South Wind Creek Hike

Where:

• South Wind Creek

 

When:

• April 27, 2019

 

Who:

• Ed, Dave, Geoff, Lynn

 

Trailhead:

• the trailhead is at the turnoff into the Banff Gate Mountain Resort which is a couple of km off the Dead Man’s Flats overpass just east of Canmore
• leaves from the same trailhead as Wind Ridge, Wind Valley, Centennial Ridge, Skogan Pass, and Pigeon Mountain

 

 

Degree of difficulty:

• we were in search of a famous obelisk hoodoo on the south fork of Wind Creek, but we later learned it had been washed away, although some smaller hoodoos remain
• it is a 6.5 km round trip out and back
• there are many trails in this area, and some are not that well marked along with a new trail to get into the Wind Creek area, so you need to have a good map and pay close attention as we have taken a few wrong turns on other trails in this area
• the trail for the turnoff (left) to South Wind Creek is not marked, so you need to have a good map to know where to turn off the Wind Valley/Wind Ridge trail
• shortly after you turn off the Wind Ridge trail you have to cross a creek which we did over some rocks on the way up but on the way down we found a partially washed out bridge that made it a bit easier
• the trail is relatively flat until you turn off onto the south fork and then it is partially in a washed out creek bed that makes for tricky footing
• once you pick up the trail on the left-hand side of the creek, it is a steady climb
• we eventually turned around when the snow became deeper and hard to navigate thru

 

 

Interesting notes:

• we went on this hike as we were looking for something gentle and safe to do in the wet snow conditions
• we never did find the hoodoos, so we plan to go back sometime to see where we missed a turnoff to get into that actual area which is somewhere along the edge of the creek
• the damage from the 2013 floods is significant and very obvious throughout the valley which results in some bushwhacking and manoeuvring under and over fallen trees