Thursday, June 25: Highwood Pass in Kananaskis Country

July 26, 2026

The climb up to Highwood Pass

For readers looking for a blog entry for June 24, there isn't one. We used the day as a rest day from the bike. Our hotel is now close to Banff National Park. The weather forecast predicted one final nice weather day in the park followed by rain every day for the next 9 days or so. I wanted to have nice weather for a sightseeing day in the park, so that is what we did on June 24. It turned out to be a good decision, as rain had a significant impacted on my riding, as future pages will explain.

Like the say, "its all downhill from here". Today I can confidently say that I have rode my bike to the highest elevation I will ever achieve by bike in Canada. Because I rode up and over the Highwood Pass on the Kananaskis Trail today. At 7239 feet, it is the highest point on any public road in Canada.

These last few days I've been keeping a secret from you. When we decided to take the detour away from the TransCanada Trail (TCT) in Sparwood, a week ago, I realized that I would be climbing the Highwood Pass, which at its highest point is 1000 feet higher in elevation than any point on the TCT.

There are very few through roads in this region, roads that link up with other roads that take you somewhere. Really the only reasonable way to return to the TCT area was the Highwood Pass.

The ascent up to the pass was not particularly arduous. It was just long. Generally, our modern roads today don't take routes that require steep climbs. Maybe in regards for truck traffic. The really steep slopes are reserved for dirt roads logging roads, and mountain bike trails. I do recall feeling that the temperature was dropping, and I did come across some patches of snow on the ground in areas that don't get much sunlight, like the north faces of mountains. (side note: The Sunshine Ski Area, one of Banff's three ski hills, was advertising summer skiing on the radio while we were here. Something like the second time in 30 years of business.) At the top we saw a herd of Rocky Mountain sheep just grazing around and in the road. Sheep in the road would usually graze on the very centerline; I guess that's where any traces of salt were most likely to be found. Its strange to realize that the roads in the highest elevations were likely snow covered until a short time ago.

After spending some time at the pass, I mounted the bike, and started the long long descent. After 5 minutes or so, I pulled over because there was a certain striking mountain that I wanted a picture. The picture is below on this page. You've heard the cliche before, that pictures don't do justice to seeing the real thing, and that is definitely true here. I don't know the name of the mountain; there are so many, and the Alberta map we are using designates only a few.

Kananaskis country was officially designated on September 22, 1978 by Alberta Premier, Peter Lougheed. It is large, about 4000 square kilometers. My first visit to Banff was around 1985, and I recall finding out about this park which was very new at that time. The main route through it is Highway 40, also known as the Kananaskis Trail. Audrey and I became very familiar with this road as we travelled up and down it many times while I was riding my bike in this area. The mountains are just as immense and beautiful here as those nearby in Banff National Park. We saw a lot of wildlife also while travelling on this road. Audrey saw a bear in the rear view mirror while driving. It was crossing the road. For people who want to experience mountain scenery, without all of the crowds, this is a popular park. I travelled 28 miles on the bike today; most of it was uphill. Downhill would come tomorrow.

Kananaskis Trail