Touring Southern Alberta

Earlier this month, I returned to my home province of Alberta for my cousin’s wedding and made it a whole 2-week trip. The last time I visited was for a funeral and the time before that was to get Skipper and make my move to Toronto official, so this was kind of my first time ever visiting my province as…a tourist.

Of course, I did not have the foresight to think of this as a tourist trip until I got to Calgary and found myself stuck at my dad’s house in the suburbs for several days without a car and all my family away at school or work, bored out of my mind. The most exciting thing to come from my first week in Calgary (time outside of Calgary excluded, but we’ll get to that) was a couple of moose, a mom and baby, which showed up across the street and ate some of the neighbours’ plants for a while.

Buoyed by boredom, I made it my mission to painstakingly plan the perfect remainder respite. And if you find yourself bored in Alberta as I was, perhaps this will help you.

My first weekend was spent in Sylvan Lake where my cousin’s wedding was. Some family and I stayed overnight and visited the lake the next day. It’s not Hawaii, but the sun was shining and the sand was soft and the water was warm enough not to cause hypothermia. My sister brought her paddle board and we did a few rounds, then got ice cream and lunch afterwards, in that order. Sylvan Lake also has a floating inflatable obstacle course as well as boats and sea-doos for rent, which may interest anyone visiting the area.

The weekend after, I managed to get my family out of Calgary again and we went to Banff, this time just for a day trip. Banff is, I think, my favourite town in the world. Banff National Park as a whole is not just worth a day trip if you’re in the area, it’s a worthy destination to have on anyone’s bucket list. The Rocky Mountains are Canada’s crowning glory, if it’s not too bold of me to say, and Banff National Park has perfected the art of introducing tourists to them. The beautiful Cascade Mountain overlooks Banff’s main avenue like the crowning jewel it is. There are many worthy tourist opportunities in the broader area, including the towns of Canmore (The filmed The Last of Us here!), Kananaskis (things have probably been filmed here too, and everywhere else on this list), and Jasper (when it’s not on fire). But if you leave the residential areas, there are popular natural wonders you can visit, such as Lake Louise (world famous and deservedly so), Lake Moraine (sometimes found on coins), Lake Minnewanka (a personal favourite), and the Columbia Icefield. (The latter is available to visit all year, despite its name. At least until climate change takes it out.) All of those, plus a slew of mountains, have walking or hiking trails, though accessibility will change depending on season and animal sightings. I highly recommend finding a trail that is open at the same time as your visit and which matches your level of hiking experience in order to get the most out of it. Go it with only expectations of a long walk with a nice view, and who knows? Maybe you’ll find deer or a waterfall as a bonus!

At the different lakes, there are usually opportunities for canoeing, kayaking, boat tours, photography tours, and sometimes even horseback riding. In the Banff area, there’s a gondola which will take you to the top of a mountain with beautiful views the whole way. If you want more of a challenge, you can hike the mountain and take the gondola down again, but I warn you: this is a difficult hike. The Banff Gondola is a good year-round experience. Also good all year are the Banff Hot Springs. In fact, I especially love the hot springs in the winter. The juxtaposition of cold air and hot water while surrounded by mountains is relaxing in a way I haven’t experienced anywhere else. There’s the Banff Cave and Basin, which is worth a visit if it’s open and also has a swimming pool in the warmer months, but is also worth a visit in the cold. There’s also Banff Springs Hotel, which you can visit whether you’re a guest or not, and where my siblings and I used to love ghost hunting. It’s also got good food and shopping, if you don’t get lost.

In the town of Banff itself, my family and I usually walk the main boulevard, checking out all the shops along the way and testing our IQs on the bear-proof garbage cans. We saw an elk in town this time around, too. One of our favourite restaurants in town is Grizzly House, a meat-lover’s paradise for hot rocks and fondue dining which I highly recommend getting a reservation to, unless you don’t mind waiting an hour for a patio table. The Fudgery is a notable sweet shop nearby for how the workers make their goods right in the front window for all to see. There’s also the Banff Museum, which has been closed every time I’ve been in the area with time to spare, so I’ve never been but I’ve heard good things. And if you’re not familiar with Canada, I recommend Beaver Tails as your official Canadian dessert intro.

