Twin Lakes/Arnica Lake...and more!

Fri. 12 July:  Twin Lakes/Arnica Lake ... and more!

Hoary marmot on a windy summit

There’s only one way to do this trip, and it’s not the way the guidebooks tell you.  In particular, ignore the comments on page 170 of the “Don’t Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies” guide about Altrude Creek. 

If you want to tie together these four spectacular lakes in one journey, then take a clockwise route starting at Castle Mountain Junction.  Head up Altrude Creek to Lower Twin Lake, then along to Upper Twin Lake, up over the pass and down to Arnica Lake, down the murderously long and steep mountainside to Vista Lake, up to Highway 93, then finally enjoy a free bike ride back to Castle Junction.  

Any other way you are giving yourself a much greater challenge than you need.  Also, in my view, Arnica Lake alone does not do justice to the effort it takes to reach it without adding the Twin Lakes to your day.  The brightest gem is Lower Twin Lake, so why not reach both Twins the easiest way you can, adding Arnica Lake on your way down the trail to Vista Lake?

I was up early and heading out of the city shortly after 5 a.m.  I was curious to see if there were any signs of the floods which tore up the Trans-Canada Highway in Canmore.  In the space of a couple of weeks they have worked miracles to repair the road and reshape the creek-beds.  Around Cougar Creek the rubble left by the raging creek still covered the ground on each side of the highway.  Further west a temporary road diversion bypassed a washed out bridge.  But overall, there has been a remarkable recovery.

I drove eight kilometres up the Radium Highway 93 to leave my bike at the Vista Lake parking area, before returning to the Altrude Creek trailhead at Castle Junction. A couple of cars were parked here.  Presumably these people were camping up at Twin Lakes.  It is the Altrude Creek trail which gets a lot of bad press in the guidebooks for being a boring forest route with “slurpee” meadows at the far end.  I found it to be a well graded, attractive trail, with good bridges over the creek, and occasional glimpses of Castle Mountain through the trees.  After about four kilometres the grade eases off and the rest of the trail to Lower Twin Lake is almost flat.  

As I emerged into the meadows, the Continental Divide peaks around Storm Mountain (10,370 ft.) came into view.  It was easy to chart a course through the grass and bog keeping my feet fairly dry.  The creek ran through the meadows, making for a photographers paradise.  A simple wooden bridge spanned the outlet to the lake.  I walked a couple of hundred yards along the shoreline of the lake to an ideal viewpoint.  The mountain wall across the lake was certainly spectacular, but it was the waterfall rushing down the steep slopes into the lake which caught my breath.  This was not even given a mention in the guidebooks, yet was worth the long journey all on its own.

A trail leads up the forested slopes to the Upper Twin Lake.  A small back-country campsite sits close to the lake.  It appeared to be empty, although a couple of backpacks hung from the bear-proof wires between two tall trees, so there was someone in the area.  The Upper Lake is also spectacular, but smaller than the Lower Lake.  They are similar in setting, which would have been easy to guess from their names!

To reach Arnica Lake I had to climb 640 vertical feet over an arm of Storm Mountain.  The forested trail was well graded.  At the top there were stands of larches which would make this a spectacularly colorful place in the Fall.  On my way down the other side of the ridge I met a young woman hiker then further down her male colleague.  I guessed they were the campers at Twin Lakes.  We just exchanged “hellos” – they looked a little worn out by the climb.

Arnica Lake suddenly appeared round a corner of trees, a striking mountain-rimmed lake.  Four guys were arriving from Vista Lake as I sat in the picture-perfect setting for some lunch.  These lakes cannot be encircled on foot as the far side in each case is a steep mountain wall.  At Arnica, the rubble field at the end of the lake threatens to fill it up with rocks one day.  All three lakes are ringed by evergreens, but with grassy edges.  The sunshine was perfectly angled, lighting up the mountainsides and lakes.  Later in the day the sun would swing behind the Continental Divide.

