Barrier Dam Day Use Parking Lot

The turnoff south on highway 40 into Kananaskis Country, is a short hour's drive west of Calgary. Our carpool meeting place was at the Barrier Lake information centre, where we make a habit of stopping when travelling through. It is here where we get the up to date info on trail conditions, and any bear activity that may be in the area. Once we left there, we drive here, to our trailhead parking lot which is less than five minutes further along.

It will turn out to be a cool, cloudy, breezy, and snowy day. Surely not a day to leave essential clothing in the trunk.

Once at the parking lot, we separated into two groups, each taking a different route to the viewpoint but eventually meeting there for lunch. I am hanging out with these merry hikers.

There was a cool breeze blowing in from the lake, and no one wanted to hang out too long waiting for a group photo.

Never did get all participants together at the same time. We are obviously anxious to end this silliness and get into the mountains.

Heading Out Over the Dam of Barrier Lake.

Our lunch stop is at the top right of this photo, along the line of trees and just out of view.

From the "You are here" location at the top of the lake, we'll follow in a clockwise direction, travelling along the Jewell Pass/Prairie View trails, eventually ending back at the "You are here" location.

This map is more informed than the previous trail sign photo, but our trail route is the same. We parked at the Barrier Dam Day Use. Our lunch stop is at the Prairie View Viewpoint. The intention of this hike was to have lunch at the viewpoint, then make the 1.4 km, 125 m height gain trek up to the Barrier Lake Fire Lookout, but the weather as it was made the trip not worth it. Refer back to this map when in doubt of locations mentioned.

We Are Here

It is sometimes difficult to see where the "We Are Here" marker is. In this case our position is directly in the centre of the trail map, and half way along the top of the lake. I'm not sure how you see the lake image, but to me its outline resembles a tadpole with a very long tail. Hmmm!

Pole Art

The Other Side of the Pole

Looking north, back towards the head of Barrier Lake and our parking area. In a few more moments we will be arriving at the Jewell Pass trailhead.

We Are Here

The shiny dot in the centre of the trail map is our current location. From here we are following in a clockwise rotation along the white trail, and back to the head of Barrier Lake. This is also the beginning of a gradual but steady uphill trek.

A Dried-up Jewell Creek.

I stepped off the trail for this photo. During the mountain runoff season, can you imagine the force of water needed to create a collection of huge boulders as this. The flood of June 2013, probably had more to do with this collection of rubble than a normal yearly runoff would have created. Now I have a bit of catching up to do, because by the end of this photograph session, the last of my group has since passed by the distant creek bed.

There they are.

And two more.

The devastating flood waters in June of 2013, left many bridges throughout the park completely washed away. This prompted trail officials to construct temporary bridges until more permanent structures can be built.

In some cases we had to do our own route finding when crossing over to the other side. Not having to deal with a torrent of water took some excitement out of trailblazing.

We Are Here

"Hi there. Just checking out to see where I am." "So are we."

We're Right Here

"Here at this "T" junction, and we are heading to the right onto the Prairie View Trail." "Thanks, so am I. Enjoy the snowy day." "You too."

Ambush

Indeed we are on the Prairie View Trail, and less than two kilometres from our lunch stop on Prairie View Viewpoint.

These two gentlemen have been riding this trail for 20 years, and figure more than 1,000 trips have been logged during that time. They were also part of a team of trail builders who brought this hiking path back to life after the June 2013 flood.