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We Nirvana Girls love hiking. Luckily we live in Alberta, Canada which means we are a couple hours away from the rocky mountains. In May the weather is still a bit of a crap shoot, especially in the mountains. We have definitely hiked in a May snow storm before. We have also hiked in plus 25 celsius, with snow up to our thighs if you step off the path. Canada is weird like that. So when my friend and I wanted to go for a day trip hike in late May we chose Athabasca Lookout, outside Hinton, Alberta.
The Research:
Between the national parks still being closed due to COVID-19 and the unpredictable spring weather we had a hard time finding a hike. We have done a lot of the more well known hikes, and we wanted something moderately challenging. We were willing to drive a few hours but not more than 4.
All these requirements meant we were searching an app called Alltrails for hours. The thing with Alltrails is that anyone can add a trail, whether an official trail in a park, or off the beaten path on crown land, or one that maybe existed years ago but is now overgrown or washed out. So we take these descriptions with a grain of salt and read reviews. If you see lots of recent reviews you are usually good to go. If you see less or none then it’s probably not real, or you will be looking for the trailhead for hours. (We tried that once!)
The Choice:
So we settled on a trail called the Athabasca Lookout in William A. Switzer provincial park which had reopened. It’s just outside of Hinton, Alberta. The trail is a 10.9 KM out and back trail, with a moderate rating and a 553 meter elevation gain which seemed manageable. After reading some reviews and talking to other hikers, we realized you can start this trail from either end.
The Hike:
We started from the Hinton Nordic center, which seems to be an old shut down ruin, but we didn’t really explore there. We did have some confusion as the AllTrails app wanted us to drive right up a fire road marked private property, park staff only. It leads up to the fire lookout station. Eventually we realized that the parking lot we had arrived at had a short trail leading up to the lookout, which connected to the trail we planned on taking. So off we went.
We walked up a relatively easy hill, passing a super cute little stream. This was the perfect spot for us to fill up our Lifestraw water bottles. These things are the coolest hiking accessories. They are water bottles that you can fill up from almost any water source and they filter it for you. I’ve used mine for a couple years and it proved invaluable on my 3 day backpacking trip. Here is a link to the one I bought! After we filled up, we continued up to the top.
The view at the top of this easy elevation gain was amazing. We stopped here to eat a snack, and take in the views. The weather was wonderful and sunny, with a bit of a cool wind. After spending a half hour here we moved on, following the ridgeline.
The Way Back:
As we followed the ridge, we continually stopped to enjoy the spectacular views. We met only a few other hikers, and were easily able to stay socially distanced. The weather slowly started to change, and we watched the clouds rolling over the mountains. We made it most of the way along the ridge, before starting down towards the valley. Between the weather and the steep decline, we decided to turn around and make our way back. We got a couple small rain drops on our heads and the wind picked up a bit on the way back. We ran into one other group on the way back, and when we got down to the car we enjoyed our vegan lunch that we packed and left in a cooler. All in all it was a beautiful day. The Athabasca Lookout in Hinton, Alberta was a challenging but rewarding hike, and a relaxing drive. If you are looking for another amazing hike check out our trip to the Lake Agnes tea house here!