Crandell Lake

Elevation: 1550 m
Elevation Gain: 125 m
Nestled amidst the limestone between its namesake mountain and Ruby Ridge, Crandell Lake was named for Edward Henry Crandell, a pioneering Calgary businessman and City Councillor who had an interest in western Canada’s first producing oil well (which was located nearby). Prior to 1914, the lake was referred to as Blue Lake, which is probably more apt.
My Ascents:
July 7 2023
Trailhead: Crandell Lake Trailhead (Red Rock Parkway)

Waterton Lakes National Park is one of our favorite places. While visitation at more proximate mountain parks like Banff and Kananaskis has exploded in recent years, Waterton, by and large, remains accessible and uncrowded. In my carefree (read: kid-free) past, I used to enjoy frequent day trips to Waterton, but I have since learned that 3 hours in a car (each way) with 3 kids does not make for a fun outing. And so, we’ve gotten into the habit of camping in Waterton at least once per summer so that we can still enjoy its grand intersection of peaks and prairies.

Following an afterwork drive to the Park on Friday, we awoke (still full of delicious pizza) and somewhat lazy on Saturday. After rolling out of bed, we spent most of the morning poking about town because Grandma and Grandpa, who were camping with us, were still asleep. Roaming about, we walked to Cameron Falls (LEFT) and let the kids enjoy Waterton’s lovely new playground (RIGHT) before eventually, growing restless and deciding that it was time to get our butts in gear for a hike.

As the midday temperatures soared ☀️ (and the grandparents finally made an appearance 🥱), we decided that a quick hike to Crandell Lake was in order. After a fun, roller coaster-like drive on the Red Rock Parkway, we arrived at the trailhead and set off with bathing suits, towels and floaties, hoping that a quick dip in Crandell Lake would take the edge off the afternoon heat!

Crandell Lake is accessible from both the Red Rock and Akamina Parkways. We hiked from the Red Rock side since I remembered hiking this way as a kid (from the now-destroyed Crandell Mountain Campground). Fine views of Ruby Ridge (center left) and Mount Blakiston (center right) from the flower-filled former campground were a clear benefit of choosing this route.

LEFT: Nearby Mount Galwey, nicely framed by a pair of trees that shared the former campground’s fate 🔥.
RIGHT: 7-year-old Mera and 5-year-old Penny (also nicely framed by the remains of fire-ravaged foliage). The first section of the hike lazily meandered through the old campground, without gaining any elevation. Even with such easy travel, it quickly became apparent that our kids were in pokey-mode. Maybe it was the afternoon heat? 🥵 Maybe they were just being turkeys. 🦃 We’ll never know! Fortunately, the hike was short and we felt no great need to rush them along.

After meandering through the former campground for over a kilometer, we finally reached the old trailhead and began to actually gain elevation. Why Parks has kept the trailhead outside of the former campground (which they’ve done next to no work rebuilding) is a mystery, but the flat approach to this point was pretty at least.

LEFT and RIGHT: The family steadily gains elevation through the remains of a once-great forest on a muggy summer afternoon.

LEFT and RIGHT: The now open slopes north of Crandell Lake are home to a proliferation of wildflowers, including vibrant violet fireweed and asters.

And of course, everyone’s favorite: rosy, red paintbrushes.

Mera, Penny, Brianne (and Lillian) try to keep pace with Grandma as the rocky trail crests a high point before beginning its descent to Crandell Lake. The fact that Grandma was so far ahead attests to our little hikers’ pokiness on this particular day. While we’d been unconcerned with their glacial pace below, we’d since noted a disturbing buildup of threatening clouds overhead…

LEFT: So much for the planned swim! While the hike up was HOT, the sky completely clouded over by the time that our two little sloths 🦥 made it here. With thunder rumbling above, we elected to stay out of the lake in a likely futile attempt to remain dry.
RIGHT: Cloud or no cloud, 9-month-old Lillian still enjoyed dipping her little toes in Crandell’s cool waters.

LEFT: After seeing Lilly in the lake, Penny (of course) had to dip her toes in as well…
RIGHT: Not to be outdone, Mera took things one step further… 🤦

Once we fished our kids out of the water, I was able to get a better panoramic photo of the lake and its lovely reflections. Click to see larger.

LEFT: Mount Crandell dwells directly above the its namesake lake’s slabby east shore.
RIGHT: Reflections from an outlier of Buchanan Peak dance on the lake’s calm waters to the south.

Hiking along the lake’s east shore granted a slightly different panorama. Click to see larger.

Ruby Ridge rises up above the lake’s north shore, whose beach would allow for great swimming here when lightning is not imminent.

LEFT and RIGHT: My little mountain explorer 🥰 takes full advantage of the aforementioned beach.

As the rumbles overhead grew more frequent, we decided that it was time to grab a couple of family photos before retreating from the impending rain.

LEFT: Family photo #2: Grandma and her girls. It would have been good to get a photo with Grandpa as well but he never puts his own camera down for long enough to make that happen…
RIGHT: As we started down, our descent was delayed when Mera insisted on climbing a large log. This was pretty much how this hike went…

LEFT: Brianne herds a pokey Penny down the trail (after we successfully) coaxed Mera off the log.
RIGHT: With rain falling and thunder rumbling, we all donned rain gear for the hike down (but few of us looked us cute as Penny doing so 🥹).

Mount Galwey and its right shoulder (Bellevue Hill) make a panoramic appearance on the way down. Click to see larger.

After descending the actual hike, we plodded the remaining 1+ km to the car on the old campground road. Mercifully, the heavens didn’t completely open up ☔ until mere moments before we made it back to the trailhead. Essentially, we made it back in the nick of time and narrowly avoided getting wetter than we would have if we’d gone through with our swim in the lake! The kids may have been pokey, but it could have been much worse!

LEFT: After a brief deluge, the skies cleared and I was able to catch the kickoff of the Stamps-Bombers game under sunny skies at the campground! Sadly, the Stamps were pokier than our kids this evening and proceeded to lose in lopsided fashion.
RIGHT: The evening’s Parks Canada interpretive program ended up providing much better entertainment value than the Stamps game (Bah – Humbug)… Moreover, the kids were so excited to see it that they weren’t even pokey on the way. 😂 Perhaps tomorrow we’ll lie to them and tell them there’s an interpretive show at the top of the hike? 🤔💡