This in-town hike has two personalities. For a time you’ll take in the far-reaching green space that is Calgary’s much loved Nose Hill Park. Go deep inside and you’d never know you were in the city – how pleasant. Another section has you in a 1960s/1970s era neighbourhood, full of Brady Houses and quite a bit different in vibe. Along the way, it’s a mix of dirt or paved pathways and city sidewalks. There’s coffee stops and eateries to have lunch if you didn’t bring your own (we don’t always when doing the urban thing). It’s a push regaining Nose Hill on the return leg, but otherwise it’s pretty easy stuff.
Park at the lot, top of the hill off Shaganappi Trail @ Edgemont Drive, east side at the lights. Take the main path heading west. Nose Hill here is broad and flat and soon the noise and bustle of Calgary are behind you. Just past a grove of trees (reminder: it’s mostly grasslands here), bend hard right, then soon after take a secondary trail heading away left in a southeasterly direction. By this point, the crowds at the start will have probably dispersed. For us, for a time, it’s as though we had the entire place to ourselves. That it’s so big helps spread out the users.
Urban Trek: Nose Hill Park & Huntington Hills – great fun any time of year. Another Chris & Connie adventure.
There’s a maze of trails, some official, many not, and to help with the former there’s maps here and there to guide you along. Still, it’d be easy to get off track or lost. You can mix it up as you like too, taking what ever route pleases you, keeping in mind there’s only a select few exits points on the 14th Street side of the park (tunnels or road crossings). You’ll want to aim carefully should you wish to follow our route beyond that point.
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After a while start dropping down, mostly a gentle grade but a bit steeper as you reach the pedestrian tunnel. In spite of being busy with people, a lot of animals live on Nose Hill. Deer, coyotes and birds of all kinds can often be spotted in wooded coulees to your right. Rose hips, a low bush with bright red fruit, can be found in abundance in sheltered hollows and is food for some of those critters. Once in a while, there’s a bench where you can sit and relax and take in nature. You don’t always need to go-Go-GO and take the time to put your feet up too.
Cross underneath 14th Street and continue on the pathway, here in a green belt separating two neighbourhoods. That’s Huntington Hills on your right, which you’ll loop around almost in its entirety and Beddington Heights opposite. Meet up with Beddington Boulevard (snack/java options across to your left) and continue east. At 4th Street, turn right then almost immediately left at Bedfield Gate and drop down to the Nose Creek Pathway.
Paralleling the railway, continue south. No trains showed for us this day. Just before 64th Avenue take the route heading up to your right. On hitting the streets, here’s some more food places. Pho sounds good! Continue west down 64th, Huntington Hills is now on your right and Thorncliffe from the 1950s on your left. Pass John A MacDonald School and soon after 4th Street (NW) marks the start of an up-grade. At 14th Street go hard right. There’s a pathway beside the road, but we choose a parallel alley as it was further back from all the busy and so less noisy.
It was mid-winter on our visit with the sun perpetually low in sky and we have some fun with long shadows. It was a crisp -10c to 15c on our visit, incidentally. No much stops us, but the cold slows down at times. We have kid-fun making snow angels at a playground – young at heart, that’s us.
Duck under 14th Street and take the path heading up on the left side of the gully. It’s a short, steep push for a time with the grade easing near the top. On a point looking out over the city: “I’m King of Nose Hill!” (& have the nose to prove it – also holding title in Bolertown). To the south it’s the downtown skyline but it’s soon out of view as you head in deeper. Go north for a wee bit before turning west on a obvious trail. Where it starts bending south, take the well beaten path to your right. Here Nose Hill is flat, featureless and higher in elevation than most of the surrounding communities and one would be hard pressed to believe there’s a population of over a million surrounding you, just out of sight. This is an urban trek? Sure doesn’t look like from here!
Coming over a low rise, the city reappears off in the distance and the illusion of being in the middle of nowhere is shattered. Soon join up with another well-trodden path, pass that grove of trees seen early on, followed by a hard left, then in no time you’re back at the car. With a whole bunch of trails converging, it’s busy along this last section.
Nose Hill is one of the biggest urban parks on the whole continent and comes in at eleven square kilometres. There’s hundreds of clicks of trails, many of them informal. At the south end scars from a gravel pit operation are evident – you won’t see them on this adventure. There were plans to turn the hill into a residential community prior to 1980, but fortunately the land was set aside for the people to enjoy instead. It’s little developed and is very much a natural grassland and home to a huge number of plant and animal species.
Watch this site for more new content coming.
They’re saying…
”One of the great places to see great places, online! Wonderful work Chris and Connie…!” Greg Herman.
If you wish more information about this route, by all means contact us!
Date of adventure: December, 2019. Location: Calgary, AB. Distance: 16km loop. Height gain maximum: 200m. Height gain cumulative: 250m NOTE: all distances and heights are approximate and may differ slightly from other trip reports.
We used to do something called the "pointless challenge" 🤪 and miss those days. It was so much silly fun and often frustrating as heck. In these we'd invite people to send in random photos of obscure locations, but not give any information, and then we'd track where it was and shoot something similar.
Most of these came from old family collections, as was the case here. Anyone up to resurrecting the series?
In hindsight, why didn't we pose someone in our shot?
Pointless: “Devoid of meaning (or) senseless” Merriam-Webster.
If you like what we do and want to support this ongoing project (12 years now), go here: https://www.BIGDoer.com/help-the-society/ Thanks to Connie for making this post possible.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: ca1970 and 2014. Posted by Connie.
Captured on a cold, cold day many years ago. We've been passing this old house for decades and it's little changed in that time. At some point we expect to drive by and it'll be gone.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
When retired old railway cars usually get cut up for scrap. Sometimes, however, they find their way into the hands of the general public or whomever. Flat cars make good bridges, and boxcars can be transformed into storage buildings and the like. Case in point here. We see them used like this often enough and in this case, it's part of a corral.
Incidentally, this boxcar dates from 1950 and this was found by tracing the old road number, which is still visible.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
This central Alberta racetrack was never a commercial operation but instead just a fun place for car enthusiasts in the area to get together. Early '70s or thereabouts and it only lasted a few years. Even thought it's been abandoned for that long, there is no doubt what was here.
You know we like the the obscure stuff and this one fits the bill perfectly. Found by accident while backroad cruising and the history comes thanks to local car guy Mike.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.
On top of little Myrtle Mountain in the Kimberley (BC) Nature Park.
There's some good wilderness fun to be had here and nice views as you can see, but the real reason we came is mining history. The whole area near the ski hill was extensively worked over a century ago and we were looking for evidence of this. We didn't find much in the area searched, but it's a big chunk of property and we hope to return to cover more ground again soon. Of all the subjects we cover, mining related is a favourite.
Still, it was a good hike and that can't be bad. Look to the comments for more info 👇.
Exploring nature and history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.
It's a strange curiosity in south Kananaskis, there on a hillside and we have no idea who created it. We asked around and no one's completely sure about its history. In the past it showed the Canada 100 logo from 1967 but in 2017 someone changed it to reflect the country's 150th.
That's our friend Emily from DanOCan.com having a look.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
Thanks, vicariously enjoy your trips, hope you folks are doing well and continuing your forays!
So happy to hear that and we’ll keep posting as long as we can.
We need to do this more again.
Amen! With nicer weather come more adventures.
I recognized the jacket that is.
And now I see that was it. Be sure to smile and wave next time.
I think I saw you on Nose Hill that day!
It must have been the jacket!