From the Alberta Parks Facebook page today: Woohoo!

"Alberta Parks' Peter Lougheed Provincial Park Trail Crew staff have reconstructed bridges on the Three-Isle Lake Trail opening up access to parts of the Peter Lougheed Provincial Park Backcountry. Visitors can now access the Forks, Turbine and Three-Isle Lake Backcountry Campgrounds. The Aster Lake Backcountry Campground and access route are also open, providing access to the popular, but difficult, Northover Ridge Route.

Please be advised that many hazards exist along all trails, including Three-Isle, the Upper Kananaskis Lake Circuit between Point Campground and the Aster Lake Route, the Aster Lake Route itself and Maude-Lawson Trail. Hazards include washouts, route finding where trails have washed away and bridges being passable but incomplete. "

And thanks Rachel for doing this! This thread is 1000X better than anything out there from parks.

And after updating the Trail Conditions report to reflect my previous comment, Parks has once again updated the report to show that everything is again closed due to a missing bridge....

My guess would be that there is a new bridge and that everything is accessible (except perhaps Forks), but if anyone has any solid information, please post.

I received an email from the woman in charge of backcountry reservations noting all those openings, plus they are now listed on the website. so I am inclined to believe the bridge is in and the campgrounds are all open, and they just screwed up in making the trail report.
I am hesitant to believe Forks is open given the extensive damage, and will report back when I confirm that.

I now have confirmation from the permit folks. See the list. It is all open as was said.
The trail report was wrong, and the corrected on is now up.

Great info, folks!!

If anyone goes up to Aster Lake and Northover please let me know. I'm looking to book it for September 5-8. I've called the backcountry line but they didn't answer. Like usual Not sure what trail conditions they would have for me anyway.

Did you read the main post? It includes info on Aster Lake and Northover.
They're accessible with some damage, but you must get there from North Interlakes.

Whoops. Missed that. Thanks! I guess I (stupidly) assumed no one had been in there while it was closed

Word from the permit office is that there is a fair bit a deadfall and some "extra" fording to be done.

A quick update about Highway 40 south of Peter Lougheed Access.

Word is that there are about 130 damaged areas between the winter gate and the Highwood Junction. The damage ranges from debris washed across the road to ripped up culverts and road washouts. I think that there's still optimism that the road will open this fall (at least until December) with some temporary detours at the worst spots, with more work continuing next year.

Stuff that's easier to fix:


Near the Mount Lipsett Day use area the creek has made a new channel:


Problems get worse when the culverts get blocked:


Same goes with bridges:


In places the creeks and rivers have meandered a lot. These areas will probably require significant work to ensure the water doesn't easily undercut the road again.


There was so much water behind this blocked culvert the water carved out about 30m of road!


Hopefully things get started in the next couple weeks so we can have a bit of time through the Highwood Pass this year!

Nomsha, are these new photos indicating things are pretty much as they were back when, or the old photos?

Have you heard anything regarding the possibility of fixing up the north half of the road (gate to highwood), and opening that up while working on the more heavily damaged highwood pass to highwood house?

These photos were taken three or four weeks after the floods. However, no significant construction has happened yet. It seems that Alberta Transportation is taking a more measured approach for this segment, and trying to get better contracts and designs in place before doing anything. Other areas were more ad-hoc because they were much more critical.

I agree from what I've seen that the road is much worse south of Highwood Pass. That being said, I haven't heard about potential staged opening or anything. That being said, I've heard the hope is to have traffic on the road before it closes again on December 15. Unfortunately, no one can predict construction timelines - nothing ever seems to be done on time.

It's also interesting that all of Kananaskis Country is legally open now (with some trail and campground exceptions). The trail report says that Highway 40 is closed to vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists. However, I guess you could walk or cycle beside the road because the rest is not technically closed?

Cougar Creek before the fork is easy to hike. There is a fork by an unnamed peak, and in the past the left fork provided easy hiking access into the Ghost region. Although it is passable, it is no longer a straightforward or pleasant hike on an established trail. Getting up boulder jams and side-hilling now make movement very slow.

Well, I screwed up again. Thought I had another day to update this post.
New updates are moved to a new thread again.