Siffleur Falls Trail, Kootenay Plains, Alberta
Siffleur Falls Trail, Kootenay Plains, Alberta
4.4 miles roundtrip (to falls only) Easy, 475 ft elevation gain
This trail starts by crossing the N Saskatchewan river over a large pedestrian bridge. From there you will continue upstream from where the Siffleur river ends up to the main waterfall area, passing through an expansive grassland and above the canyon carved by the river. Trail may be extended well beyond the falls, I turned it into a 9.4 mile total, which I’ll post some pics for tomorrow. This trail probably doesn’t need splitting, but I’m gonna do it anyways haha.
Siffleur falls roars its way down into the canyon.
A fraction of the overall falls can be seen from this upper viewpoint. The majority is diverted behind the rock in frame.
Looking along the deep trench walls at the end of the canyon as the Siffleur river continues on.
Fun little day hike to the falls. The second falls is smaller but has a fantastic campsite just under the falls and is usually empty.
If you get serious and head into the backcountry from there, take bear spray and a slower hiking partner. I've encountered grizzly more than once back there, especially in the burned-over areas.
Yeah, I continued on to just past the hill with the ropes to get up and then turned around after seeing that viewpoint of the long rapid/falls. Seems like it gets pretty wild from there on. Tomorrow I’ll post a group of photos from that section beyond the main falls. Although I couldn’t get a photo I like, I think my favorite section was half a mile or less beyond the main falls where that huge wedge rock is getting cut by the river before you start to climb again. I believe that is where the camping may also be. IIRC one of the falls I’ll post tomorrow is just upstream of it. That and the bridge, I love pedestrian bridges haha.
Also, if you take the trail east where it splits off going to the falls, you'll come around again on the Kootenay Plain and eventually end up where there's an old bridge that got washed away, and people camp RVs there on the other side of the N Sask river at Preacher's Point, or at least they did once upon a time. I've mountain biked out that way, it's a bit long for a day hike unless you hump it.
IIRC, it's about as far again to the next one as from the parking lot to the main falls, you probably didn't make it that far if you only went 4 or 5 miles. But post the pic and ping me, I'll recognize if it is. The campsite I'm thinking of is right on the riverside about 50m from the bottom of the falls.