Rockbound Lake

Whenever my parents come to visit, I like to take them hiking to places that are a bit less crowded. They know the area well enough now that the more popular destinations have already been visited, and we were curious to see what Rockbound Lake looked like in the summer anyways, so that was our chosen destination for this day.


The trail starts on the back side of the ranger cabin just east of Castle Mountain junction. It starts off very gradual, but through fairly dense forest, for the first couple of hours, until it finally breaks into a meadow just below Eisenhower Tower.

My parents, with Eisenhower Tower off in the distance.

The first lake, Tower Lake, is pretty, but nothing spectacular. So unspectacular, in fact, that I am not posting any pictures of it. :)

The hike between Tower Lake and Rockbound Lake is very short but fairly steep. In the winter, this section gave Akemi and I a bit of trouble as it was narrow and a bit exposed. We had to take our skis off to negotiate the final few metres. In the summer, however, it's just a bit steep and nothing more.

Rockbound Lake

I really like the feeling of isolation being at Rockbound Lake, surrounded by the horseshoe-shaped Castle Mountain (left) and Helena Ridge (right).

Coming down from Rockbound Lake

In the end, we did about 17km round trip, and had our annual dinner with Frank and Tiiu in Canmore, which was fantastic.

Red / yellow Indian Paintbrush