Thanks to a local outfitter we now have a much better trail to Lake Rea from the Elbow–Sheep cut-off in the headwaters of the Sheep River in Kananaskis Country. While the trail is 500 m longer than the discontinued one, it misses out open hillsides torn up by grizzlies and has a good tread throughout.

Among the rarer land forms in the Canadian Rockies are snow-avalanche impact pools. They are small ponds located at the foot of steep avalanche slopes scoured out by snow avalanches with a mound of debris behind them. We visited the impact pool at Upper Tombstone Lake.

We were about 150 m up the trail when Gillean saw a bear cub ahead soon followed by its mum shepherding her offsprings toward us. We were heading up Elbow Lake Trail about 8:15 Thursday morning on a backpacking trip to Tombstone Campground.

Here are our picks for the best day hikes in the Sheep River Area. They vary in effort required from an easy walk up Sandy McNabb Hill to moderate ascents of Volcano Ridge and Mount Ware and a long hike to Junction Lookout.

Alberta Parks, with help from The Friends of Kananaskis Country, is conducting a trail user survey throughout Kananaskis parks this summer. You may encounter friendly Friends volunteers at the end of your hike conducting a brief survey using tablets. Please give them about five minutes of your time.

An excellent hike to a tremendous viewpoint 8.2 km return from Indian Oils trailhead in the Sheep River area of Kananaskis Country. New bridge, well marked trail and no creek crossings.

A short guide to the path of The Great Trail through Kananaskis Country with lots of links to maps, and to Trailfinder information screens where you will find more links. Most sections are described in Gillean Daffern's Kananaskis Country Trail Guides.

For this long weekend (May 19-22), there will be parking (about 70-80 vehicles) in the yellow area in the image. The WBC trails received 36mm of rain and 10cm of snow on May 17, so trails will be wet and muddy for several days.  Check current trail conditions on the GBCTA website, before heading out.

The latest improvements to multi-user trails is the provision of cattle guards so mountain bikers don't have to dismount and open swing gates, or lift their bikes over drift fences when they encounter a V-gate. It also reduces the chance of people not shutting gates behind them.