The David Thompson Highway Hiking Guide

Duration	half day
Distance	13.2 km
Level of Difficulty	steep ascent followed by an easy walk
Maximum Elevation	2010 m
Elevation Gain	260 m
Maps	83 C/2 Cline River

Access: Your trailhead is the main campsite at Pinto Lake.

For those choosing to hike into Pinto Lake via Sunset Pass, this half-day hike repeats the last few kilometres of the trail. For those coming up the Cline River, there is a tough little climb ahead of you. However, the steep pull up the Sunset Pass Trail offers wonderful panoramic views of the lake, the Cline River valley and the mountains of White Goat Wilderness Area.

With the Cline River on your right, walk downstream. Cross two log bridges and continue as far as a junction in the trail. The Sunset Pass Trail, which you want, is on the left; the trail on the right leads down the Cline River. Turn left and follow the trail as it enters a boggy, wet section. The trail becomes indistinct, but persevere and pick up the trail on the other side. Almost immediately, you enter the spruce forest and within 50 m begin the long pull up to the lookout.

The trail switches numerous times before you haul yourself above the switchbacks. The trail continues its steep climb through forest and across avalanche slopes as it traverses the shoulder of the unnamed mountain on the right. As you break out of the trees, great views open up of the surrounding mountains and Pinto Lake below. A particularly steep ascent across scree brings you to a rocky outcropping. The trail switches up through the outcrop and continues its climb. Cross the scree as the trail snakes around cliffs and up to the ridge overlooking Pinto Lake.

Historical Footnotes: Bull Trout

Since its first recorded visitors, Pinto Lake has been famous for its fishing. Both A.P. Coleman in 1893 and Mary Schäffer in 1906 reported that the Stoney came here to fish. Schäffer wrote: “… hundreds of speckled trout could be seen lazily swimming about or lying in the bottoms of pools, all averaging fourteen inches in length. So heavy was our catch, that even our bacon-palled appetites refused to devour all we got, and we smoked them as did the Indians, in a dense smudge of spagnum moss.”

The “speckled trout” were bull trout, a species of char. Pinto Lake has a localized population of bull trout, as the rapids and falls along the Cline bar any movement of fish from the North Saskatchewan to the lake. Bull trout are slow maturing and easy to catch. This combination, plus habitat degradation, has reduced their numbers across Alberta. The fish usually mature and are ready for spawning in their fifth year. At Pinto Lake, however, they grow and mature at a slower rate. Therefore, it takes longer than usual to recoup any population losses. The bull trout at Pinto Lake are unique in that they are unusually brilliantly coloured during spawning.

At the ridge, the Sunset Pass Trail climbs more gently. Before entering the Engelmann spruce that dot the north end of the pass, turn left off the trail and head across the open alpine meadow. There is no trail, but it doesn’t matter. Looking below, you see the lake snuggled amongst a carpet of evergreens. Add a rock to either of the two cairns located on separate points overlooking Pinto Lake. When walking in a southerly direction across the meadow, you see different views of the lake; at first you can only see the north end of the lake – the south end directly below is hidden by cliffs.

Walk to the end of the meadow and gaze down on the extreme south end of Pinto Lake.

It’s been an effort to gain this ridge, so you may want to relax in the meadow before returning to the campsite the way you came.