In addition to the Sunshine Meadows high alpine wildflower/larch viewing trails, Sunshine Village serves as an alternate starting point to hike to Healy Pass (via Simpson Pass) and Mt. Assiniboine. More than 9 km from the trailhead, Citadel Pass is only about a third of the way to Mt. Assiniboine, but an ideal distance for an out-and-back full day hike.
NOTE: This hike is in Banff National Park. Park entry fees apply. See the Parks Canada website for details.
Gondola
Summer operation of the Sunshine Village gondola commenced on July 1st. The gondola runs from 9 am to 6 pm on weekends (Friday through Sunday plus long weekend Mondays). I haven’t been able to find anything definite on when the gondola will cease summer operation, so if anyone reading this knows, please leave a comment to let us know.
We paid $39 + GST = $40.95 pp. The optional Standish quad chairlift (which runs from Sunshine Village to the summit of Mt. Standish) costs another $13 + GST = $13.65 pp. Discounts are available for ski season pass holders, people who can show proof of buying a Calgary Stampede 2016 admission ticket and with coupons. See the website for details and current prices.
The gondola climbs about 500 meters in 20 minutes.
After disembarking, we headed uphill towards the left (following signs for Rock Isle Lake and Mt. Assiniboine). Watch for information signs along this front section of the trail; they explain hummocks, provide interesting factoids about the Continental Divide and explain how and why patches of evergreen trees are growing at 2200+ meters.
About 1.2 km along (15 to 20 minutes) there’s a fork in the trail: right to Rock Isle Lake or left to Quartz Hill, Howard Douglas Campground, Citadel Pass and beyond. After talking it over, we decided the position of the sun would be a problem for photography if we waited to visit Rock Isle Lake on the way back, so we opted for an early detour.
Detour to Rock Isle Lake
The short side trip to Rock Isle Lake adds less than a kilometer (< 20 minutes) to the hike. It’s a small investment with a big scenic payoff.
Citadel Pass
After retracing our route back to the fork in the trail, we took the one less traveled. Heading roughly SSE for 8 km (5 miles), we descended into and climbed out of two small valleys before arriving at Citadel Pass shortly past noon, just in time for lunch.
The trail is well-established and easy to follow. In addition to a colourful range of wildflowers we spotted a male Mountain Bluebird, several other songbirds and plenty of Columbian Ground Squirrels. The snow patches on Quartz Hill reminded us of our 2015 exploration of Iceland.
Side Trip Towards Fatigue Pass
The sky started clouding over while we were at Citadel Pass, and rain/thunderstorms were in the forecast for the afternoon. We debated whether to carry on at least part way to Fatigue Pass or start back and eventually decided to extend our hike towards Fatigue Pass for about 15 minutes before turning back. The trail towards Fatigue Pass heads up and across the hill behind the Citadel Pass sign. The first couple of hundred meters are visible, but after that we had to watch carefully for cairns marking the route.
We made our decision to hike part of the way along the Fatigue Pass trail based on a recommendation in Don’t Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies, 7th Edition. Mr. GeoK climbed higher than I did and came back with the opinion that the views don’t really improve with the elevation gain. I only hiked about 750 meters along the trail and enjoyed some much better views of Mt. Assiniboine from there.
Our decision to explore part of the trail to Fatigue Pass added 1.5+ km (50 minutes) to our hike. The extra time and distance paid off if with a better view of Mt. Assiniboine, tons of wildflowers, a sense of being a little more off the beaten path and bugs! There were way more black flies and mosquitoes here than anywhere else along our route. Mr. GeoK said the view didn’t really improve by hiking up the switchbacks.
Back to Sunshine Village
We moved at a slightly quicker pace on the “and back” portion of our hike. Rain threatened from the west and we hiked in light rain showers a couple of times (nothing serious enough to warrant digging our rain gear out from our packs). Although the scenery was familiar from the “out” let of the hike, as always there were aspects of the landscape that are better viewed from the other direction.
SUMMARY:
Total distance = 21.4 km
Total elevation gain = 795 meters (257 net)
Total hiking time = 6 hrs 15 minutes (including 1 hour 30 minutes for lunch and photography)
The total distance pushes this hike into the moderate category. For those who prefer to gain all their elevation in one direction, this is not the hike for you, since it’s a series of ups and downs over the entire distance.