Chester Lake

Dist: 9.8km    Elev: 340m    Time: 3h    Difficulty: 2/5

Melinda and I decided to take advantage of the warm autumn weather by heading to Kananaskis after church. Chester Lake is an awesome hike to do if you are looking to get out to the mountains with a later start in the day, or if you simply want beautiful views without too much effort. This hike is often quite busy, but we arrived late enough in the day that most people we passed on our way up were already on their return trip, which also meant the two of us got to enjoy the meadows and lake in peaceful solitude.

Trail Description:
Park in the Chester Lake day-use lot, 41km past the Canmore Nordic Centre on the Smith-Dorrien / Spray Trail (Hwy 742). From the parking lot this trail begins to climb almost immediately, and we slowly worked our way up the gradual incline for the first hour or so of the hike. Once we reached the meadows, however, we got to enjoy the most scenic part of the trip from relatively level terrain. Chester Lake was a great place to stop for a rest before turning around, but we (I?) were feeling adventurous so we followed the lesser-traveled trail on the left (north) side of the lake leading to the interesting "Elephant Rocks," requiring only about a 20 minute detour.

Great views even during the initial climb

Mountains appear as the climb levels off

Mt Chester comes into view

Beautiful alpine meadows. From left to right: Gusty Peak, Mount Chester, Little Chester

Mindy admires the scenery

Wintery meadows

Nearing Chester Lake

The "Elephant Rocks"

Mindy doing her best "Melephant"

Exploring

Somebody else thought our lunch looked pretty good

The not-quite frozen Chester Lake sits directly below Mount Chester

Looking back as we depart. Left to right: Mount Galatea, Gusty Peak, Mount Chester

Golden larches still showing off their fall colours

Funky tree in the middle of the trail