Trail to Peak: The Adventurous Path
Hiking, Exploring, Travel & Adventure
A Wintry Escape to Chester Lake
There’s nothing like a snowshoe adventure with fresh, new snow underfoot. It cloaks the forest in beautiful soundproofing, settling down on the landscape with a great hush. Snowshoeing up to Chester Lake is a popular winter activity up in the Spray. About a 45 minute drive up and above the town of Canmore, it is a pretty route that follows the Smith Dorrien Road, a well maintained gravel road that rises up through the pass between the Rundle range and the Nakoda Massif, and then along beautiful Spray Lake, into the back country.
We got a late start, leaving for Chester Lake, hoping against hope, that the day would warm up. Strangely, it was snowing lightly, even at -17C (often the snow doesn’t fall when it’s that cold out). With an elevation gain of just over 300m, it is an easy 10km romp through forests, meadows and amazingly dramatic scenery. With a light snow falling on us the whole time, the views played hide ‘n seek with us at times, but it was a beautiful day. Come along on our adventure….
At lunch, we wandered around the lake’s shore to find a secluded spot. There we tramped down the snow to make a sheltered area in which to sit, set up our tarp underneath us as a barrier for the snow, put on all our layers, ate (to crank up our metabolisms) and drank hot tea, munched chocolate & took in the views. It does get quite cold, once you stop moving, especially if you have been sweating… which we did, hoofing it up that trail.
Distance: 10km
Elevation Gain: 330m
Hike/Snowshoe time: approx. 3 hours (1 hour 15 mins up, going hard + lunch break + 45 mins down)
Time to the Trailhead from Canmore: 45-55 minutes
Trailhead Amenities: Very large parking lot + 4 bathrooms.
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14 Comments on “A Wintry Escape to Chester Lake”
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Trail to Peak: The Adventurous Path 
Beautiful. Chester Lake is on my list to do this June when we’re in the area.
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It’s really only a half day hike but it is quite lovely any time of year. We were short in time yesterday, but promise me you’ll continue past Chester Lake, just a short distance, to the Elephant Rocks, k? Being from Thailand, you kind of HAVE to go there, right?
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The Elephant Rocks is in the plan too. So are some smaller lakes beyond Chester Lake if we have time (mostly getting ourselves moving in the morning early 😅).
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Excellent plan! I definitely approve. 🙄
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One other tip for you, in particular: you really can’t drive your RV up the pass from Canmore, past Grassi Lakes and into the Spay. The road has tight turns and a very steep grade and is quite narrow in spots. You could come the longer way, accessing by highway 40. But if you have a separate car (I can’t tell from your photos… will you be towing one?) that will be far better.
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Thanks for the warning. We run around using our mid-size 4×4 truck with a pop-up camper on it.
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The snow looks so pristine. I’m gonna have to stop peeking at your wonderful day hikes… my bucket list is getting too long 😉
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Ha! You’ve got a long way to come to get to these trailheads, my friend!
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hehehe but looks like it will be worth it
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100%!!!!
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I’ve never tried snowshoes. Do they take any more energy than walking the same trail in the summer?
I sometimes wonder how dogs, and all the wild critters out there deal with the extra cold weather without wearing more clothes. I’d be busy freezing to death.
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As for the dogs… it kind of depends on the temps. Seamus could have used his booties (to keep out the ice balls) but a tight fitting jacket makes him colder.
We have “racing” snowshoes…. not that we race, per say…. but you can walk more normally (they are narrower). We actually began this hike in our boots and spikes because we were starting a bit late in the day (having stayed in our Jammie’s drinking coffee for a wee bit too long) and many had trodden the trail before us but it was sluggish, so we switched. With snowshoes you kind of float or stay on top of the surface, and if they have nice serious teeth on the edges, like ours do, they’re like spikes too, so they grip nicely on the uphill. They’re nothing like the almost circular, wide snowshoes of the 1970s…. the ones that look like tennis rackets.
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No matter what, walking (whether it be hiking or snowshoeing) takes more effort in the snow versus the trails in the summer. But I’d take the cold, as far as my energy rations go, over the extreme heat, any day.
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