Raspberry Ridge

Elevation: 2360 m
Elevation Gain: 653 m
According to Peakfinder.com, Raspberry Ridge is so-named because “there must be raspberries on the ridge somewhere.” The summit of the ridge has been the site of an active fire lookout since 1954 when it replaced the, now abandoned, lookout atop nearby Mount Burke.
Trailhead: Raspberry Ridge Parking
My Ascents:
June 4 2023, June 8 2014, May 4 2013
GPS Track: Raspberry Ridge

2023 has been an exhausting year. For one thing, we have a new baby 👶 (Lillian). She’s awesome in case you haven’t met her. But she’s a lot of work. Our 5-year-old and 7-year-old daughters (Penny and Mera) are also pretty rad. But they’re also a lot of work. On top of our ballooning 🎈 number of progeny, there’s actual work (which is a lot of work these days). Actual work has proven especially exhausting this year owing to the absurd amount that they’ve had me traveling. This travel isn’t all bad but, well, it’s a lot of work!!! In case there’s any confusion, 2023 has basically been a lot of work and my wife and I are tired. Very tired… 😴

The thing is, we’re also gluttons for punishment. Taking it easy is not something that’s in our DNA. So, when the opportunity to finally enjoy a lazy Sunday at home arose, what did we do? We decided to pack up the whole family for a hike. 🤦‍♂️ This, as you may have guessed, is a lot of work. 😂 With all this work, there really wasn’t much time for planning. I love exploring new peaks but figuring out routes, logistics etc. is a lot of work and I’d already had my fill. 😫 So, on Sunday June 4, we set out for a family hike up Raspberry Ridge: a hike I’d previously enjoyed and hoped to enjoy again in 2023 with my awesome, rad girls.

LEFT: Penny is, like I said, rad. 😎
RIGHT: The “rad ladies” ready to roll at the trailhead. As a funny aside, I suggested Raspberry Ridge so that I could avoid doing any hike-related research (I was tired, remember?). I Guess I should have done a quick Raspberry Ridge refresher though, because I forgot how to get to the trailhead and subjected us to an extra 40 minutes of driving on the way there… 😬

After hiking past the gate in the photo above, we followed the road for a few minutes before reaching the obvious, cairned turn-off for Raspberry Ridge. Fortunately, I remembered the hike pretty well (just not the drive to it)! 🙃

LEFT: 4 beautiful smiles from 4 beautiful ladies hiking through a pleasant forest on a summer day. Hiking with the family is work but it’s totally worth it.
RIGHT: After a couple of kilometers in the forest, Raspberry Ridge finally made its first appearance and it still looked far away. There was a time when I thought 10-km approach hikes were short. Now, I think 10-km days are grueling 😣 lol.

LEFT: Another fork in the road. The longer but easier route up Raspberry Ridge goes to the left of this cairn. Like I mentioned earlier, we’re gluttons for punishment so we took the right fork, which provides a shorter but steeper way up.
RIGHT: 5-year-old Penny tackles the steep, somewhat rugged trail up.

LEFT: Even without the shades, Penny is becoming a pretty rad little hiker. She practically charged up this whole slope! 💪
RIGHT: Brianne and Mera, on the other hand, lagged behind somewhat as the terrain steepened and the views began to open up. In Brianne’s defense, she was dealing with a pretty significant little “training weight!” 😂

LEFT: Mera and Penny follow the trail up, up, up towards the sky…
RIGHT: … and eventually, reached the rock band immediately below the ridge. The crest, itself, is gained with relative ease, thanks to this weakness.

Brianne and the world’s cutest training weight 😍 enjoy views for days and mellow hiking (at last) as they make their way up the ridge crest.

Mera leads us up the ridge’s final section towards its fire lookout-topped summit.

A relatively grand South Kananaskis panorama from Raspberry Ridge’s summit. Click to see larger.

Mist Mountain (center left) highlights the view to the northwest.

Looking north beyond Coyote Hills (left) towards Mount Head, Holy Cross Mountain (center) and Bull Creek Hills (right).

Dad’s rad girls 🤩 enjoy the summer sun on yet another summit!

A closer look at nearby Mount Head and Holy Cross Mountain (whose summit ridge had me doing the “sign of the cross” many years back 😂).

Summit views east towards Mount Burke.

Closer looks at Mount Burke (left), whose summit fire lookout migrated to Raspberry Ridge’s apex many years ago, and Sentinel Peak (right).

Aptly named Plateau Mountain looks like a lump of prairie.

LEFT and RIGHT: Little Miss Lillian enjoyed stretching her legs on the summit-top heli-pad after an “arduous” ascent in her mom’s carrier.

Lilly wasn’t the only one of dad’s girls who took advantage of the heli-pad. While Lillian crawled to and fro, Mera cartwheeled 🤸 here there and all about. Penny mostly ate lunch 🥪 lol.

The pastoral panorama of hazy High Rock Range peaks to the west. Click to see larger.

A quick summit selfie with my ladies. Life may be exhausting but these girls make it all worthwhile.

LEFT: After spending our summit time taking photos, chasing our, suddenly, very mobile baby and reminding Mera not to cartwheel off the mountain, we decided that it was time to hike down and began our steep descent.
RIGHT: Easy does it. Brianne was sure to mind her step so as not to wake the, now, sleeping baby.

After making our way down the steepest terrain, we enjoyed a quick hike back through the woods, capping another un-restful 🙃 family hike in the Canadian Rockies. Man, I’m tired… 🥱😂