Tianna hiking... I am carrying everything lol...
Rocky part of the trail
One of many small waterfalls on the way
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Ribbon Falls is a tremendous hike that derives its difficulty from its length. When you start the trail, you are walking along Ribbon Creek, and this continues throughout most of the trail. The trailhead holds many cars and is often busier than what you will see on the trail itself, and this is because the trail head parking lot for the hike to the falls is also home to a trailhead for an easier and shorter loop trail (Ribbon Creek, Kovach, and Terrace Loop) as well as the trailhead for Coal Mine Trail and the challenging Mount Allan trail via the Centennial Ridge, which is the highest maintained trail in the Rockies.
The loop shares some of the trail with the Ribbon Falls trail, and the shared portion is mostly on nice terrain with flat footing making it easy to travel on. This part will have heavier traffic. You will cross the creek a few times on some bridges, which adds to the atmosphere for hikers an opportunity to appreciate the creek a bit more. Bears have been known to be near the creek so it's important to pay extra attention, as the noise of the water will potentially stop a bear from hearing you.
The trail is shared with bike riders up until the tree trunk with the face on it. At that point, bikes must be docked, and you must continue on foot. We only encountered two people on bikes. There is a short time after the bikes are docked where you go up and you are quite far above the creek. This provides you with some different views and helps break up the monotony of the trail a bit. The trail also changes to where it is a bit thinner and has larger rocks in places that would not be suitable for bikes. What is also nice is as you continue to slowly increase your elevation, there are spots on the left where you can stop for a break, and most of these spots have smaller waterfalls you can see on the creek which are appealing to the eyes.
Eventually, you exit the trees and are flanked by the sides of mountains, with the mountain on the left providing you with a view of grass and greenery more akin to higher alpine altitudes than lower elevation levels with interesting rock formations. While this is a welcomed change, this change in scenery also opens up hikers to being more susceptible to the elements, in particular the sun. After some time with new scenery you can see the falls in the distance.
You do not appreciate how large the falls are until you trek up the last hill. Before you get an open shot of the falls, you arrive at the backcountry campsite of the falls, and see the picnic tables where people can relax deep in Kananaskis. Eventually, you can see the falls dead on, and what a gorgeous site it is. Sorry, I got my thumb in the photo! For those with moderate to higher levels of fitness, you can continue on to Ribbon Lake using the chains to help ascend the mountain side.
The trip back required a few breaks from my wife, who at the end, was done. This hike pushed both of us who are not in great shape, but we got it done. We will return when in better shape to do the chains and check out the views on the top. Two notes people need to be aware of on this trail is to make sure their shoes are good enough to walk on lots of rocky terrain and to make sure you take the right fork and go up when given the option to do that instead of going down in elevation to the bridge. Going down is not for the trail to the falls.
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