71. Thompson Creek

Map S (p. 361)

Duration	one hour
Distance	2.4 km
Level of Difficulty	easy walk
Maximum Elevation	1415 m
Elevation Gain	45 m
Maps	83 C/2 Cline River

Access: Park your vehicle at the day use picnic area, opposite the registration hut at the Thompson Creek campground, located 80 km west of Nordegg and 3 km east of the Banff National Park boundary, on Highway 11.

0.0 kmtrailhead

0.1 kmHighway 11

1.2 kmsmall gorge and waterfall

2.4 kmtrailhead

For those who are staying at the Thompson Creek campground, there are several hikes that can be enjoyed. This easy 20-minute walk that the whole family can enjoy brings you to a delightful little waterfall.

Cross the highway and pick up the trail on the right side of the creek. With the jagged peaks of the south ridge of Mount Cline above you, begin your walk up Thompson Creek. This entire area was burned in a prescribed burn in 2009. Old preconceptions of forest fires conjure up images of ugly hillsides devoid of life, but this hike proves otherwise. Look around you. Within a month after the fire was extinguished, new life had begun in the forest. Lodgepole pine seedlings are growing among poplar and aspen saplings. Wildflowers, such as the eye-catching fireweed, bloom in profusion. Forest fires indeed create new life.

The trail winds in and out of the regenerating forest alongside the creek scoured by the 2013 floods. Follow the trail to a mini gorge where Thompson Creek begins its long task of slicing through the bedrock. You can hear the waterfall before climbing a rocky ridge where you can see it. Two branches of Thompson Creek join at this location, the waterfall being on the left-hand branch just metres upstream of the confluence.

The waterfall on Thompson Creek makes this short walk perfect for younger families.

Alpinists have two options at this point. The right-hand branch leads to a pass between Cline and Resolute mountains. From here, they may either ascend Resolute Mountain or attack the Whitegoat Peaks further on. The left-hand branch leads to another pass, from which they ascend Mount Cline.

Return the way you came.

Historical Footnotes: Jaco Finlay (ca. 1768–1828)

David Thompson is known as the great geographer of the northwest. But the trailblazer, the man who established the track that Thompson first followed up the North Saskatchewan and over Howse Pass, was a North West Company fur trader, guide and interpreter named Jacques-Raphael Finlay. His friends called him “Jaco.”

Jaco Finlay’s involvement with David Thompson, the Kootenay Plains and the upper North Saskatchewan began in 1806 when he was ordered by Thompson to leave Rocky Mountain House, make a trail passable for pack horses across the Continental Divide and build canoes on the Columbia River. Finlay, therefore, became the first non-Native after Le Blanc and La Gasse to ascend the North Saskatchewan and cross Howse Pass, which he did in the summer of 1806. Also that year, Finlay established a small trading post on the Kootenay Plains. Peigan pressure forced its abandonment in 1807. This outpost to Rocky Mountain House was the first non-Native residence built in the area.