The second half of our backpacking trip led us to Waterton Park in southern Alberta. It’s an interesting park as everything is sort of compressed in it; lots of mountains, lakes, and great hikes. We backpacked into Crandall Lake and the camp spot was beautiful and we spent Friday relaxing by the lake and taking some pictures in the area. On Saturday we hiked the Akamina Ridge which is actually in Kishinena Provincial Park just over the BC border. We started at 4am so we could get first light on the ridge and it was well worth it. The hike brought us up Forum Lake where it was a moderate scramble up to the ridge and then a walk along four peaks. The wind was strong and cold making it feel like a fall day at about minus five!

My favourites from the weekend

We stumbled upon three bucks while making our way up to the saddle on the approach to the ridge…they didn’t really seem to care that we were there.

The ridge reflected in Wall Lake

Karyn scrambling up to the ridge

Nothing grows much more than a few inches off the ground on the ridge because the wind is so strong up there. Kevan’s lucky he didn’t blow off!

The view from our way down. There was a fairly significant avalanche that occurred which wiped away the trail near Wall Lake so we had to make our own trail in the forest. Thick brush sucks to hike through!

…and some of Kevan’s:

This is the view that you get when you wake up 3:30 in the morning and cover the first 5.5 km of your hike in near darkness…

The ridge is incredibly spacious – one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

About to start the descent down into Wall Lake again…

Related posts:

1. Waterton
2. Centennial Ridge – Kananaskis Country
3. Where Have We Been Lately?!
4. Shannon and Kevin
5. Canada Day Weekend = Hiking!