Saturday, August 24, 2013

Exploring the East Kootenays - Top of the World

 One place we had never visited was Top of the World Provincial Park, a small wilderness park in the southern Rockies just south-east of Canal Flats.

Because the weather had been so hot, we decided to arrive at the trailhead late in the afternoon and hike to the campground in the early evening.  This worked out OK and the drive across to the East Kootenays was fine (the Grey Creek Road could have been a bit less rocky...) and the FSR up to Whiteswan and Top of the World was in good condition with good views along the way.

The campground along little Fish Lake was quite nice and only a few other small groups were there, making for a quiet time.  Unfortunately, on Tuesday morning, I woke up with a severe case of vertigo and could barely sit up in the tent.  I spent the morning lying down until I started to feel better.  Not sure what brought that on.  We hiked up to Sparkle Lake (nice views) and the next day hiked over to Coyote Creek campground and up to the summit of Sugarloaf Mountain where we had a panoramic view of the entire area.

The next morning we hiked out and headed back home.

I have to say that the park was not at all what I expected.  Given that most of the area is over 2000 meters in elevation, I was expecting sub-alpine terrain.  It was not.  Totally a forested area with some views.  I think we found 2 small alpine meadows while we were there.  Trail maintenance seems to be an issue as the one we hiked to Coyote Creek had about 60+ deadfalls blocking the trail.  Doesn't Parks have any trail crew to patrol these things?

Pictures at: https://plus.google.com/photos/106717482826961530532/albums/5917191526538864737

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