Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, Alberta
July 17, 2025
Our good weather streak ended pretty abruptly on our travel day. Sunny and 80 degrees was exchanged for rainy and 60...and then 50...and then the 40s (!) by the time we arrived at Peter Lougheed Provincial Park.
Definitely a gloomy day
The Kananaskis Valley
This is probably a gorgeous setting in better weather
We hit a low of 43 degrees going over a mountain pass. Too bad we couldn't at least see the mountains!
Although the day was mostly rainy, we got lucky at both our take down and set up in that it didn't rain on us Rick much at all. The provincial park was nowhere near cellphone range, but fortunately a nearby visitor center had available free wifi, so we could meet up with family for our weekly cards game that night.
The next day was still cold (if it hit 50 degrees, it was just barely), but the rain mostly ended by afternoon. We took a walk on the Marl Lake nature trail which was very close to our campsite. The lake was beautiful, even if it was cold and cloudy.
Our spacious campsite in the woods
Our campground loop
Marl Lake
The lake was so beautifully quiet and still--it was almost magical
Look around from the little "dock"
Afterwards, we went to the visitor center to check out their nature center.
The wide angle made this grizzly bear look much smaller than it was
Fortunately, we've never encountered a cougar or a grizzly bear on any of our hikes
From there, we drove around the park a bit, checking out Lower and Upper Kananaskis Lakes.
Every now and then a small patch of blue sky would peek through
Upper Kananaskis Lake
Even on a gloomy day, this lake was absolutely stunning!
The water color was amazing!
Lower Kananaskis Lake
Lower Kanasaskis Lake was no slouch, but we preferred the upper lake
Look around from the dam between the upper and lower lake
That evening around 9:15 pm, we happened to notice through our forested campsite that the skies had cleared. In a minute, we were bundled up and walking quickly back to Marl Lake to see if we could catch any decent sunset shots. We were in luck!
Mountain tops glowing along the Marl Lake Nature Trail
We managed to catch the last fading color of the sunset
Take a look around
The next day was sunny, and we set off in the morning to hike the Ptarmigan Cirque Trail. The air was cool, but the sun was warm, and so the hike was very pleasant. We have discovered that layers are definitely your friend if you want to always be dressed comfortably in the mountains!
It was very nice to see the campsite in the sunshine!
Every road in this provincial park has something scenic to look at
This turned out to be one of Rick's all time favorite hikes
The Ptarmigan Trail started out in the forest which offered clearings of bright sunlight every so often
Soon we were out in the open
Look around from a nice field of small wildflowers three quarters of the way up
There were lots of small wildflowers in the meadows, but most of them did not photograph well
Look around at one of Rick's favorite photospheres of all time
It's kind of hard to see in this photo, but this area had a delightful number of small cascades originating from the snow melt
Look around at the cascades and surrounding scenery - it was a lot to take in
The waterfall feeding all the little cascades
The waterfall was the official end of the trail...
...But Rick wanted to climb higher to see the source of the waterfall
Julie parked herself on a rock because she was happy with the scenery she could see where she was
The view from up higher
Looks like someone started a rock pile--and then everyone else piled on as there was not really any other reason to have climbed up here.
Look around from the top
This semi-frozen puddle and ribbon of snow looks to be the source of the waterfall down below
We stopped to sit for a while amidst the rocks in the hopes of catching sight of a pika
After a little while (and a bunch of failed photo attempts) we captured this guy!
Snack spot with a view of the mountain meadow
Fording across a little waterfall
Directly downstream from the waterfall--in a later photo, you'll see the larger waterfall that spills over the edge here
This larger waterfall is a continuation of the little waterfall that we forded over in a previous photo
Seeing that this was going to be the only sunny day of our stay, we drove more of the park that afternoon and revisited Upper Kananaskis Lake to see what it looked like in the sunshine.
We decided to sit on the shore of Upper Kananaskis Lake for quite a while to enjoy the warm sunshine
Look around
Back at our campsite, we had noticed that someone had assembled a lean-to of some sort in the forest. So of course, we had to go check it out.
It looks like someone had made a shelter out of fallen logs directly behind our campsite
Inside, Rick found a rock with what looked like a treasure map painted on it.
That evening, we wanted to try again for sunset shots over Marl Lake. We thought we may have arrived past peak color the previous day, so we decided to arrive earlier this night and just hang out so as not to miss any color opportunities. We got to the lake around 7:45 pm, and of course we were way too early, but it gave us an opportunity for some wildlife sightings that we probably would have missed otherwise. Unfortunately, there was no dramatic sunset that night, but it was a pleasant way to spend the evening nonetheless.
No dramatic sunset colors tonight, but the scene was gorgeous anyway
Common Goldeneye female and chicks
Common Goldeneye teenagers
Leech (eeew!)
...And a moose!
The bench where we spent much of the evening 🙂
Thursday was another cold day with rain in the morning (maybe it hit 50 degrees, but that's doubtful) , so we cozied up in the camper, cranked the propane heater (no electric connections here), drank tea, and worked on the blog. As we always remind ourselves, a "bad" day in retirement is always much better than a good day at work! 😉
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