Beehive Natural Area Stewardship Backpacking Trip

September 11, 2025

Lindsey, Sara, and Cameron completed a stewardship trip to the Beehive from August 18-20, 2025, spending 3 days backpacking through the Natural Area and along its border. We undertook this trip as members of the Stewards of Alberta’s Protected Areas Association (or SAPAA). A PDF version of our full stewardship report can be found here: 2025 Beehive Stewardship Report.

Beehive Sign, Photo by C. Hunter

Day 1: 14.5km, bordering Beehive, camp at Memory Lake

The first day of our Beehive trip started out early in Calgary, where we met up to divvy gear and prepare coffee for the day. We drove south to the Oldman Falls trailhead and continued a couple more kilometres down the potholed and weathered road before leaving our car behind and beginning the trek.

We spent the first day on the outskirts of the Beehive Natural area, taking a look at OHV trails and campsites bordering the Oldman River, and checking to see if any of these land uses extended into the border of the natural area itself. The majority of the day, we walked along the Oldman River Road, following the trail as it became smaller and more geared towards OHV usage than vehicles. From what we saw the first day, no inappropriate land uses within the Beehive were noticed. As we walked, we documented a cacophony of birdsong, and Cameron started his eBird list. We saw many expected species, with conifer forest specialists like Red Crossbills making an appearance, which we recorded as they flew over, sounding potentially like Type 5 (Lodgepole Pine) subspecies.

We took a side route into the large wetland clearing past where the majority of campsites were located, and carefully made our way to a large beaver dam in the centre of the wetland. Following the outskirts and trying to avoid getting soaked, we searched in vain for the beaver who had constructed the enormous structure. Northern waterthrush, common yellowthroats, and Townsend’s solitaires were heard and seen near the wetland. After this, the majority of the day was again spent following the road along the River. The rain caught us off guard, but let off after only an hour or so, and the sky cleared up again on time for us to spot Columbia Spotted Frogs (adults, froglets, and tadpoles) in the shallow pools of water that had collected within old vehicle tracks.

Eventually turning off the road, we trekked up the Memory Lake trail into a more forested area. The shepherdia canadensis that we saw along the track had a good amount of berries on it, but not as flush as the ones in Kananaskis and the Bow Valley this year. Surprisingly, we saw no recent bear sign, though we did find tracks of deer, moose, canine, and feline, plus a curious set that might be a pack rat. A second surprise was awaiting us there: Boreal toadlets! These small toads energetically jumped out from the path before we stepped on them, and a few posed for a photoshoot. Arriving at our camp at Memory Lake, just within the Don Getty Wildland Provincial Park boundary, more tiny toads were waiting near the shallow lake, along with small snails. We quickly set up camp and made dinner on time to watch the sunset over the mountains. Cameron set up a nighttime time-lapse to capture the stars while we slept, and we hung our food bags and made our way to bed.

Day 2: 16.5km, Alpine walk and a small section of GDT, camp along GDT

We began the day enjoying the birdsong of Clark’s nutcrackers and boreal chickadees, watching the alpine glow on Mt. Lyall. Our hike began along the GDT, which we were pleasantly surprised at. The water crossings were all bridged with fairly new bridges and the trail was clear and easy to follow. We hiked through open, mature forest with some of the largest subalpine fir we had ever seen, as well as lodgepole pine and spruce. The understory was full of fungi and moss. There were very few plants still flowering, but we saw some wintergreens and bronzebells.

The plan was to bushwhack uphill towards an unnamed lake at the foot of Mount Lyall, as no trail was shown on our map. As it turned out, there was a well-travelled, cleared footpath to the lake. We met a fellow who seemed to be a GDT hiker who had camped there the previous night. Both lakes held big swaths of purple flowers (asters or fleabane?). The lake at Mount Lyall also had some yellow saxifrage.

From the lake, we attempted to pick our way uphill to the shoulder of Mt. Lyall. The walking was hard lower down, but as we got higher, the trees thinned and a smattering of larch appeared to go with the subalpine fir and spruce.

Gaining the shoulder, we emerged from the trees and were treated to a glorious view of most of the Natural Area. There were a number of species of grasses growing on the shoulder, along with a carpet of mountain avens and hedysarum, the latter of which had been heavily feasted on by bears. The diggings were quite old, likely from this past spring. A herd of a dozen or so bighorn sheep with lambs watched us cautiously as we climbed upwards. Reaching the start of the bare rock, we turned back down the other side of the shoulder and followed a steep route back to the treeline, noticing some eggleaf beardtongue as well as the relational Sedum lanceolatum and Rocky Mountain Parnassian as we climbed downwards.

We continued on through some thick forested areas and traversed a large boulder field that met up with a small stream. We stopped for some food and to refill our water bottles before once again beginning to climb upwards, this time aiming for Beehive Mountain itself.

The climb towards Beehive Mountain started with a tranquil ascent along a small mountain stream. The stream was littered with sulphur butterflies, skippers, and bees of various species, which were a pleasant distraction. Continuing our climb, we approached the base of Beehive Mountain. Nearing the pass, it was here that we began to follow the slope back towards the GDT. Along our descent, we came across a number of whitebark pine. We noted that most of the Whitebark pine was suffering from blister rust. After a short bushwhack, we made it back onto the famous GDT. As we ambled along the trail, we got a bit sidetracked, as the trail led us to a dead-end. The group decided to double back in search of a cairn to steer us back towards our route to rest. After a short moment, the trail was found, and we built a quick cairn to help future hikers. All that remained was a small undulating section of trail that led us to a very pleasant camping spot in the valley between Honeycomb and Beehive Mountain. It was here we set up camp and caught the sunset as the day faded into night.

Day 3: 9km, GDT and out

On our last day in the Beehive, we woke up for the sunrise and watched the alpenglow hit Beehive Mountain, as fox sparrows sang from the creekside bushes. After making a quick breakfast, we headed south along the Great Divide Trail to get back to our car. We noted a few more whitebark pines (and possibly some limber pine?) on the walk, with some signs of blister rust on their bark. We turned east off the Great Divide Trail at Cache Creek campground. The forest was thick with mushrooms that we attempted to ID between stream crossings, before arriving back at Oldman River Falls. We drove back into town and spent a relaxed afternoon uploading photos to iNaturalist and IDing plants using Lindsey’s collection of field guides.

Photos and text by C. Hunter, S. Heerema, & L. Wallis.