Commonwealth Lake

Where:

• Commonwealth Lake

 

When:

• September 19, 2026

 

Who:

• Ed, Reggie, Dave, Rod, Dally, Kardy, Angela, Lisa, Peter

 

Trailhead:

• 40 km from Canmore on the Spray Lakes Road
• park on the road 2.2 km past (south) of the Engadine Lodge/Mt. Shark turnoff
• the trail is on the right (west) side of the road, and you start by going over the guardrail and down a steep but short embankment and then across Engadine meadow
• the creek was still fast flowing and a bit deep, but we found a wobbly log bridge to go across that we all carefully managed to not fall in
• the trail is a bit harder to find in the summer vs the winter through the meadow so look for beat down paths and any stone or flag markings
• once you get into the trees, veer to the right, and you should be able to see the trail marking that leads (left) up into the valley
• at the first junction denoted by a rock pile, turn left up into Commonwealth Valley
• after about another km, take the left-hand turn that takes you uphill through the forest to Commonwealth Lake as the right-hand turn leads up Commonwealth Creek
• once you reach the lake follow the trail on the left hand side to the end of the lake and then straight up towards the pass
• it’s often hard to follow so load up your GPS or just plough your way straight up between the rock faces on either side

 

 

Degree of difficulty:

• 275 meters elevation to the lake and 450 meters to the place we stopped just before the pass
• 7 km out and back

• the hike took us three and a half hours
• the trail starts gently across a meadow, gradually up thru the cut block, and then gains a bit more elevation along the south side of the creek
• it moves steeply uphill after you start moving away from the creek
• it was very challenging moving up through the valley with lots of logs to go over, under or around and some wet footing
• after the lake it is somewhat steep with some tricky scree footing

 

 

Interesting notes:

• we were fortunate to pick a larch hike that had nobody on it and had spectacular scenery including the beautiful start of the larch season

• there are some amazing views of Commonwealth Peak, Pig’s Tail, Mount Birdwood, The Fist, and Mount Smuts
• we will go back another time and hike up and onto Commonwealth Ridge as well as make a loop around the ridge to come back into Commonwealth Valley