Yesterday I discovered that I had a free hour, the sun was shining and the weather forecast was for snow on the weekend so I made a quick decision to visit Alberta's newest Provincial park. We are fortunate to live just a short drive from the entrance so I piled Blu into the car, grabbed my other walking accoutrements and headed to the Park.
The first challenge was finding the turning off the highway due to the fact that the highway is currently being twinned and there were weapons of mass construction going up and down in front of the turning, with no useful signage for the hopeful hiker. Being a local however, I knew approximately where it was and headed bravely south through the construction.
The approach to the Park, Glenbow Road, is long, steep, gravelled and unbelievably dusty but once you get to the park it is beautifully paved with a large parking area, washrooms, informational signs and more. Even the walkways/bike paths are beautifully paved with yellow central lines! Interesting priorities here.
The lists of rules for use of the Park are long and all seem to start with "Do not". Dogs have to be leashed, no horses are allowed, stay on the paths, etc etc. So far Blu and I are not impressed as this Park is hard to find, uncomfortable to get to and difficult to use!
Once we started our walk, things improved. We quickly found ourselves in the beautiful river valley with amazing views, unexpected groves of trees and incredible peace and quiet - until the train went by of course, but I have always found the sound of a distant train to be quintessentially Canadian.
We walked a 45 minute circular route - downhill there and an incredibly steep uphill shortcut back! I was glad for my water bottle. The Park is huge and you could walk all day and I would recommend a bicycle for longer excursions, but the gravel pathways (no bicycles allowed) are the prettiest. Even at the end of Autumn, this Park is beautiful and I can't wait to go back in the Spring - if they haven't banned people by then!
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