I finally summited Grizzly Peak. I am not sure why it has taken me so long but I have to tell you this little gem of a mountain in Kananaskis was well worth the wait.
There isn’t a designated parking lot so we parked between two metal poles on the side of Hwy 40. I was joined by Kate and Collum on the day’s outing. You can see the trailhead, near Ripple Rock Creek, near the highway.
The route to Grizzly Peak is a short 8 kilometres out and back with loose rock, sandy, dry bits and minor scrambling (using your hands). Some people would call sections of the trail technical but I didn’t find them that tricky so it’s not worth mentioning.
We started climbing immediately and the trail felt steep especially after my recent adventures in the mountains but it was less than 1,000 metre gain. The trail was pretty straight forward – just keep climbing and follow the well-marked trail.
Reaching the cliff band, we scrambled up a little ledge then we traversed to the right where we greeted with glorious open slopes with views of Mt. Evan Thomas. The trail swung around Grizzly Peak where we next tackled a short scree section below the saddle.
Before tackling the actual Grizzly Peak the trail opens up to a beautiful, lush meadow with outstanding vistas. Even if you didn’t hike the 400 metres left to the summit, you would be happy with these views.
A short narrow ridge marked the summit. We hiked all the way to the end and sat down for a quick snack and chat. Then we got up and explored the ridge further. Going down was a little tricky in sections because was the trail was so dry.
I know this peak is called Grizzly Peak because the bears like to roam the valley but there was no sign of the bears.
However we were pleasantly surprised by a herd of racing goats who were hanging out by one of the cliff bands.