Moose Mountain

Trip Date: September 2014

Moose Mountain is a popular hiking and mountain biking destination in Kananaskis Country.  Over the summer and early fall I spent a few days biking in the West Bragg Creek area of K-Country, but had yet to take advantage of the shuttle option that's available on Moose Mountain.  In the middle of September two of my co-workers (Jeff and Mike) invited me to ride Moose Mountain with them and I jumped at the chance.  We parked one vehicle at the Moose Mountain Trailhead Provincial Recreation Area, which is part of the greater Kananaskis Parks System.  The parking lot is approximately 75km west of Calgary along Highway 66.  You have to turn north off of the highway onto a gravel road that will take you 7km up the flank of Moose Mountain.  Here you can park your vehicle and choose from a number of different trails that will take you down.  We chose to ride Moose Packers Trail to Ridgeback, which would eventually take us to Station Flats where the second vehicle was waiting.  

Trail Map provided by the Moose Mountain Bike Trail Society

The view shortly after starting our ride

The peak on the left is the summit of Moose Mountain.  If you look closely you can see a black dot on the top, which is actually a fire lookout station.

A section of Moose Packers Trail 

A meadow where Moose Packers trail turns in Ridgeback Trail

Ridgeback Trail

Following Jeff along the trail

The view really opened up along this section of the trail

Looking way back towards the summit of Moose Mountain

Wrapping up a great ride

Utilizing the shuttle really opens up a lot of options for riding.  The majority of our ride on this day was all downhill, which isn't normally the case.  There are numerous other trails in the area to explore, but make sure you do your homework as many of them are considered to be downhill-type trails, which may require additional safety equipment or even a different bike.  I can't wait to go back to Moose Mountain and try a few of the other options that are there.  I wouldn't even mind hiking to the summit.  I bet the view from up there is pretty amazing!