Castle Mountain Lookout Hike

As I sit here writing about our last hike of the season, we are getting our first snow. It started with early morning rain and turned into snow as the temperature dropped. A very heavy wet snow is descending on Calgary and it is beautiful. 

Last weekend we hiked to Castle Mountain Lookout, an iconic hike that you must take if you are in the Banff area. Castle Mountain sits halfway between Banff and Lake Louise on the 1A Highway. Castle Mountain was once the location of a fire lookout, but now all that remains are the cement ground foundations. It's a short steep hike that climbs to a expansive viewing area of the Bow Valley which extends in both directions. The hike is only 7.4 km round trip, but with a gain of 530 m in just 3.7 km you have to work to enjoy the panorama from the lookout. 

Jim climbing back up to the trail after retrieving his visor that he dropped down the side of the hill we were climbing......

A view on the way up to the top

Views of the Bow Valley from the top of the trail

More views of the valley

The Castle Mountains looming above the lookout

The views were breathtaking

It was a little chilly up top. We ended up putting all our layers back on.

Jim carved our Halloween pumpkin. Do  you know who it is?

Our first snow of the season