Junction Hill

Kananaskis, AB, Canada
3 November 2024
With Willem, Sim and Wen


Easy winter summit with fantastic views

Having done Junction Hill and several other nearby objectives in the winter before, I knew it would be a great introduction to winter hiking for my friends. The great thing about Junction Hill is that you get to hike to a summit with minimal difficulties, but with all the enjoyment of high alpine views. It’s relatively short, allows for a loop route, and is easily accessible straight from the road without any bushwhacking. What more do you want!?


We parked a few hundred metres before the winter gate on the side of the road and just headed straight up the grassy hillside towards the northeast, aiming for a break in a prominent cliff that hugs the southeast ridge. Almost the entire hillside as seen from the road is sun-facing and thus mostly dry even when other nearby ridges and peaks are snow-clad. We easily walked up some steep, grassy hills with a few stands of trees here and there, to the break in the cliff which is marked by a few trees and a faint game trail that lands you right on top of the southeast ridge.


A minor trial follows the ridge to the summit, with plenty of opportunities to sit down and take a break in wind-sheltered spots along the way. Yes, it’s commonly quite windy in this area, so bring some extra layers and gloves even if it feels warm down by the road. We ran into one other couple and their dog, but otherwise had this small mountain to ourselves today.


Considering the relatively low elevation of this “hill”, the summit views are quite amazing: The Continental Divide with Mount Armstrong and Baril Peak to the west steal the show, but Holy Cross Mountain, Mount Head, and Mist Mountain further north are also quite impressive.


Instead of returning the same way we took the south ridge on the descent. The faint trail here is intermittent, but about two thirds of the way down we linked up with an old exploration road that lazily snakes its way down the hillside, eventually fizzling out in open grassy slopes just above the road. A super straightforward and easy-going hike!

 

Elevation:

2230 m

Elevation gain:

890 m

Time:

5.5 h

Distance:

9.0 km 

Difficulty level:

Easy (Kane), T2 (SAC)

Comments:

Stats here are for counter-clockwise loop route.

Reference:

Own routefinding

Personal rating:

4 (out of 5)

 

DOWNLOAD ROUTE (GPX FILE)

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Heading up wide open grassy slopes towards the SE ridge.
Highwood Junction, the intersection of highways 40 and 940 that gave this hill its name, can be seen below.
It’s surprisingly steep to get to the ridge here!
The break in the cliffs where the trees are.
We join a faint trail on the ridge top.
Easy hiking here, the trail fading in and out.
There are a few rocky sections – scrambling optional.
A look back down the SE ridge.
Great views throughout the ascent. In the background are Hell’s Ridge and Mount Burke.
Nearing the summit.
At the summit, looking over to Holy Cross Mountain.
Cat Creek Hills to the north. The tall mountain in the back (right of centre) is Mist Mountain.
The big peaks along the Continental Divide have quite a bit of snow on them. The sharp peak in the centre is Mount McPhail.
The south ridge offers a great descent route.
Heading down.
Much of the route is in the sun and thus dry.
The grade is perfect – not too steep while allowing for good progress.
There are only a few short stretches of forest to cross.
We link up with a good trail just off the ridge crest.
This trial is an old exploration road, probably for coal.
The trail fizzles out in the lower grassy slopes.
Looking back up towards the south ridge from near the road.

In this section

Kananaskis Allsmoke Mountain Ben’s Hill Blue Ridge Bluerock Mountain Bull Creek Hills Cat Creek Hills & Stony Ridge Channel Ridge Commonwealth Peak Compression Ridge Cox Hill Coyote Hills Cummings Ridge East End of Rundle Etherington-Baril Ridge (Three Cairns) Forgetmenot Ridge & Mountain Gilligan Peak Glasgow North & Garriochmill Peak Green Mountain Gunnery Mountain Ha Ling Peak & Miner’s Peak Hailstone Butte, Sentinel Peak & Iron Creek Mountain Heart Mountain Hell’s Ridge Highwood Peak Hill of the Flowers Holy Cross Mountain Hood, Mount Horton Hill & Horton Ridge Iyarhe Ipan, Swany’s Ridge & Quirk Ridge Jumpingpound Mountain Junction Hill Kidd South, Mount Link Hill & Vents Ridge Little Lougheed Lookout Range to Mount Burke Lusk Ridge Mesa Butte Midnight Peak Missinglink Mountain Mist Mountain Mist Mountain via Mount Lipsett Mist Ridge Moose Mountain Mount Barwell Mount Bogart Mount Bryant Mount Burns East Peak Mount Denny & Mount Potts Mount Dyson Mount Evan-Thomas Mount French & Mount Jellicoe Mount Head Mount Howard Mount James Walker Mount Lorette & Skogan Peak Mount Lougheed I Mount Mann Mount McPhail Mount Muir Mount Quirk Mount Remus Mustang Hills Odlum Ridge Old Baldy Mountain Opal Ridge South Opal Ridge Traverse Packenham Junior Pasque Mountain Pigeon Mountain Pocaterra Ridge Powderface Ridge Powderface Ridge (south route) Prairie Mountain Raspberry Ridge Red Peak Red Ridge Running Rain Peak & Mount Odlum Serendipity Peak & Patterson’s Peak Seventy Buck & Eagle Hill Ship’s Prow Mountain Shunga-la-she & Jägermeister Peak Snow Peak Storelk Mountain Strawberry Hills The Orphan Tower, The Volcano Ridge Wasootch Peak Traverse Wasootch Ridge Windtower Windy Point Ridge & Gleason Ridge Yates Mountain Zephyr Creek Hills

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