The second in what we could almost call our “Cave Series” is the Heart Creek Bunker goes by many names but they all lead to the same curious place. A manmade cave overlooking Lac des Arcs right in the side of Mt. McGillvray.
The origin of the Bunker was based around a plan to create a high-tech, secure storage location during the height of the Cold War. The plan was created by the Rocky Mountain Vaults & Archives, though digging began, the project was never completed for numerous reasons.
The cave is now there with easy access from the Heart Creek day use area. As you enter the cave both light and the sound from the nearby Trans-Canada quickly leaves you, the temperature drops, and you notice the smell that hangs in the air. Caves are interesting places to listen to, the darkness that encloses you opens your ears to the tiny sounds around you. Sounds that moments ago, outside the cave, would go completely unnoticed. They act as pin pricks of sound that pierces the silence, the same as light would pierce the inky dark around you.
Though the darkness is thick, a smell lingers, and the temperature drops, it is an interesting place for those looking for something different.
Learn more about the Cold War Bunker
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-cold-war-bunker-1.4781943
https://www.kristydavison.com/highline-magazine/2009/11/9/a-dark-secret-inside-albertas-nuclear-bunker
Learn more about the Kananaskis Region
https://www.kananaskis.org/who-we-are/kananaskis-parks-and-more/
https://kananaskis.com/
https://albertaparks.ca/parks/kananaskis/kananaskis-country/
Recorded in Kananaskis Country on traditional Treaty 7 territory
https://www.treaty7.org/