Canyon Creek Ice Cave, also known as Bragg Creek Ice Cave or Moose Mountain Ice Cave, is a small

ice cave An ice cave is any type of natural cave (most commonly lava tubes or limestone caves) that contains significant amounts of perennial (year-round) ice. At least a portion of the cave must have a temperature below 0 °C (32 °F) all ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

located in

Kananaskis Country Kananaskis Country is a multi-use area west of Calgary, Alberta, Canada in the foothills and front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. The area is named for the Kananaskis River, which was named by John Palliser in 1858 after a Cree acquaintance. Cove ...

near the community of

Bragg Creek Bragg Creek is a hamlet in southern Alberta under the jurisdiction of Rocky View County in Division No. 6. Bragg Creek is located west of Calgary (via Highway 8 and Highway 22) at the confluence of the Elbow River and Bragg Creek north of ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada. Known to natives through prehistory, its 'discovery' is attributed to Stan Fullerton in 1905. Only twenty minutes west of the City of Calgary, Canyon Creek Ice Cave is a popular outing for visitors of all ages and experience. From the parking lot, the cave is visible as a tall black scar about three-quarters of the way up the mountain. It doesn't seem very distant, but the round trip, including a few minutes in the cold and dark, takes about 4 hours. In recent years, the influx of visitors who were ill-prepared for a

caving Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology i ...

expedition resulted in the permanent closure of the road to the parking lot. There is now a new parking lot just off Highway 66, and then a 7 km hike along the old road to get to the former parking area. This has lengthened the trip from the old 4 hour trek to a more challenging 6 hour hike for experienced hikers and 8 hours for inexperienced hikers. Since the closure of the road, the number of accidents on the way to, or inside of, the ice caves has reduced dramatically. Most hikers are now serious about experiencing the cave and now bring appropriate gear, including helmets, headlamps, food and water, and other safety equipment. The cave was formed primarily by water enlarging fractures within the slightly soluble limestone, with its entrance considerably enlarged by large-scale frost wedging during freeze-thaw cycles, similar to the

phreatic ''Phreatic'' is a term used in hydrology to refer to aquifers, in speleology to refer to cave passages, and in volcanology to refer to a type of volcanic eruption. Hydrology The term phreatic (the word originates from the Greek , meaning "well" ...

vadose The vadose zone, also termed the unsaturated zone, is the part of Earth between the land surface and the top of the phreatic zone, the position at which the groundwater (the water in the soil's pores) is at atmospheric pressure ("vadose" is fr ...

caves often found in Canada. Much of the cave has subsequently been sealed off by permanent ice, and during the winter months beautiful ice formations are sometimes seen near the entrance. The cave has large amounts of loose rock, and care should be taken when hiking to cave, as the approach slopes were the site of a fatality due to rockfall from careless hikers. The cave has been subject to considerable vandalism and damage in its history, with spray paint markings and garbage left behind. Visitors should respect cave formations, and leave no garbage or human waste inside the cave.

External links

More Ice Cave Information

References

Caves of Alberta Kananaskis Improvement District Limestone caves Wild caves Ice caves {{AlbertaRockies-geo-stub