Rawson Lake and Sarrail Ridge

August 13, 2016

The sacrifices we make, we skipped our morning tea so we could pack up our gear and make it to the trailhead at a reasonable time to begin our hike.  The hike begins at a popular day use area with a gorgeous view of Upper Kananaskis Lake.  There was a large group of older hikers milling around the parking lot, apparently, they were waiting for a hiking guide to lead them to Rawson Lake.  Unfortunately, the herd got on the trail before we did, but they don’t walk like cattle in a single file, although I wish they would, as this made it necessary for us to bolt around them and ask for passage when they walked two abreast.

Much to our delight, there were only a few groups of hikers at the lake when we arrived after hiking for 50 minutes from the parking lot, the elevation gain to the lake is 984 feet.  The lake is just beautiful as it is backed by the sheer wall of Mount Sarrail.  But we opted to storm the ridge rather than bask near the lakeshore.

Upper Kananaskis Lake at Trailhead

Rawson Lake

The hike to the ridge is wickedly steep for us as it gained 1164 feet from the lake and it is straight up on loose terrain which required serious use of our hiking poles.  About three quarters of the way up, a group of fit, fatless, well-muscled young men came flying up the trail, John and I just looked at them with admiration and the realization that we are truly fossilized.

The route to the ridge is up the grassy area right of the gully

Onward we trudged until we gained the ridge, it felt like it took forever, and although it only took an hour, it was an hour of pain.  Pushing up to the ridge, I had the thought that we are nuts and told John that we should be sitting on our butts on a beach with a crappy drink in our hands.  It is easiest to just stay at home and carry on with the daily routine, but the work to get to the ridge was so worth it, as the view from the ridge was nothing short of astounding.  We sat down on the ground, never taking our eyes off the view of the mountains and the lakes and then ate our lunch and basked in the warm sunshine, our first day of full sun.

Upper Kananaskis Lake in foreground, Lower Kananaskis Lake beyond

Rawson Lake from the ridge

Haig Glacier

Rawson Lake

Rawson Lake taken after coming down from the ridge

We watched the shore of the lake fill up with hikers and were surprised to meet a herd of people coming up the ridge as we descended.  The descent was brutal, a hiker told us we were fast, another one offered to buy our hiking poles.  We don’t know how people descend the steep trail without poles, we would be doomed without them.  It took us about half an hour to reach the lake and my legs felt like they were about to buckle.

The walk along the lake is rather level, which rested our legs enough so we headed down to the parking lot.  There was a steady stream of people walking up, as this is a very popular hike.  We flew down as fast as we could and really wanted to see the end of the trail.

We got to the car and the parking lots were jammed full and of course the late afternoon cloud had moved in.  Right away we took off for Calgary, checked into the Marriott near the airport, headed out for groceries for dinner and then relaxed.

Kananaskis is a superb hiking destination, the mountains in the heart of Peter Lougheed and south into Elbow-Sheep are terrific.  There is a lot of variety and as long as one gets out early in the morning to start hiking, you can beat the crowds.  There are also many hikes that are outstanding that also provide solitude.  We plan to hike here again.