kilometres, 100 metres

Send a message to learn more

07/20/2025

Yesterday, members of our Lake at Heritage Pointe Hiking Club completed an incredible and amazingly beautiful hike at Sunshine Meadows in Banff National Park. It was somewhat cool with temperatures in the low teens but we had sunny skies, minimal wind, no rain and excellent trail conditions.

We hiked 8 kilometres on the Mount Standish, Grizzly and Larix Lake Loop trail and climbed over 300 metres doing so. Our altitude ranged from 2140 metres above sea level to 2410 metres above sea level. We visited three mountain lakes, saw many wildflowers, the odd marmot, hiked through alpine meadows and had spectacular views of the surrounding mountains.

We started with a 22 minute gondola ride from the Sunshine parking lot to Sunshine Village and from there we took a chairlift to Mount Standish where we started our hike.

After the hike, we had lunch at Mad Trappers in Sunshine Village.

Enjoy the pictures.

If you would like more information about our hiking club, please email [email protected].

From Wikipedia: “The Sunshine Meadows are a natural garden set at an altitude of approximately 2,300 metres (7,500 feet). It is located within the peaks of the Canadian Rocky Mountains of Banff National Park. From the vantage point of Sunshine Meadows one has a clear view of Mount Assiniboine, the highest peak in the region at 3,618 metres (11,870 feet). Sunshine Meadows is located 18 km directly southwest of Banff, Alberta, and spans along both sides of the Continental Divide (between Alberta and British Columbia).

It is the unique mountain scenery which makes Sunshine Meadows a notable habitat. Sunshine Meadows offers a colourful array of wildflowers and other alpine tree line vegetation. The fragile alpine terrain has a growing season of just a few months, as the area is covered by snow October to mid-June. Situated at 2,300 metres, the temperatures drop below freezing in every month of the year. In July and August temperatures can range from 30 degrees Celsius above zero to freezing. The field of fragile wildflowers and lichens blooms into colour in mid-June, and nature is in full bloom July through August. In September the scenery alters dramatically, with the larches turning yellow and red in the season’s final burst of colour.”