The Passionate Hiker: Gunnery Mountain

Sat. 10 August: Gunnery Mountain

Approaching Turner Valley in the mist

This was my first visit to the Highwood since the June floods. Our journey took us high above the valley, with grand views down to the river and its destructive path.

Today the veteran team of J, R and the author had finally succeeded in synchronizing our schedules for a far too infrequent trip together. We drove through low lying mist all the way from the city, with the sun casting an orange glow as it rose above the fog. The skies were clear in the Highwood Valley and we were soon driving west past the flags which mark the Kananaskis Country boundary.

Soon we passed the familiar Grass Pass hiking trail as it turned north up the creek from the highway. A couple of hundred metres further west, we looked for the trailhead for that route, at Sentinel parking area beside the Highwood River. But it was simply not there. The entire Sentinel area, including the large equestrian parking lot, the long slip road beside the river, the picnic area, the washrooms and the trees had all been swept away, leaving a wide open area of gravel flats leading to the river. We could hardly believe the change and the wholesale destruction which had been caused by the floods.

Our goal today was not the popular Grass Pass, but the next valley to the west. Gunnery Creek leads up to Gunnery Mountain, which sits high above the Highwood Valley directly north of the highway. We parked at the gate to the Eagle’s Eyrie parking area. This area has been closed for several years, but may well be reopened to replace Sentinel. Two other cars were arriving at the same time as we were, with the two drivers also planning to hike up Gunnery Creek. Our trail headed up the road bank beside Gunnery Creek and entered the narrow valley on the right bank of the creek. There was a good trail up this valley, and it proved to be less steep than I had expected. In fact, higher up, the valley opened up a little and the walking was very pleasant. The guidebook had warned of nine crossings of the creek, but it was dry. We did see some small amount of damage to the creek-bed caused by the floods. The trail itself was easy to follow and was undamaged.

The two guys soon passed us on their way up to the Pass. Our route, however, required us to make a reverse switchback to climb the hillsides to our left up to a hidden gap in the mountain wall, called “The Notch”. The junction was not clear at all. We took a calculated line up the forested slopes, and had to negotiate a section of fairly intense bushwhacking until we picked up the right trail coming up out of the valley. We had judged our position dead-on and met the trail as it came out onto more open steep hillsides. Far below us in the valley, a couple of hikers could be heard making their presence known to any interested bears with an occasional yell. I could not resist returning the call. As they came out of the trees, we could see them turning to look up the mountainside to see the source of the echo high above them!

It was an exciting route up a steep trail through the trees into the Notch. This is actually a saddle between the soaring cliffs of Holy Cross Mountain to the right and the gentle forested slopes of Gunnery Mountain to the left. The saddle is flat for three or four hundred metres before dropping into the next valley to the west. Here we enjoyed open views of the Front Ranges.

It was a simple job to climb the slopes, past an open viewpoint, up to the summit ridge. The ground dropped steeply to east and west, giving good all round views. Gunnery Mountain is really just a lower outlier of the Holy Cross massif, which dominated the northern view. Below lay the Highwood Valley and a sea of familiar foothills to south and to west. The remains of a crazy zigzag road cold be seen climbing Junction Hill directly to our west. A helicopter flew low along the valley, and a short while later, a small airplane flew even lower above the river. Plenty of people were interested to see the destruction, and not everyone chose to climb a mountain to see it!

Our journey down the southwest ridge to the road was a spectacular drop, beside steep cliffs, with increasingly good views of the river valley to east and to west. We knew this was a hiking route, as the guidebook told us so. Otherwise we would not have wanted to chance having to reverse direction at some cliff or other obstacle. But we made it safely back down, coming out onto the highway at a creek-bed which had been the scene of spectacular destruction in June, with rocks and trees tearing up a section of roadbed. A short walk eastwards along the reconstructed road brought us back to the car, a little hot and exhausted. It didn’t look much on the map, but this was an exciting, strenuous journey up into the hills.

We drove west to the winter gate, which was closed. A barrier also blocked off the forestry road to the south. A few cyclists stood around the barrier probably debating where to go next. It might be a few weeks until the Highwood once more becomes an open road into the large area of Kananaskis Country that remains closed off. In the meantime, Gunnery Mountain is as good a place as any to get an idea of the destruction of the floods of 2013.

Statistics:

Total Distance: 9.5 km (hike)

Height Gain: 2,037 ft.

Max. Elev.: 6,834 ft.

Time on Trail: 5 hrs. 50 mins.

Dep. car: 7.37 am

Notch Tr Jn: 9.00 am

Notch: 9.53 am

Arr. Peak: 10.35 am

Dep. Peak: 11.15 am

Road: 1.06 pm

Ret. to car: 1.27 pm