Pigeon Mountain, Main and South peaks, Kananaskis, AB - Oct 25th 2025

Trail : Pigeon peak and Pigeon South peak
Date : Oct 25th 2025
Location : Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park, AB
Trailhead location : Park at the end of George Biggy Sr Rd in Dead Man’s Flats
Distance : 16.8 km
Elevation gain : 1192 m
Starting time : 7h20 am
Time to Pigeon Peak : 3h00
Time to Pigeon Peak South : 3h50
Total time to complete: 5h33
Difficulty: Hard hike / no scrambling
Trail traffic : moderate on the way down (we were first ones in the trail)

Fifteen minutes before my 5 a.m. alarm went off, I was woken up by the sound of strong winds shaking the house. Not exactly reassuring, considering we had chosen a summit famous for being windy. SpotWX was calling for gusts up to 53 km/h at Pigeon Peak… yikes! But, whatever. We were doing it anyway!

By 6 a.m., I was on the road to meet Carey at our usual spot. We were the third car in the parking lot when we arrived at 7:15 a.m., though by the time we got back, that lot was absolutely packed!

At 7:20, we hit the trail in total darkness. A few fallen trees blocked the first section, but we soon veered left toward Skogan Pass. From there, the trail climbs steadily along a power line before another left turn at about 4.2 km, where you officially leave Skogan Pass behind and join the Pigeon Mountain Trail.

Not long after that turn, we emerged from the treeline, and wow, the views instantly took our breath away. Behind us stood the backside of the Three Sisters, The Orphan, Wind Ridge, Wind Tower, the Lougheeds, Collembola, Allan, and even The Wedge off in the distance. Seeing all those peaks so clearly and so close was just incredible. As a bonus, we even spotted a herd of bighorn sheep grazing below the South Peak of Pigeon!

We quickly gained the first summit, and to our surprise, the wind was totally manageable. From the ridge, even more peaks revealed themselves across the Bow Valley, including the famous Yamnuska. After snapping a few photos, we began our descent. That’s when I noticed a tower-like formation on the next summit ahead. A quick bit of research told us it was the South Peak of Pigeon.

At first glance, it looked sketchy, and since I still had to drive to Okotoks later in the day to watch my son’s hockey game, I wasn’t sure we should push it. But as we reached the base, it didn’t seem so bad after all… actually, it looked pretty doable. We looked at each other and… well…. we sent it! 🤣
In less than 30 minutes, we were standing on top of the South Peak. Totally worth the extra hour detour! The summit was much wider and, honestly, even more enjoyable than the main one.

As the wind picked up more, we started heading down. The trail had gotten busier, around 30 hikers hiked Pigeon today.

All in all, another perfect outing, and two more peaks checked off the list!