Big Hill Springs Provincial Park — Attraction in Alberta

The once busy, yet surprisingly quiet natural park has been lost due to recent "improvements" and the experience is lost due to an increased concentration of users into a reduced space. As a seasoned hiking family the recent upgrades are not effective- if anything, it has created a bottleneck of epic proportion.

It is clear that recognizing the ongoing increase in visitation numbers was not thoroughly assessed when preparing the park redesign. Admittedly, it is not ideal to harden off natural areas as it reduces the rustic nature and ecological importance; however, the reality is this park is in close proximity to 1.5 million people with an ever increasing desire to interact with nature. As a result, parks need to be designed for growth and supported with adequate budget.

For example- the parking lot, although now paved, could have benefitted from expansion. The parking lot interface with the park entryway/exit is still bottlenecked and has not been improved to accommodate clusters of people. The new northern trail loop suffers from excessively steep grades, poor drainage and inadequate tread surfacing. The loss of the previous south west loop is a real shame as the experience and ecological intrepretive opportunity is now lost. The new bridge structures are an improvement as are the rustic rock stairs, but the high volume of people concentrated into a small area will undoubtedly take its toll on this new infrastructure. Finally, the picnic area was a real missed opportunity to provide an improved programmed space.

Perhaps Alberta Parks still have an opportunity to negotiate an effective land swap with the adjacent land owner to "smooth out the edges" of the park to manage the encroachment and focus on improving the previous trail in terms of alignment and grade. Understanding available budget may have been an issue with the improvements; however, operational and maintenance costs are undoubtedly going to increase to manage increased visitation and the concentration of use into a smaller footprint.

Commentary aside- it is still a beautiful location and needs to be enjoyed with increased...

very short do not do North loop in winter or after rain microspikes highly recommended in winter nothing is lost if you double back from the South view point as the hill is very icy

We went early February, microspikes were a must as much of the trail was obviously snowed and iced over. The bridges that you need to cross had foot-high piles of slick ice on each step, making them slightly dangerous.

Unfortunately, the best views, in our opinion, were of the little waterfall about 5 minutes in. We took the south trail first - the lookout point was OK but was definitely impacted by the time of year. The hill down from the viewpoint was again extremely icey, and we would not have missed anything if we had backtracked instead.

The north loop was terrible - likely due to the time of year - as the entire hill both up and down was nothing but sticky mud that rendered our miceospikes useless and threatened to pull off our shoes. The lookout was fine. Honestly, you get a better view from the highway driving into the valley - but it might be nicer during the summer. Definitely do not recommend this trail during winter or if there has been rain.

There was a tiny bit of incline, but the walk was very easy and took us less than an hour (possibly 45 minutes) even with...

Big Hill Springs Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada is a family-friendly park with a large spring, waterfalls, creeks, and hiking trails:

Features The park is home to a large spring that originates from the Paskapoo Formation bedrock and preglacial sands and gravels. The water is a constant 43°F (6°C) and flows continuously. The park also has a series of waterfalls, some of which emerge over rocky terraces.

Trails The park has a short, well-worn trail that's easy to follow and has lots of tree cover. The trail is great for the whole family, but the staircase leading up to the falls may not be dog-friendly.

Activities Visitors can enjoy hiking, wildlife viewing, geocaching, and picnicking. The creek is a great place for kids to play, and there are picnic tables in the pond area.

Location The park is located 19 km (12 mi) from Cochrane and is a short drive from Calgary.

History Big Hill Springs was established in 1957 and was one of the first 50 provincial parks in Alberta. The park was originally designated a recreational park, but was later changed to a preservation park in 1976 due to damage caused by...