King’s Creek Ridge Hike

Where:

• Kings Creek Ridge

 

When:

• June 12, 2021

 

Who:

• Ed, Rod, Bauer, Erin, Katie, Courtney, Tomonori, Oak, Lisa, Brenda, Mike, Ian, Lisa, Freda, Jacco

 

Trailhead:

• from Highway 1 turn off onto Highway 40 south
• travel 50 km (35 minutes) to the parking lot on the left-hand (east) side of the road just before where Highway 40 branches off to Kananaskis Lakes
• the trailhead starts going along the highway past King Creek and then turning right into the forest

 

 

Degree of difficulty:

• 775 meters of elevation
• 7 km round trip
• after 10 minutes of relatively flat terrain, it becomes a relentless incline for 2 km before it levels off along the ridge for the last 1.5 km
• the hike took us three and a half hours

 

 

Interesting notes:

• on the drive out, just before the trailhead, I saw two moose followed shortly after that by four grizzly bears
• on the hike descent, we stumbled upon eight mountain sheep as Ian and I were using the ‘facilitrees’

• at the top of the ridge, head past the first (false) summit to the final summit, which is another 200 meters but requires some scrambling on a somewhat narrow ridge
• there are spectacular 360-degree views at the top of numerous ranges, as well as Kananaskis Lakes, and Fortress Ski Resort way to the north
• some of the ridges have spectacular rock outcroppings

• King Creek was named for Millarville rancher Willie H. King who, along with George Pocaterra, searched for coal near Pocaterra Creek in the summer of 1910
• prior to being named for King, the ridge was referred to as ‘Kiska tha Iyarhe’ (Goat Mountain) by Stoney aboriginals