An interesting hike in the Banff townsite area is on nearby Cascade Mountain. The C Level Cirque trail is located on the east side of Cascade Mountain, starting on its lower slopes and working towards a picturesque semicircle of cliffs much higher up the mountain. One of the interesting aspects of the walk is that you pass by an abandoned coal mine, an unusual feature for most any hike but especially in a Canadian National Park.
Most of the mining history is located in the lower portions of the trail, about a mile or so in, where you’ll encounter fenced off shafts, old buildings, and some collapsed sections of rock. I explored a bit, but you really can’t get close to the mine (and it’s dangerous to do so), so I moved on.
The forest on the lower aspect of the trail is a mixed evergreen and aspen forest, and it was so lovely this fall afternoon that this alone made the hike worthwhile.
After your legs warm up, the trail starts getting steep, such that I would consider it as “moderately” difficult. It’s a constant uphill climb for about 2 miles, within a dense pine forest with limited views, although an occasional clearing gives you the dramatic panoramas you expect in Banff National Park.
In time you enter the subalpine zone and into the area of the cirque. A cirque is an amphitheater-like valley carved by glaciers. The cliffs of the cirque are very dramatic, still extending more than a half mile above you.
By the time I arrived at C Level Cirque, this side of the mountain was already in shadow, so it didn’t make for good photography. A large part of it is a massive boulder field, and there is a small remnant of a glacier mostly buried by rock debris. This is a popular place to see a pika, although I didn’t spot any on this excursion.
From the cirque you have a choice of continuing up the ridge, further uphill until you are above the tree line, or returning the way you came. I continued further for a few hundred yards, but as the sun was beginning to fade, I thought it time that I head back to my car.
The round-trip distance of the C Level Cirque trail is about 8 km (about five miles, depending on how far you go). You gain about 1500 ft altitude (just under 500 meters), so it is not an easy hike. But a day spent enjoying fall colors, a historic mining site, and the bonus of a lovely subalpine cirque made for a fine afternoon’s walk.
