Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Spray Lake
The Smith-Dorrien/Spray Trail (known as Spray Lakes Road from the Canmore end) is the
only road through the park. This 60-kilometer (37-mile) unpaved (and often dusty) road
links Peter Lougheed Provincial Park in the south to Canmore in the north. From the south,
the road climbs up the Smith-Dorrien Creek watershed, passing Mud Lake and entering
Spray Valley Provincial Park just south of Mount Engadine Lodge. Around three kilomet-
ers (1.9 miles) farther north is
Buller Pond
(on the west side of the road), from where the
distinctive “Matterhorn” peak of Mount Assiniboine can be seen on a clear day. The road
then parallels the eastern shoreline of Spray Lake for more than 20 kilometers (12.4 miles),
passing three lakefront picnic areas. The mountains that rise steeply to the east are the same
ones visible to the
west
driving along the Kananaskis Valley. They rise to a high point of
3,121 meters (10,240 feet) at
Mount Sparrowhawk
(opposite the picnic area of the same
name), which was roundly recommended as having better slopes than the barely adequate
Mount Allan for hosting the downhill-skiing events of the 1988 Winter Olympics. In the
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