Redearth Creek

JASPER AREA | LAKE LOUISE AREA | BANFF AREA | Carrot Creek | Johnson Lake | Cascade | Golf Course | Spray River | Cave & Basin | Sundance | Forty Mile Creek | Redearth Creek| Johnston Creek and Ink Pots | CANMORE NORDIC CENTRE | KANANSKIS COUNTRY

Access and parking: The parking lot on the south side of the Trans-Canada Highway 20 km west of Banff.

Length and classification: 11. 5 km (one-way), Moderate.

Description: The trail follows the Redearth fire road. From the kiosk in the parking lot, it runs diagonally uphill to join the fire road in 0. 3 km. An easier start (and finish) is made by skiing about 0.4 km east alongside the highway to the actual start of the fire road. Throughout its first 5 km the trail rises in a series of steps; thereafter it is fairly level. The first steps are quite steep, but the road is wide enough to permit all kinds of manoeuvres. At 7.5 km from the trailhead, the trail crosses the first of two bridges. The second of these, 200 metres farther on, is over Redearth Creek. There is almost no sign left now of the industry once associated with this area when trucks rumbled down the road from a mine at Natalco Lake and timber was milled at a sawmill not far from this bridge. It is 4 km from the Redearth Creek bridge to trail's end where Pharaoh and Redearth Creeks meet. Return to the parking lot by following the fire road.

Hazards: The trail crosses several avalanche slopes on both sides of the valley.