Opal Falls

"Located in Peter Lougheed Provinical Park, Opal falls are multi-leveled falls found within the rocky fissures west of Mount Wintour. By following Opal Creek for fifteen minutes upstream, you find an intriguing spot surrounding the falls area -- with steep scree and rock slopes, and high rock faces. Due to the splits in the mountain that yield Opal Creek, the falls area is quite unique and allows for scrambling on either side of the falls. On our visit, we saw a few mountain goats and many traces of them in the creek and falls area. With luck, animals will be all you'll see as this area is fairly unvisited. The trail to the falls is easy, however not marked. You may need to cross the creek several times along the way. To get there, take Hwy 40 into Kananaskis from the Transcanada Hwy. Proceed into Peter Lougheed Park, staying on Hwy 40 past the Hwy 140 turn-off. You will continue along Hwy 40 towards Highwood. (From the Hwy 140 turnoff, this part of Hwy 40 is closed during the winter months.) After approximately 5 kilometres, take the Valleyview dirt road, on the eastern side of the road. Shortly after turning off Hwy 40, you cross a bridge over Opal Creek. Park on the left side of the road and proceed upstream to the falls. " http://macdonald.typepad.com/

Related: Opal Falls

Elbow falls

We went to Elbow falls on a cold but sunny day again. The river still flows, but lovely icicles have started forming. We had had an unusually cold November with more snow than normal, so the fresh snow was beautiful. So we went further on the road, which is usually closed in winter, there was a warning sign and very little traffic.

Unfortunately we skid on the ice in the Cherokee and landed in a ditch, as it was a Friday we were stuck for quite a while, before we were helped out. Luckily there was no damage to the car. As we drove further we saw many signs of other vehicles that had also landed in the same predicament. Luckily we were warmly dressed, but as the winter was so soon upon us, we weren’t yet prepared for winter driving, with no shovel, extra clothes, etc.