C-Level Cirque - Slowpoke & Dawdlers (8/28/2011)

The C Level Cirque trail climbs past artifacts of the long-defunct Bankhead coal operation to a high, rockbound pocket beneath the sheer east face of Cascade Mountain.

Within a half hour you reach two skeletal buildings, the remnants of an anthracite coal operation that flourished in the area from 1904 to 1922. A town of nearly 1000 inhabitants called Bankhead was spread across the valley where the trail begins, and these old buildings were a part of the "C Level" operation - the highest coal seams worked within the eastern slope of Cascade Mountain.

From a coal tailing pile 100m beyond the buildings there is an excellent view out to Lake Minnewanka. As the trail climbs above the buildings and viewpoint, it passes by several fenced holes, which were once air vents for the mine shafts below.

The rest of the hike is a steady climb through forest until, 200m before reaching the cirque, views open down the Bow Valley to Mount Rundle, the Three Sisters and other mountains beyond the town of Canmore.

Cirque is a term used by geologists to describe a semicircular, bowl-shaped depression created by an alpine glacier. C Level Cirque is a miniature example of the phenomenon. Though the glacier that produced the basin has long since disappeared, snow often lingers in the basin into midsummer. As it retreats, a carpet of yellow glacier lilies spreads across the damp, subalpine soil near its entrance. A tiny pond below the trail provides water throughout the summer, fed by the extensive snowfield on the talus slopes above.

From the rockslide at the edge of the cirque, a faint trail continues up to the right along a sparsely forested ridge to an even higher vantage point above the basin. However, most hikers prefer to "boot ski" the snowfield beneath Cascade's cliffs or simply relax on a convenient rock to watch the antics of the local inhabitants - hoary marmots, pikas and golden-mantled ground squirrels.

Note: Dogs are permitted but only 2 maximum on this hike (thank you).