Ice skating on a mountain lake is a fundamental part of experiencing the Canadian winter. Skating Spray Lakes Reservoir near Canmore, Alberta was my first time lake skating, and it’s going to be hard to top.
Getting there:
Spray Lakes Reservoir is located near Canmore, Alberta, just outside of Banff National Park. From Calgary, we drove about an hour to Canmore, and then another 20 minutes along Spray Lakes Road before deciding on a place to park and slip on our skates. Spray Lakes Road was a little dicey in places, so we were glad we had a car the could handle the snow. We ended up parking almost right next to Spray Lakes Campground, which was closed for the winter.
From the side of the road, it was just an easy one or two minute walk down to the lake, so we had no trouble packing in our skates and thermos full of hot cocoa. Apparently Canadians don’t say “hot cocoa”, and operate exclusively using “hot chocolate”…weirdos.
At the lake:
Lakeside, we could hear the ice creaking and popping as it shifted against the shore and the water below. Anna assured me this was normal as there were tons of ice fishermen staked out in the middle of the lake, so we knew it was safe. Apparently you need a minimum of 6 inches to safely skate on a lake. We checked one of the ice fishing holes and were reassured to find that the ice was about a foot thick.
We strapped on our skates, left our snow boots on the shore, and set out across the ice.
Lake skating is unlike anything else I have ever done. In the USA, it rarely gets cold enough for large lakes to develop a safe sheet of ice, so this was a first for me. Being situated among the Rocky Mountains near Banff National Park was just icing on the cake. We skated for about an hour and half, making our way up and down the coast of the lake. We admired the views and took way too many photos. Anna can attest to the fact that I could have stayed out there all day.
But, the hot chocolate back at shore was calling us. We returned to edge of the lake, opened up our thermos and sipped hot cocoa until we decided to it was time to head to Banff for dinner.
All in all, it was a great day.
