Crowsnest Pass

Canadian Rockies Road Trip, Days 4 & 5 | Crowsnest Pass, AB to Canal Flats, BC | Lundbreck Falls & Fairy Falls | June 2023

After resupplying in Medicine Hat, we crossed the Albertan prairie to the Southwest and before long, the Rockies slowly came into view. Our chosen crossing was going to be Crowsnest Pass along the Crowsnest River.

We had barely entered into the mountains before we decided to get out for a short hike to see Lundbreck Falls. We parked at the end of the campground and then walked the short trail up to the viewpoints. The weather was a bit warm still, but it was exciting to see some topography in the background. We returned back to the car and continued up the pass. We originally planned on doing a second waterfall hike, but we were so enamored with the jagged and rugged mountain peaks that we completely missed the turnoff.

We also ended up hitting a patch of road work that slowed things down, but gave us more opportunity to ogle the scenery. Fortunately, we were still able to make our turn off of the highway down a forest road just before the Continental Divide. We soon found a nice quiet pull off where we parked and settled in.

Never one to settle long though, I ventured down the road a ways in search of an alleged ridge trail I had seen on AllTrails. The trail ended up being more a bushwhack than an established path, and I soon gave it up. But the road walk was quite enjoyable. The elevation had dropped the temperature to a pleasant point and the mountains continued on and on.

The next day we woke up early in an effort to beat the construction traffic and get over the pass into our 9th Province: British Columbia! We stopped briefly at a rest area to get a picture with the welcome sign and a letterbox and then continued down the canyon on the other side. Several miles after the pass we stopped at the visitor center in Fernie. This mountain town boasted quite the collection of hiking and biking trails and we opted to check one of those trails out by hiking to Fairy Falls.

We took our time going through the forest and stopping along the stream. The sign said that it should take about an hour to cover the 2 miles, but with Charlotte that easily became a 2.5 hour walk and what had started as a cool morning, soon gave way to a warm afternoon. We’ve come to expect about a mile an hour from her, but we know she still loves the smells and adventure. Charlotte let us know it was time to turn around just before the end, but Jess let me finish the last quarter mile to the falls while she and Charlotte started their way back. I would have no problem catching up, after all.

Back at the car, we stopped in the visitor center to refill our water bottles with cold water and use the restroom (yes the van has both of those, but if you can use them elsewhere then you have to stop and resupply less) and I noticed a back road atlas for sale of the Canadian Rockies and, on impulse, we bought it – probably one of our better impulse purchases.

We still had a ways to go so we made the rest of our drive without stops, finishing our drive down to the Kootenay River and then following that great river North along the bottom of the Rocky Mountain Trench. To say that the scenery was impressive is an understatement, and we probably could have spent at least a week just in this area, but as we now know very well, we can and will always return.

After a few hours of driving, we drove over a very short rise and left the Kootenay River and entered the headwaters of the Columbia River at Columbia Lake, which is one of those odd geographic oddities of the PNW. The Columbia River flows North from this point along the bottom of the Rocky Mountain Trench, eventually making a U-turn and returning South into Washington State and eventually the Pacific Ocean. The Kootenay, on the other hand, travels South along the same trench into Montana and Idaho before making its own U-turn back North into British Columbia where it eventually dumps into the Columbia River. I know this type of hydrography happens all the time, but for these two rather large rivers to flow in opposite directions for hundreds of miles only to meet up again, to only be separated by a handful of miles and a couple hundred feet of elevation. I think that’s kind of cool.

We ended up finding some dispersed camping on Crown/forest land just East of Columbia Lake along Findlay Creek. The spot where we ended up had plenty of space to spread out and enjoy the rest of the beautiful day. We ate, played games, read, and even took a dip in the creek.