Kananaskis Village & Valley Trails March 10, 2022

The plan was to either spike hike or snowshoe around some trails in the Kananaskis Village & Valley area so I went prepared with all the equipment. Since I was feeling a tad on the lazy side, I was thankful the trails we could see were well packed so the snowshoes got left behind.   It's still winter out where "life begins at Highway 40", it looked like it and it felt like it and I like it like that!

For the most part we were sheltered by the trees from the strong wind gusts.  Early on through an open section we had this grand view of Mount Kidd behind us and I like the clouds that are hovering over top, thank you to the wind for that.  

If I had my snowshoes on, I would have worked my way through this snowy pillow section.  

The sun was high and bright and created a maze of shadows.

Eventually we ended up at Troll Falls. which were covered in snow.  The new signage and barriers were placed to prevent people from getting near them.  I admired them for a minute, that was enough.  It was the.....

.....canyon walls and the snow and shadows on them that caught my eye!

We found a spot in an open meadow with a view to have a late lunch.  It's days like this even though it is winter, the sun strongly beats down and generates loads of heat to give the feel of summer.  Lunch here was lovely and filled a good length of time.

a shadow shot

along the trail

After lunch, I was chatting with my photographer friend telling her that I have a difficult time getting photos at times when the sun is so bright. I told her in some cases I get a little green "x" in my photos and I call it a kiss. I noticed when I got home and looked at my photos, I saw a kiss.  I smiled!  

In some areas we needed to cross over the cross country ski trails and those tracks looked divine today.  Some of our trails were shared with fat tire bikers but there were none of those bikers out today.  

admiring the view as we find our way back to the Village

afternoon view of Mount Kidd and it's just as pretty as it was this morning

Time came to remove the spikes and follow

 the paved path back to where we began the day.  

They say "life begins at Highway 40" and I always feel so alive when venturing into Kananaskis!