Sunday Staycation

The weather was fantastic this weekend so we decided to have a small adventure on Sunday and go somewhere we’ve never been. After some googling we loaded Zoey into the car and drove 30 minutes out of town to Big Hill Springs Provincial Park.

Yes, yes, you’d think we would have already visited a park so close to home but we hadn’t.

There is a loop trail of about 1.7 kilometers with a slight elevation change of 224 feet, and our research had warned that it might be muddy in some areas.

A not so slight understatement.

You’d also think such a short loop would be a quick walk, but it took us over 45 minutes. When you see the photos you’d understand why, there is a pretty creek and waterfalls all along the trail. We had to stop every few minutes to take a photo.

The park is day use only and open year round, there are benches and picnic tables, and dogs are welcome on leash. The parking lot was quite busy but the trail was quiet, not sure where all the people were…

We took the long way home so we could visit Ghost Reservoir Provincial Recreation Area…yes yes, another one on our doorstep that we’d never been to.

Ghost Lake is a prime recreation spot for summer and winter activities and it’s only about 45 kilometers from the city so it made sense to check it out. The lake has been around since 1929 when the dam was built along the Bow River.

We were expecting to see a vast expanse of empty frozen water, maybe a few ice-fishing huts. We didn’t expect to see a cleared race-track with cars zipping along, a dune buggy, trucks, snowmobiles pulling toboggans and an ice-surfer!

It was amazing!

It was also really cool to see the cracks in the ice looking down..and a little scary, until you remembered that if the ice can support a truck, it can probably support me, in theory.

Check out the All Trails website for more information on these parks and many other hiking/walking trails.