In June we attended the 90th birthday party of June Mitchell, she also used the occasion to launch her memoir, ‘Glad I Dropped In.’ Prior to reading from her book, June talked about how lucky we are to live on such a beautiful planet, her words have been ringing in my ears ever since. The truth of her words was foremost in our minds while standing on Mist Ridge, the stupendous 360 degree views from that ridge left us awestruck.
Mist Ridge is south on highway 40 in the Elbow-Sheep Wildland Provincial Park, what a fantastic name for a park. The trail to the ridge started out near Mist Creek and went through a lot of overgrown deciduous berry bushes, prime bear territory, although the berries were already gone. We made a lot of noise while walking through here as it was obvious the trail was rarely used and we didn’t want a bear encounter.
After a long walk through forest we reached a subalpine zone that felt like half prairie and half alpine. Beautiful grassy slopes with a mix of wildflowers familiar to prairie dwellers as well as alpine flowers and grasses.
Subalpine area en route to Mist Ridge
At a grassy gap, our guide book advised us to leave the trail and boot it up the grassy slope to the ridgecrest, this was the steepest section of the hike. Once we gained the ridge we were spewing superlatives regarding the view. There is nothing better than a high ridgewalk, but we were in need of lunch.
We sat on the rocks and watched all of the rain storms swirl around, unlike the prairies, the rain showers come from various directions simultaneously. We noted why Mist Creek way below us earned its name, as a mist walked down the valley toward us. Another shower from the south moved east to Calgary and yet another shower from the north moved east as well. How lucky for us, we only received the mist coming down the valley along Mist Creek. Then some sunshine broke through to light up the grand mountains that surrounded us.
Stunning mountain views from the ridge
Mist Creek down below
Prior to the cloud moving in, we could see Calgary from this vantage point
Calgary in the distance
Walk along the ridge
Mist Ridge going north
Mist Ridge going south
During lunch, a familiar character, a brown weasel with the characteristic black tipped tail, checked us out and was gone like a flash. After lunch, we started down the ridge, it was a wonderful walk, leaving us feeling like we were on top of the world. When we felt we had walked enough, we turned around and walked back to the south end of the ridge and started our long descent.
This was a fairly long walk, it felt remote and we found solitude, which was bliss after the busier Chester Lake hike. The elevation gain was 2348 to the ridge and the round trip was in excess of the 14.8 km to the ridge, as we were not sure how far we hiked on the ridge.
The hike left us a bit knackered, but we planned to sneak in one more hike on Saturday after breaking down our camp. Since we are close to Calgary, we figured we could break our camp, go on a decent hike and still make it to Calgary in the late afternoon.
It was Friday night and the campground was full by the time we got back from our hike. Interestingly, more than a few people will come out and drop a tent to claim the site, pay the fees and then they are off. We had no neighbours beside us or across from us although tents were set up.
We were so favourably impressed with Interlakes Campground, it was really quiet at night. Although, when we retired to the tent at dark, we totally crashed and slept like never before, every night and for many more hours than is usual for us.
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