In this post a few weeks ago, I said that, while I love adventurous mountain treks, sometimes it’s nice to go for a somewhat-leisurely walk on a well-established trail through the forest. Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, near Millarville, Alberta, offers just that.
Brown-Lowery is about a 35-minute drive from my house in Calgary, and it was the perfect little hike one evening after work + dinner (we even made it home before it was dark out!). My parents have been hiking there regularly for the past couple of years, and had been telling me I should go for awhile now.
After an early dinner at the end of May, my parents, Holden and I jumped in the car and headed out to the nearby provincial park. There was a large parking lot, washrooms (well, outhouses. Beggars can’t be choosers.) and a nice, easy-to-follow map. The trail was quiet – we passed two other small groups and two people hiking alone, and that was it!
From the parking lot, we chose the Wildrose Loop to the Eagleview Lookout point, where we paused to sit down and admire the view. Heading back, we took the Pine Hill trail briefly to the Old Mill Loop, which then, at a fork, put us on the Wildrose Loop again back to the parking lot. This was perfect, as I much prefer loops to out-and-backs (you get a chance to see more!), and it made for a tidy route. There are clear maps along the trail and at each fork in the path, and even if you were to get really lost, the trails would eventually lead you back to the parking lot.
This route took us just over an hour and a half at a very slow pace, and was just short of 5 kilometres (3.1 miles). We only gained 93 metres (305.1 feet) of elevation.
This would be a perfect hike for people of all athletic abilities, kids and (leashed) dogs – although strollers and other wheeled apparatuses wouldn’t fare well on the terrain, as there are a lot of tree roots, some mini-ponds to cross via bridge and tons of mud. Other than the muddy sections (I was very glad I’d chosen to wear hiking boots instead of my running shoes), the path is packed-down and relatively flat, with only one major incline as your near the viewpoint (no pain no gain, am I right?). The trail winds gently through the trees, with plants and flowers and bridges (some more precarious than others) to admire along the way. There are a couple of benches at the lookout to sit and rest, or enjoy a snack. All-in-all, I had a magic time wandering through the forest.
Directions to the trailhead parking lot: Coming south from Calgary, head west on Highway 22X (best accessed via 37th Street SW, MacLeod Trail South or Deerfoot Trail South), then turn left (south) onto Highway 22. From there turn right (west) onto Plummer’s Road – when you reach the dead end, turn left (south) to continue on Plummer’s Road. After that, you just follow the road until you come to the parking lot and sign for Brown-Lowery Provincial Park!
Brown-Lowery Provincial Park is named after Robert Brown Sr. and Major James Robert Lowery. The landscape was donate to the people of Alberta in 1969 by Home Oil Company in memory of Brown and Lowery, who were the company’s founders. Its provincial park status was established in October 1992. The park has a surface of 3 square kilometres (1.2 sq. miles) and has an elevation of 1,370 m (4,490 ft). (Information pulled from this page on Wikipedia – yes, yes, I know that Wikipedia is not always a credible source, but I think it’s fine for my purposes here.)
I hope these photos show my effort to up my photography game for the blog! I’ve still got a ways to go, but they’re definitely better than my usual, right??
+ a few fun iPhone shots my dad and Holden took:
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happy hiking!