by Brian Patton | Oct 31, 2014 | 2013 Floods, Banff National Park, hiking
One of the pleasures of writing this blog is receiving queries from backpackers seeking advice on trips into remote reaches of the Mountain Parks. I received a couple of these this spring, including one from a Jim Shipley of Calgary, who was planning a two-week...
by Brian Patton | Oct 22, 2014 | 2013 Floods, hiking, Kootenay National Park
Kootenay National Park’s Paint Pots and Stanley Glacier trails are fully operational again thanks to the installation of two bridges. Spring washouts in recent years have been hard on bridges throughout the Mountain Parks. One of the most popular of these was...
by Brian Patton | Oct 17, 2014 | Banff National Park, hiking, Jasper National Park, Yoho National Park
As happens every year following the Thanksgiving weekend, Parks Canada has closed all the side roads in Banff, Jasper and Yoho National Parks for the season. The week or two following these closures is always bittersweet—sad to see the end of summer but a great time...
by Brian Patton | Oct 15, 2014 | Banff National Park, hiking
Time was that planning a hike in the mountain parks was limited to a few lines in a park brochure, maybe a map, or at best a trail guide description illustrated with one or two photographs. Not so today. Google the name of any trail in the Canadian Rockies and you’ll...
by Brian Patton | Oct 7, 2014 | hiking, Wildlife
There are certain trails in the mountain parks where I always think about bears. But I always think about them more, and somewhat nervously, when hiking alone in the autumn. The incidence of serious grizzly encounters always seems to rise in the fall. Bears are at...
