Thompson Creek Falls Trail in the Thompson Creek Provincial Recreation Area between Nordegg, Alberta, and Banff National Park along Highway 11 is one of the most picturesque hikes I’ve ever hiked. Tucked just east of Banff National Park you are as close as you can get to the park without being in the park. Such a beautiful area. The trail is 10.1 km out and back.
We dragged ourselves out of bed at 5:30 am just so we could drive 4 hours to do this hike. It had been very hot in Edmonton. Over 30°C for most of the week and we just needed a break to get away from the heat. The drive out was filled with lots of great scenery as well. The forest changes from mostly deciduous trees around Edmonton to mostly evergreens as we got closer to the mountains. Then there are the amazing views of the mountains themselves.
The first order of business was finding ourselves a place to camp for the night. We prefer to stay on crownland when we have the chance. The view is usually much better and it’s free. Of course, it’s not always easy to get into the areas you want to but it’s well worth the trouble to get in there. As you can see in the photo below, we had a great view! We are parked right along the North Saskatchewan River only 15 or so kilometers from the Banff National Park entrance. Such a beautiful spot. We secured our spot and then left to do our hike.
As we headed into the trail, we walked through the remnants of a forest fire from several years ago. This was a controlled burn from what we are told. As a result, there are a lot of trees that have been blown down by the strong winds that ravage this area from time to time. We spent the first 15 or 20 minutes of the hike going over and under fallen trees. But the views are already beginning to impress us. I love this area of the province.
The photo below is not Thompson Creek Falls but it was quite the sight. Not very high, maybe 10 or so feet, but the volume of water flowing through there was impressive. You can see so many trees blown down. This first section of the trail was littered with fallen trees.
The creek flows over stones and boulders the whole way down from the falls. It’s such a picturesque scene. I could have stood at the spot below for hours just watching the water flow by.
The lower sections of the trail are wide and meander through the forest but as we moved higher up the trail it became more narrow and opened up to cliff sides and lots of scree areas that we had to really be careful crossing. Especially with two huskies that don’t quite get the idea of staying on the trail. There were a lot of slips and falls on this hike.
Christina had an especially hard time on this hike. We discovered that she has tendonitis in her Achilles tendon along with a small tumor on one of the nerves in her ankle. As a result, she is unable to sense properly the positioning of her foot. The tendonitis is putting extra work on the smaller tendons around her ankle and as a result of that, her ankle tends to roll quite easily, and down she goes. This hike, although one of the most scenic that we have done, was very hard physically and emotionally on Christina.
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