Closer to Calgary, we visited the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary in Cochrane. This is a hidden treasure that not many people are privy to, perhaps due to the fact that it’s a bit out of the way, but it’s very much worth making the trip. I highly recommend booking their interactive tour. It’s their most expensive option and by reservation only, but it also gives you the coolest one-of-a-kind experience where you get to go past the fences and feed the wolfdogs treats. This is not a zoo, and money goes towards the rescue and care of wolfdogs from various situations, often surrendered from the exotic pet industry. I believe this is available all year. Once you’re done, you can pop into the town of Cochrane for the famous ice cream at McKay’s Ice Cream.

Other places in South Alberta worth visiting, but which I didn’t visit on this particular trip, include Drumheller, the dinosaur capital of the world where the Royal Tyrell museum—probably the coolest museum in the entire province—is, and Vulcan, if you’re a Star Trek fan.

And what about Calgary itself? I believe, as a native Calgarian, I’ve become desensitized to the city and its wonders, and I am therefore not the best person to ask, but here are some of my favourite places to go and things to do:

• Heritage Park. We went for a ghost tour, which is available from mid-September to the end of October. Halloween weekend and the four or five weekends leading up to Christmas also include holiday-theming and shows at the park’s opera house, and I’ve had the privilege of acting in both in the past. Even just visiting on any old day will net you a decent time, and if you don’t want to pay to enter the park, you can visit the old-fashioned shops and restaurants in the plaza out front to get the vibe. The Selkirk restaurant is a hidden gem in Calgary and offers some excellent local eats, including elk, bison, and bannock.
• The Science Centre. The Ontario Science Centre in Toronto recently closed down without warning and it made me really appreciate the importance of science centres and the education they do in cool and fun ways. Calgary’s science centre got revamped a few years back and it’s well worth a visit. If you time it right, maybe you can even make it to one of their Adult Nights.
• The Calgary Tower. A classic tourist attraction in any city, the town’s bit tower, which was once the tallest structure in the area for an impressive number of years. The Calgary Tower in particular has 360 views, a glass floor that is fun to stomp on, and a rotating restaurant that makes one turn per hour.
• Theatre. Someone told me Calgary has the most theatre companies per capita in Canada, and honestly, I believe it. Some notable ones are Vertigo Theatre (for mysteries and crime), Lunchbox Theatre (for quick 1-hour plays over your lunch break), Storybook Theatre (with musicals for kids), and whatever travelling broadway show is in town. On this trip, I saw Come From Away, a travelling Broadway show, which was excellent. I highly recommend it.
• Calaway Park. If you aren’t in town at the same time as the famous Calgary Stampede, but you want your fix of rides and games, Calaway is Calgary’s local-ish amusement park. It’s open for about half of the year, though is best during warm weather and has limited opening hours in the autumn.
• The Calgary Zoo. Not everyone likes zoos and I understand that there are a lot of questionable zoos out there, but I don’t think the Calgary Zoo is one of them. A lot of animals at the zoo are rescues and the zoo focuses on education and animal welfare. As a kid, the dinosaur exhibits were my favourite, and that section of the zoo has recently been revamped with newer and cooler dinosaurs.
• The Glenbow Museum. This one’s last on the list for a reason. The few times I’ve been in the past, it was not a very interesting or impressive museum, and was almost always empty except for when schools were visiting. HOWEVER. It recently got a huge donation and is currently closed for renovations. When it opens, it’ll hopefully be way more interesting, but even if it’s not, all entries will be FREE so no harm done either way.

Bonus: I used to work at a boutique luxury hotel outside of Calgary called Azuridge Hotel, which has beautiful views and good food if you want somewhere to escape to. I quite liked working there, even though the commute was an hour long.

If you’re bored in Calgary like I was, or maybe if I end up bored in Calgary in the future, I hope these suggestions help. Southern Alberta has a lot to offer if only you are willing to get out and explore it!