The Smith Dorrien/Spray Lakes Trail is an incredibly scenic gravel road stretching from Canmore to Highway 40, near Highwood Pass. This road provides close up views to glaciers and absurdly tall cliff faces, with one mountain even looking exactly like a fist. To the south, the Kananaskis Lakes Trail is a short drive with an ending point in between two lakes.

The Spray Valley and Kananaskis Lakes areas are likely to be considered the most beautiful areas of Kananaskis. Closer to the inner ranges and the continental divide, these peaks offer the widest range of terrain in all of Kananaskis, meaning that there is an incredible variety of trip possibilities. It is here that lies many beautiful alpine lakes and tarns, massive glaciated peaks, endless alpine meadows, and obviously plenty of rock. This is also where Mount Joffre, the King of Kananaskis lies unassumingly, straddled far south on the continental divide.

It snows almost excessively in much of this area, especially close to the continental divide, which is made apparent by the many glaciers in the area. The incredibly snowy winters make this area perfect for backcountry skiing and snowshoeing.

Discover our trip reports for this area below.