C-Level Cirque Trail

C-Level Cirque is a 7.6 km round-trip out-and-back from Upper Bankhead to a glacial basin on Cascade Mountain. Parks Canada lists 3.8 km one way and about 3 hours for the return; allow for a steady climb with roughly 440 m of ascent. The usual turnaround is the boulder field beneath the cirque’s rock walls. A higher, steeper continuation goes toward treeline, but it is outside this mapped distance.

The trail starts at the west end of the Upper Bankhead parking lot, near picnic table 8. It begins on a broad gravel path through forest, then the grade builds after about 200 m. Around 1.3 km in, you pass a roofless two-room mine building; six fenced mine shafts lie along the next stretch. Stay outside the fences and heed the warning signs.

Past the mine remains, roots and rocks make footing less even, and the climb continues through switchbacks. The trail eases briefly through older forest, then turns into a more open valley on Cascade’s western slope. Gaps in the trees offer glimpses toward Lake Minnewanka before the cirque comes into view.

The path reaches a large field of broken rock below high walls on Cascade Mountain. A cirque is a bowl-shaped basin carved by glacial erosion, and this one makes a close-up destination after the long forest climb. Many hikers turn around here. Pikas live among the boulders, so pause and listen for their high-pitched calls. If you continue above the field, the trail gets steeper and rockier; the higher viewpoint looks out toward Johnson Lake, Two Jack Lake and Lake Minnewanka. To photograph the main destination, include the boulders and enclosing rock wall together to show their scale.

These are remnants of the Bankhead coal workings, where coal was mined from tunnels in Cascade Mountain in the early 1920s. The fenced openings are a striking reminder that the climb passes an industrial landscape as well as a glacial one.

Use the Upper Bankhead Day-use Area on Lake Minnewanka Scenic Drive. The C-Level trailhead is at the lot’s west end; parking is limited to designated spaces, and Parks Canada warns that day-use lots can fill quickly. Picnic tables, shelters with wood stoves and outhouses are at the area. In summer, dogs may use Banff trails unless a specific restriction applies; keep them leashed and under physical control.