We have a holiday planned to the Rockies at the beginning of July. This will be our fourth trip and so looking at places where we have not been before.

We enjoy walking but are not particularly fit. Length is not too much of a problem but elevation gain we take slowly!

We have bus reservations up to Lake O'Hara - assuming that we have good weather any particular recommendations - we are not into mountain climbing! If we do the Lake Oesa round trip - how long does it usually take?

Edith Cavell - we would very much like to do this (in three previuos trips have never made it). Will the whole area be open (we will be there probably about July 7th or so) in addition some of our guidebooks say that there is alternating traffic on the access road but this does not appear on the Parks Canada website.

Peter Lougheed - we have a couple of nights here - anyone any suggestions for half day hikes either in Peter Lougheed PP or Spray PP?

With many thanks.

Hiking in the mountains usually involves some elevation gain. How much is too much?

Here's a few of the hikes in Peter Lougheed:

Burstall Pass - 7.6km, 470m elev. gain
Chester Lake - 4.0km, 300m elev. gain
Mt. Indefatigable - 4.0km, 762m elev. gain
South Kananaskis Pass - 13.5km, 563m elev. gain (can be overnight trip)
Ptarmigan Cirque - 4.4km, 208m elev. gain

I should have mentioned that all but the Ptarmigan Cirque trails are one way distances - from trailhead to destination. But since they're not circle routes, you have to travel the same distance back (and the elevation to lose).

I know if Mount Shark is in Kananaskis Country just outside Lougheeds boundaries but there is a nice hike to an underground River (Karst??)It does not have very much elevation gain as it is on a cross country trail. You have views of Spray Lakes as well as other lakes. Some of my favourite photos are from this hike. It can also be done on a bike. You just have to leave it from the last 25o metres or so as you walk up to the karst. There are stairs as well as some incline. The walk around the backside of Upper Kananakis Lake is very nice. this is a route the settlers use to get across the Rockies at one point( I don't know how a wagon could do it) The hike up to Turbine Canyon is a lot of elevation gain in a short time by the views are great and you will find yourself at the foot of a glacier and the Alberta British Columbia border. Bring lots of water because after you cross the Kananakis river there is very little until Turbine Canyon. Use caution when drinking from streams I never have and have never got sick but I drink from fast flowing water over a rocky bed.( I have heard many different versions of how to do this or just bring lots of water) I did it with my boys who were under 10 and we camped over night so semi-full packs. Have fun

Thanks for the suggestions - should have said that we don't mind elevation - just not particularly fit or into mountain climbing! Also don't like steep drop offs. Walks that we have done previously have been Stanley Glacier (Kootenay), Lake Agnes, Plain of the Six Glaciers, Wilcox Creek so looking forward to new areas!

You will love Lake Ohara. It is spectacular.

The Cavell Road is not alternating travel - that is the Celestine Lake road (which has not been open lately). The Cavell Road is narrow and winding, and very very bumpy, so you need to take it slow... allow almost one hour from town to the Cavell parking lot. The Cavell Meadows hike should be open by July 7th - it has opened in late June or very early July over the past few years. (Parks Canada keeps the trail closed until it has had a chance to dry out a bit, because it is popular and allowing hikers when still wet was causing all sorts of damage, erosion, trail braiding etc. Many, many hours of volunteer labour went into a rehab project a few years ago.) It is a partial loop (up a couple of kms, then a loop, then down those same couple of kms), about 8 or 9 km in total (5 - 5.5 miles) with about 1200 feet of elevation gain. Above the loop, there is also another ridge you can ascend for further elevation gain (you can skip this part if you are not up to it). If you find it to be too much, just hike up the first part of the trail to the first good lookout (you will go past/through a snowbank to it, in early July) and then turn around and go back the way you came... this would probably be about 6 or 7 km, and you would avoid the steep downhill on the loop that is likely to give you very sore quads the next day, if you have not yet done any hiking with much downhill. Doing that much of the trail, you will see the moraine (the rock heap you ascend at the beginning of the trail), subalpine forest (switchbacks!), and subalpine meadows. The lookout I am referring to faces over to Mt. Edith Cavell, and also has amazing views of the Angel Glacier.

There is also an easy trail there - the Path of the Glacier Trail, that you can add on at the end. When you come down the moraine to the trail junction, go right to go directly back to the parking lot, or left to make a loop back via the little glacial lake.

We stayed at Lake O'Hara Lodge about 10 years ago and did a great deal of hiking every day around that area. It was not difficult but was spectacular. We had been in the mountains a couple of days before we went here but used those days to take hikes to get used to the elevation a bit at a time. ENJOY - it is a memory we will never forget nor regret spending the time and money.