The Passionate Hiker: Sparrowhawk Tarns

Sat. 3 August: Sparrowhawk Tarns

Shell and tiny fish: on rocks beside the upper tarn

Last week, my theme was Scottish hills, and now this week, it is English Lakes! Today, my hiking buddy J and I explored the Sparrowhawk Tarns. The word “tarn” conjures up tiny lakes hidden in the misty hills of the English Lake District. These tarns high above the Spray Lakes were well named, being small, and hidden from a casual hiker. But their setting was superb, lying directly beneath the towering walls of Mt. Bogart (10,315 ft.) and Red Ridge (8,648 ft.).

Any hike up out of the Spray Valley will be steep at first, and in the forest. But the rewards are there for the persistent traveler. About a kilometre up the trail, a side trail branches off to the left, with “Mt. Sparrowhawk” scrawled on a dead tree trunk. There was someone ahead of us on the trail and we think they were heading up to that challenging peak. We swung right up the forest trail.

Finally we broke out of the forest, below a gigantic rockfall. Luckily plenty of people come this way, and the route was well marked with tiny piles of stones and a well-used narrow trail. We threaded our way up the edge of the rockfall, to the first of several headwalls. Each one gave more panoramic views down to the Spray Lakes and the Goat Range peaks along the horizon. The larches up on the headwall would make this a grand destination in the Fall.

Higher up, we passed through an even grander rockfall, finally reaching the upper valley of Sparrowhawk Creek. Mountains ringed the head of the valley. Down to our left was the first of the Sparrowhawk tarns, its dark waters nestled in a low basin. We stayed on the ridge above the lake. To reach the other tarns, we had to contour around the wide valley, swinging right, to another series of headwalls leading directly to the mountain wall. This was a pleasant stroll through grassy shelves of rock.

A tumbling stream led up to a magical hidden landscape of waterfalls, rock ledges, and several tiny lakes reflecting the skies and the mountains. The color of the water in these tarns changed completely, depending on your angle to the sun. One tarn could be brown, or green, or light blue, as you circled its edges. There was no wind, so the reflections in the water were perfect.

The final two tarns were the largest, and they lay directly underneath Red Ridge. There is a trail which runs along the top of Red Ridge. The guidebook says you can skate down from the summit to the tarns, down a steep fan of scree. It looked dangerous, but three mountain sheep made an easy job of hopping off some cliffbands and down the scree to a grassy area lower down, so I suppose it can be hiked – but not upwards!

I walked around the upper tarn, whose edges were muddy. These tarns shrink in size over the summer. Beside this tarn were limestone rocks plastered with tiny fossils. Exquisite sea shells were plentiful, but it was only when I got home and studied my pictures that I found I had captured a tiny fish in one photo. As we relaxed by the lake, a couple of hoary marmots ran across the rocky landscape, perhaps looking for lunch, or just having some fun.

The other upper lake looked as if it had experienced a sudden rise in levels, and there was a muddy outwash along its lower edges. This might have been an exciting place to stand during the recent floods, as sheets of water poured down off the cliffs directly into the lake. We clambered around the grassy knolls, to a high point amongst the tarns, for a superb view of the mountain scenery.

On our return, we dropped back down to the wide Sparrowhawk Valley, contouring round to the point where the stream drops down through a rocky canyon to the lower tarn. It was across the open valley that we met our first human, a guy heading for the upper tarns. We stopped for a brief chat about the route. During the rest of the day we passed perhaps a dozen other hikers toiling up the headwalls. As J stayed on the ridgeline, I detoured down the canyon, to the edge of the lower tarn. One tiny scramble was required to drop into the basin, beside two waterfalls. This lower tarn was dark and deep, and equally as spectacular as the upper tarns.

Our return down the steep trail was enjoyable, and we congratulated ourselves at having ascended with such ease. The top of the lower headwall made an ideal stopping place for a late lunch with a grand view.

Down at the Sparrowhawk carpark, there were now twenty or more cars parked. Most of these people were probably down at the lake, enjoying a perfect long weekend afternoon in the sunshine.

We returned to Calgary through Canmore. The Goat Creek day use area and the dam had a festive air, with the crowds of day trippers, and the drive down the steep road into Canmore was slow. We were in no hurry. We had been surprised by the beauty of the Sparrowhawk Tarns, and by their solitude, and were not inclined to rush back to the city. And, unlike most of my adventures in the English Lakes, we were not soaking wet!

Statistics*:

Total Distance: 16.4 km (hike)

Height Gain: 2,320 ft.

Max. Elev.: 7,979 ft.

Time on Trail: 7 hrs. 4 mins.

Dep. car: 7.58 am

Forest end: 9.19 am

1st Tarn: 10.18 am

Upper Tarn: 11.26 am

High point: 12.22 pm

1st Tarn: 1.08 pm

Forest: 2.09 pm

Ret. to car: 3.02 pm

Temp: +3 to +21 deg.C

Weather: Sunny, a few clouds building up

* J had a new GPS device with him, which told us everything we could possibly want to know about our trip, including how long we were idling and not hiking! This device showed significant differences in distance and elevation gain from the figures given in the guidebook. I chose to reflect the GPS data.