Picklejar Lakes Hike

Where:

• Picklejar Lakes

 

When:

• October 16, 2021

 

Who:

• Ed, Dave, An, Mike, Brenda, Russ, Angela, Peggy, Kirk, Diane, Roger, Erin, Rod, Bauer, Craig, Peter, Lisa

 

Trailhead:

• the shortest route to the trailhead if you’re coming from Calgary is via Highway 40 (from Black Diamond, take Highway 22 south to Longview. Turn west onto Highway 541. It becomes Highway 40 when you reach Kananaskis Country. From Longview, it’s 61 km to reach the large Lantern Creek Recreation parking lot on the west side of the highway)
• from Highwood Pass, it’s 21 km south on Highway 40 to get to the Lantern Creek parking lot
• to get to the trail, cross Highway 40, and once you reach the other side, walk left for about 100 meters until you see the signed trailhead off to the right
• as you start the hike up to Picklejar Lakes; you initially begin by climbing above a creek on your right but as you ascend you’ll push farther left of the creek

 

 

Degree of difficulty:

• 700 meters elevation
• 12 km return
• the first lake is at 4.2 km
• the hike took us just under four hours

 

 

Interesting notes:

• there are four lakes in total to explore once you descent the pass into the amphitheater valley

• on this day, we had some very slick conditions ascending to the pass and descending the other side
• the name comes from the fact that (at least in past years) fishing for trout is as easy as ‘pulling pickles from a jar’ (the lake is full of cutthroat trout)