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I tried this walk with my daughter last Saturday. The weather forecast looked a bit iffy for going up high but it actually turned out to be quite a good day until late in the afternoon. There had, however, been a lot of rain and snow the previous afternoon and overnight so the path on the north side of the river was more of a paddle than a walk. The River Leven was a raging torrent and the waterfalls along the route were magnificent. The burns were all in spate but we managed to get across all of them until we reached Allt Coire na Duibhe which was impassable.
Determined to get a view of the dam we climbed steeply up beside the burn and managed to cross much higher up. We contoured across the hillside but then encountered another burn that we didn't fancy at all. We followed this uphill again and were able to get to the other side just beyond the point where it is crossed by a pipeline. We then decided to make for the small lochan at NN252617 and to pick up the path going over Meall na Cruaidhe. From a small knoll overlooking the lochan we got a great view of the dam.
As we were descending from Meall na Cruadhe we were surprised to meet two other people who had also tried to walk to the dam and were heading for Glas Bheinn.
We returned to Kinlochleven via Loch Eilde Mor, enjoying spectacular views of the Mamores, Aonach Eagach and Buachaille Etive Mor along the way. The walk took us about 6 hours.
