I have to say, I think Rummel Lake is one of my favorite hikes so far. We didn't have the most ideal day for hiking as it was overcast and drizzly, but nonetheless the views were still beautiful and I can only imagine how spectacular it'd be on a clear day! I think the fall colours might have had something to do with my enjoyment of the ambiance of the hike as well. The yellow larch trees and partially fallen leaves are just so pretty this time of year!

Rummel Lake
Difficulty: easy
Round trip: 8.6km
Hiking Time: 3-4 hrs
Elevation Gain: 355m
FitBit: approx 19,000 steps and 155 floors
This trail head is not marked (and no facilities), to find it from Canmore you'll need to get going south on the Smith-Dorrien (Hwy 742). Turn your odometer to 0 when passing the Nordic Center on your right and your destination is approximately 34km from there. You'll see a sign for Rummel Creek and shortly after turn right (W) onto Mt. Shark Road, signed for Engadine Lodge. There is a grassy pullout immediately to the left, but as some do, they also park on the side of the road beside the trail head, which is at the top of the T of the intersection (the E side of Hwy 742, your left when coming from Canmore).

Directions From Calgary - click for Google Maps

The start of the hike is through the trees on a well defined path where you'll gain most of the elevation at a steady, but very manageable, rate and it levels out part way which I quite liked (versus the hikes that have a steep incline at the end...). Thus it doesn't take long into your day, and with not too much effort, to have a nice view of the surrounding mountains above the treeline!

A Spruce Grouse

You will enter a thicker part of the forest, where the path is lined with roots so watch your step. It opens up again and you will find yourself near to Rummel Creek. There are some planks laid across the water which you may take and when you come to an actual bridge a little farther up you'll want to go back across (otherwise you'll be on the snowshoe trail meant for winter). However, you should really just skip the planks and continue straight ahead. You'll rock hop a bit (how fun :) beside the embankment where the path appears to disappear, but it picks up on the other side. (Trust me, it's not hard).

Option 1 (take next the bridge back across when you come to it)

Option 2 (it's not as bad as it looks)

From either approach you'll continue E. You will see a sign that says Avalanche Territory Do Not Enter (i.e. don't go there in winter...) Being the end of September there was remnants from an earlier snowfall, but not enough to avalanche thankfully!
There are a couple of beautiful cascades over stair-like rocks, at the second one your path will narrow along the bank for maybe 30m, it's a bit of a rush, but nothing to be afraid of. On the other side you'll continue on a boot beaten path at the base of a small rock slide.

Can't see the path, but that's where we came across.

We then came to a point not mentioned in my book. The path appeared to continue straight, but there was a cairn and ribbons marking a  route left through the trees. We opted to follow the ribbon route.
You'll then come to be beside the creek again and when the path appears to end ahead you actually have two options. We didn't realize this at the time so we took a right up the bank, it looked like the most obvious path. But in fact as we discovered on the way down you can rock hop across the creek here from the other side, so that is an option too.
The lake is not far ahead, 10 min if I remember correctly. You'll know it when you see it :)
We spent some time snapping lots of pictures and then sitting to enjoy our PB&J. We were the only ones there other than a man who came a few min behind us and he meandered off to the other side of the lake to do some fishing. It's a spectacular serene place.
Our hope was to also do Rummel Pass, but we ran out of time. We ventured along the main trail over to the north side of the lake and up the rocky slope and got some great snaps of the lake from there, but we did not go further, so next time! In total we were out for just over 4 hours.
On the way down we thought we'd try to go the route we thought might connect with the bridge from the other side, but when we got to the creek again it appeared that the path ended and we were forced to hop across again to continue on the original path. Since then I've read that's what we were wanting to do for the way back was the snowshoe trail so I'll have to look it up in my snowshoeing book and see what it says. Nonetheless it was a great hike and I can't wait to do it again, but all the way to the Pass!

I made a cairn!

Happy Hiking!