From Arnica Lake down to Vista Lake is one consistently steep drop of almost two thousand vertical feet, through the forest then down steep slopes.  The younger growth of trees allowed good views of the Bow Valley and Castle Mountain to the north, and the mountains to the west.  The stony trail sometimes switchbacks across the slopes, then drops steeply in other places.  Finally it reaches the valley far below, where the green waters of Vista Lake beckon the weary hiker.  To make this journey in reverse would be very hard work.

From Vista Lake the trail contours very nicely up the mountainside for about three hundred vertical feet, to the Highway above, making this final section of trail an easy affair.

Now the fun began.  Climbing onto my road bike, I set off down the fairly busy highway for Castle Junction, just over eight kilometres distance and almost entirely downhill apart from the first few hundred metres.  All I had to do was hold on to the handlebars and let the bike do all the work.  In no time at all I was back at the trailhead at Altrude Creek.

As an added bonus I strolled through the trees to a small lake which I had noticed on the map, called Copper Lake.  It was a small body of water in the trees, just a few hundred yards from the Trans-Canada Highway.  The wildflowers beside the lake were colorful.  The wild roses were prolific.

Having come all this way from the city, I was in no hurry to rush back, so I decided to stop in Banff, take the gondola up Sulphur Mountain, and hike to the south peak.  The usual crowds of visitors from all round the world, many on bus tours, thronged the base of the gondola but I only had a short wait for my turn to climb aboard for the effortless journey to the summit.  By simply turning left at the top, I left all the tourists behind and had the south peak trail entirely to myself.  In a short time I reached bare limestone slabs.  I scrambled up the rocks to the summit.  This might be tricky in wet weather, but was a fun scramble today.  From the top I could see further along the ridge to a much trickier section.  The views down to Banff were made even more spectacular by the foreground of white rocks.  I was able to look down on the upper station of the gondola and to the stone observatory on Sanson Peak.

This lone summit, populated only by myself (and a wind-blown hoary marmot!) seemed to be a fitting conclusion to a very active day.  I was reluctant to return down the gondola and join the busy traffic back to the city.  

Statistics:

Total Distance: 17.7 (hike)+8.4 (bike) = 26.1 km

Height Gain:      3,134 ft.

Max. Elev.:       7,497 ft.

Time on Trail:    7 hrs. 24 mins.

Dep. Castle Jn:     7.15 am

Lower Twin L:     9.52 am

Upper Twin L:   10.31 am

Summit:             11.13 am

Arnica L:           11.27 am

Vista L:            12.56 pm

Hwy 93:              1.33 pm

Start bike:           1.47 pm

Castle Jn:            2.09 pm

Copper L:           2.26 pm

Ret. to car:          2.39 pm

Temp:               +4 to +19 deg.C

Weather:           Sunny, a few clouds building up

4-Lake Circuit (excl. Copper L.):

Castle J. - Lower Twin L. = 8.1 km ; 1,985 ft. Gain
Lower - Upper Twin L.    = 1.0 km ;    115 ft. Gain
Upper Twin L. - Summit   = 1.4 km ;    640 ft. Gain
Summit - Arnica L.           = 0.8 km ;    443 ft. Loss
Arnica L. - Vista L.          = 3.6 km ; 1,903 ft. Loss
Vista L. - Hwy 93            = 1.4 km ;    394 ft. Gain
Hwy. 93 - Castle Jn.         = 8.4 km ;   788 ft. Loss
Total:                             = 24.7 km ; +/- 3,134 ft.

Early morning mist along Trans-Canada Highway

Bridges intact up Altrude Creek - fast-flowing stream

Meadows below Continental Divide 

Lower Twin Lake

Awesome waterfall at far end of Lower Twin Lake

Upper Twin Lake

Arnica Summit (7,497 ft.)

Arnica Lake

Unusual view of Castle Mountain from trail below Arnica Lake

Views from steep trail down to Vista Lake & Hwy 93

Vista Lake

Vista Lake from above

Indian paintbrush along trail

8.4 km in 22 minutes down Hwy 93 to Castle Jn. trailhead!!

Colorful meadows

Copper Lake

View from S. peak of Sulphur Mountain to Sanson Peak

Views north from Sulphur Mountain