Cross Country Skiing Cascade Road Banff

Christmas decorations hanging from a tree over trail

Christmas decorations hanging from a tree over trail

December 31st Tuesday last day of the year.

The  cross country skiing trail for the Casscade Fire Road Banff, starts at the Lake Minnewanka Parking Lot,9 km from the first Banff turnoff on Hwy#1.This year with the bridge washed out by the June floods the track set only goes for 6 km. There is an additional 3 kms track set down the closed section of the Lake Minnewanka road to the Bankhead Parking lot.

Start of the Casscade Fire Road

Start of the Casscade Fire Road

This is the start of the closed section of road from the Lake end.

Turn off from Bankhead Rd to Casscade

Turn off from Bankhead Rd to Casscade

A couple of skiers coming down the hill at the turn off for the Cascade trail. The trail goes gradually uphill for about half an hour. Conditions were perfect +2 C a little bit of fresh snow and a perfect glide on a sticky +1 C wax.

This is the end of the trail bridge washed away

This is the end of the trail bridge washed away

The trail flattens out with just a few undulations until the final section down to the bridge. Parks Canada says they plan to replace the bridge in the summer of 2014. People are still crossing the creek to the left of the photo but it will only be skier track set. It took me 1 hour going and 40 mins coming back.

The start of the Hill

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The start of the Hill