Kicking Horse (Golden, AB):
The Kicking Horse Mountain Resort ended up being one of the better places we had stayed in by that point: It was a two-bedroom, loft-style condo in a lodge-style building. The kids seemed to enjoy it so much that trying to get them out of the condo was quite difficult, so Nicole decided to stay with them while I ventured out on my own.
I chose to take the gondola up to the top of the 7,700 ft mountain and the views were AMAZING!!! I’ll let the panoramic pics from the CPR Ridge trail speak for themselves (an aptly named trail, I might add).
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I said I wanted to hike, so I took the 10 km trail that goes from the top of the mountain and descends 3,700 ft back to the resort, dodging mountain bikers as they rode down the mountain as well. It took almost three hours to get down, and I didn’t realize what it would do to my legs near the end, and the following two days. Whew!
As a reward for making it down, I decided to take a return trip back up in the gondola and was lucky enough to spot Boo, who was out and about!
Boo, the grizzly bear, lives on a 20-acre enclosed reserve on the mountain where he is free to roam. He was born in the wild, but was orphaned at five months after a poacher killed his mother.
