The weather was much nicer today so we planned to undertake a hike at Lake Minnewanka. Parts of the trail were considered grizzly bear territory so we were only allowed to do the hike if we were in a group of at least 4 (the rangers said grizzly’s stay well away from groups) and we carried bear spray. Stu purchased the spray on our way to the lake and had to provide ID and sign legal forms as it was kept in locked cabinets.

We arrived at the lake, parked up and took some photos on the rocks.

^{Arriving at Lake Minnewanka}

We were hiking the Stewart Canyon trail so we began by walking alongside the lake and then crossed a bridge and headed into the canyon.

^{The beginning of our hike}

^{Stewart Canyon Bridge and looking up the river towards Stewart Canyon.}

The trail was quite rough underfoot and on our left as we hiked was quite a drop down to the river below.

^{The trail with the river below}

When we reached Stewart Canyon we were able to scramble down to a dry river bed and walk towards the river we had just followed.

^{Made it to Stewart Canyon}

At this point we decided to turn around and head back to the Lake Minnewanka. We climbed down to the shore of the lake where we watched a chipmunk play on a log! As we returned to the carpark the Park Rangers were set up with lots of information about grizzly bears. They had some bear spray and bear posters and Tom & Izzy were both given the opportunity to learn how to use he spray cannisters. Luckily we hadn’t needed to use ours on our hike.

^{Learning how to use bear spray with the rangers}

We then drove a kilometer along the road and reached Two Jacks Lake. Tom & Izzy did not want to get out of the car so Stu & I left them and wandered down to the lake to take some photos.

We then returned to our apartment and spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool.