Indeed, Kananaskis offers everything that the Rocky Mountain bucket list destinations, such as Banff and Canmore, do: nature, wildlife, mountain adventures. But there aren’t crowds here (Fernie tells me he hadn’t even heard of it until he got here, despite watching the 1988 Olympics when he was a teenager). It somehow feels quiet, even though it’s peak summer season and the lodge is full. In fact, Allison Archer of Explore Kananaskis tells me later, Kananaskis gets more tourists than Banff (Banff saw 4.5 million visitors in 2025-2026, while Kananaskis has an estimated 5 million visits per year) — it’s just that the visitors are more spread out over its biodiverse 4,000-square-kilometre patchwork of five provincial parks, four wildland provincial parks, one ecological reserve and various other types of recreation areas. There’s something for everyone here.

In short order, Fernie slows for a group of bighorn sheep on the road, which are looking a bit bedraggled at this time of year as they shed their winter fleece, although their lambs are fluffy and cute. As we approach Kananaskis Village, deer pop out into the road before galloping back into the brush. It’s a reminder that this is a place where wildlife roam and we are visiting their home.

We pull up at the Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge and I check into my room at the Black Diamond Club, a luxury “hotel within a hotel” that offers premium comfort, service and attention to deal. Case in point: the first night I ask for a sparkling water in the calm and relaxing atmosphere of the Black Diamond Club Lounge; each evening after, a sparkling water appears on my bedside table. Room service asks if I’d like a tea when they come to offer me a fluffy pair of slippers; they remember I chose chamomile, and a chamomile teabag is quietly placed next to my tea set each day after. There’s even a pillow menu in the room so each guest can tailor their night’s sleep to their own individual comfort: choose from memory foam, buckwheat, down or satin.

Suffice to say, my first night’s sleep — after a meal of AAA Alberta steak and landscape-inspired cocktails at the lodge’s Cedar Room restaurant — is a good one.

Bear berries might not be in season yet, but there’s smoked duck with saskatoon berry at the “après adventure” spread back at the Black Diamond Club (I am so well fed at the lounge that I almost need not foray to one of the lodge’s choice of four restaurants). And I start my next morning with a berry smoothie and a cinnamon bun with yet more delicious blackberries. I’m glad of the fuel because I’m headed out for a hike with Michelle Earls, the founder of Kananaskis Outfitters.

It wouldn’t be a trip to the mountains for me without a hike — and I’m feeling lucky to have Earls’ expert knowledge. Earls, originally from Ontario on the north shore of Lake Erie, first bought the small rental shop in Kananaskis Village in 2006 and, two decades later, has expanded it from more than just gear rentals to offer guided year-round experiences. She spreads a map out of Kananaskis Country and asks me what kind of hike I fancy, pointing at different options on the undulating contour lines. She lands on a seven-kilometre, out-and-back hike that rises just over 500 metres from mossy forest to alpine lake.

Despite offering a range of guided activities, Earls explains on the drive to the Rawson Lake trailhead, “a lot of what we just try to do is just like teach [people] how to be self-sufficient in the mountains. It’s really not sustainable for you to pay to take me hiking with you all the time. I’d rather teach you how to do it by yourself — and then you can just go all the time on your own and instead invest that money in good shoes or a good bag.”

The hike starts at Upper Kananaskis Lake, which mirrors the bright azure of today’s sunny sky, the mountains and clouds that crown them reflected in the lake’s calm surface. We cross a bridge past a roaring waterfall, Earls’ westie Lucy excitedly leading the way. We veer into the forest, gradually climbing until we reach a clearing full of white globeflowers punctuated with the occasional snowmelt clitocybe, a mushroom that pops up as the snow melts. In the dark, moist earth, there are ungulate hoofprints bigger than my palm.

My conversations with Earls swiftly go beyond small talk. We chat about the G7 summit that was hosted in Kananaskis in 2025 and the impacts it had on small business in the area, how kids are becoming disconnected from nature, the “manosphere,” gnarly encounters with wildlife and the gentrification of Ontario’s farmland.