The kids had what the school calls a “fall break.” A five-day weekend in the middle of November. I called it the perfect opportunity to leave them with Mom while I found some adventures.
Recently I’ve seen the vintage typography styling found in Alberta’s mountain parks having a bit of a revival. I’m not sure where it started, but Jasper Brewing Co. has been making great use of a vintage park look, especially in their packaging that lifts its design directly from vintage national park sign systems of yore.
While in Kananaskis over the holidays, I found this hat (which Joanna bought for my birthday, thanks!). I really liked the vintage look of the logo, even if it was missing swashes on the K and y.
So I recently dug up the original Kananaskis Country logo, which is still found on the signs that greet you at the park entrances.
The icon doesn’t do anything for me, but the wordmark is charming. The kerning is too tight for my tastes, especially around the s’s. The typeface appears to be Bookman, and was probably hand-set 40+ years ago by someone in a sign company working for the Government of Alberta.
Then this showed up in my Instagram feed.
Instant purchase for me, so I could spend three minutes making this.
I won’t touch the icon, because what can you really do with mountains, lakes, and trees that hasn’t been done already? But for me, this will henceforth be the Kananaskis Country logo.
Getting the kids out for a hike can be a challenge. I try to do my research first, but between driving and managing everyone on the trip, I may not have a chance to properly vet all of our hikes first. For adults this is ok, but taking my kids on a lacklustre hike is bad news for everyone.
Troll Falls was one that I didn’t know what to expect. A good hike for kids has a payoff destination, a place that you’re going to that’s worth going to. Troll Falls delivered. The kids even thanked me after.
The Highwood Pass is the highest paved pass in Canada, at 7,238 ft above sea level. And right at the top of the pass is where the Ptarmigan Cirque starts.
Despite the intimidating start, this is actually a very accessible hike, and one of the first hikes my kids actually enjoyed. Most of the 355m of elevation gain is right at the start, so it levels out pretty quickly into the alpine meadows.
In the late spring I dragged the family out to the Grotto Creek Canyon Trail in Kananaskis. We’d attempted the hike before, when the kids were much younger, without success. This time we made it past the brush under the powerlines to the good bit — actually hiking up the creek.