Penstock Loop Snowshoe Trail

Penstock Loop Snowshoe is a 4.5 km (about 2.8 mi) loop from Canyon Day Use. It follows marked winter trails through forest and a meadow, then returns beside Lower Kananaskis Lake on an open berm. Allow about 1½–2 hours when the track is packed; breaking trail after fresh snow takes longer and makes the rolling climbs much harder. This is a manageable snowshoe with a waterworks story and a big lakeside finish, not an alpine climb.

Begin beside the toilets at Canyon Day Use. Orange markers lead toward a short bridge over the Lower Kananaskis Lake spillway; at the junction just before it, Canyon Trail branches right while Penstock crosses left. At the loop marker you can go either direction. The route winds through forest and an open meadow, crosses the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Lakes Trail, then dips through a narrow gap toward Kent Creek. Past the creek it passes the diversion works and follows a wooden aqueduct. After a second road crossing near a small pull-off, the last stretch follows the lake-side berm back to the start.

The loop takes its name from the Pocaterra Penstock, a conduit that once carried water from Lower Kananaskis Lake to a downstream hydroelectric station; the upgraded line is now buried. A visible Kent Creek sluiceway and the wooden aqueduct are reminders of that water system. The berm opens views across Lower Kananaskis Lake toward Gypsum Ridge, Mount Indefatigable and Sarrail Ridge, with other peaks appearing at clearings along the loop.