Ptarmigan Cirque on a rainy Sunday ...

Stream by the highway

Rain and fog (outside and inside my head ... thanks to the white wine from the night before) were present on Sunday morning but that didn't deter this newly addicted hiker.  We set off for a drive south on the Cowboy Trail before heading north again on a pretty road through Kananaskis Country.  The weather forecast predicted afternoon thunderstorms but was thankfully wrong and the sky cleared up just as we reached the Highwood Pass, the highest point (2206 metres) in Canada accessible by public road.  We decided to do some wandering from this point and chose the Ptarmigan Cirque, a short hike through the forest into an alpine meadow and finally into a rocky mountain bowl (the cirque).  Along the way, we saw an area of overturned soil, evidence that a grizzly bear had recently been digging for roots.  I got excited.  But we didn't see a bear.  The meadow was covered with beautiful alpine wildflowers and some snow in shady areas.  We stopped for a short break at the top where the chilly wind cooled us down so quickly that we soon wanted to be on the move again.  Ptarmigan Cirque was a great hike with minimal effort for maximum return - the perfect solution for a foggy head on a rainy day.

Oil well in action

Heading into Kananaskis Country

The beginning of the hike

The trail

Looking back into the valley

Grizzly diggings

Out of the trees and into the meadow

Pretty waterfall

Patterns in the rock

Mountain stream

Mini waterfall

Snow on the rocks ... in the middle of summer!

Heading back down

Pretty alpine flowers

Walking back to the trailhead

The sign read 'Cattle at large'

A suspicious trio

Cattle on the roadside