For Those Who Come Next: Itinerary for Walking the Trans Canada Trail in Alberta

“To aim for the highest point is not the only way to climb a mountain.”

Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain

How long does it take to hike across Alberta on the Trans Canada Trail?

There are moments within a long journey where it becomes necessary to step slightly outside of the day-to-day routine of walking and reflect on what the path has actually required. Our goal, as we walk from coast to coast to coast on the Trans Canada Trail, has always been to share each day of the journey and, in the process, help those who might have an interest in attempting something similar. To this end, this entry is about sharing our itinerary for hiking across Alberta.

In the process, we hope to answer questions that anyone might have about the province that we have recently concluded, such as:

What is it like to hike across Alberta on the Trans Canada Trail?
If you want to hike across Alberta, how long might it take?
If you want to hike across Alberta, what might the daily stages look like?

Notes on Hiking Across Alberta on the TCT

Alberta was the ninth province of our #Hike4Birds on the Trans Canada Trail, and at the outset of our fourth year of trekking the national trail, it was the province we stepped onto after finally finishing Quebec. That matters because Alberta did not begin for us simply as the next province in a tidy westward progression. It began after years of interruption, adaptation, and connecting a trail disrupted by the pandemic.

Quebec had been the only province in our east-to-west crossing that was broken apart by the provincial lockdowns during the pandemic. We had tried more than once to return to complete it, only to have timing, restrictions, and circumstances push us elsewhere. As a result, for a time, our route across the country existed in pieces. We had walked from Cape Spear through Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, but Quebec remained unfinished. With the completion of the Sentier transcanadien in Quebec, when we returned west and stepped back onto the route on the Saskatchewan-Alberta border, we now had a continuous line across Canada from Cape Spear, Newfoundland, to Alberta.

That meant Alberta began with a feeling of continuing along a line that had been made whole from east to west.

With all of that said, our time in Alberta very much began without ceremony – at a dusty crossroads that we had trekked to the year before. We did not pick up the trail in a city or rural community we were simply at an intersection on the provincial border. Here we were once again surrounded by the prairie lands that we had come to know well from our more than 3000 km of hiking across Manitoba and Saskatchewan. As such, the landscape was open, and the distances between communities were still vast – at least for two people on foot. So too did the routines of trekking the prairies continue as we moved onward and westward. There were long gravel roads, the occasional wetlands, rolling ranchlands, curious cattle, birds, and friendly residents in pick-up trucks that frequently stopped to chat.

So much was similar, yet over time, Alberta began to define itself as different.

The eastern portion of the province continued the prairie logic of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, but it also offered one of the most coherent and memorable trail sections of the prairies: Alberta’s Iron Horse Trail. From the rolling ranch country near Lea Park through Elk Point, St. Paul, Spedden, Smoky Lake, and Waskatenau, the route alternated between rural roads, historic rail trails, ATV corridors, staging areas, small communities, sand dunes, and long green corridors. It was still prairie walking, but it was prairie walking with more defined trail culture than many stretches we had experienced in our previous provinces.

From there, Alberta changed again. Fort Saskatchewan and Edmonton introduced one of the great urban trail experiences of the country. The forested trails and river valley through Edmonton felt like a major contrast to the range-road walking that preceded it. Unfortunately, these types of trails did not last.

South of Edmonton, with the help of old friends and new acquaintances, as we moved through the communities of Devon, Leduc, Wetaskiwin, Ponoka, Lacombe, Red Deer, Innisfail, Olds, Irricana, Airdrie, and Calgary. Throughout this long but beautiful stretch, the route again became a negotiation between local trails, road corridors, paved pathways, highways, and practical decision-making.

Then came the western portion of Alberta, where the province changed more dramatically. Beyond Calgary and Cochrane, the TCT headed toward the foothills.  Here, the trail became more tangible and at times both more rugged and increasingly technical. Owing to this, in Calgary, we again changed our gear – taking our hiking carts home as we also took time off the trail. Once back on the TCT, from this point westward, we would rely on our bodies and our backpacks. 

Continuing on the route took us through Glenbow Ranch, Bragg Creek, West Bragg Creek, Kananaskis Country, Moose Creek, Cox Hill, Lusk Pass, Quaite Valley, Canmore, Banff, Spray Lakes, Buller Mountain, Sawmill, and Peter Lougheed Provincial Park. Here, after thousands of kilometres of roads, rail trails, gravel concessions, urban crossings, and prairie exposure, the Trans Canada Trail finally felt much closer to what many people imagine when they hear the word “trail.”

Challenges of Trekking the TCT in Alberta

The challenges in Alberta are varied because Alberta itself is varied.

In the eastern and central regions, the primary challenge lies in navigation and route quality. The absence of a consistently defined trail requires careful planning, particularly when moving between communities where services may be limited, and route options are not always obvious. Walking here involves interpretation as much as movement.

Distance remains a factor, as it had in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, but it is compounded by the need to understand how the route is constructed. In some places, the TCT is clear and enjoyable. In others, it is a road or a narrow shoulder on the side of a busy highway, while at others it is a paved urban pathway or a well-maintained rail trail. As such, in Alberta, it is not a question of how far one has ventured – it is more a question of what kind of kilometres and trail they are on.

To this end, without a doubt, the long stretches on the roadway and highway were among the most difficult parts of Alberta. There were sections where the official route placed us along roads that did not feel safe for pedestrians – a point highlighted by the kind police in the province. These were not abstract concerns. They shaped the emotional experience and mental drain of the province. There is a difference between a long day and a dangerous day, and in Alberta, we encountered both.

Surface conditions also mattered. On the Iron Horse Trail, the hard-packed rail trail could quickly become soft sand or sticky mud. Pulling carts through soft prairie sand or mud after heavy rain was slow, exhausting work. In places, the very thing that made a trail excellent for ATVs made it more difficult for hikers or cyclists with loaded gear.

The weather added another layer. Heat, violent thunderstorms, and mountain weather all shaped the crossing of the province. In the prairies and central corridor, heat and exposure were often the issue. In the mountains, storms, hail, elevation, and changing conditions became more central.

The interruption caused by leaving the trail added another challenge. Returning to resume the journey required re-establishing our routines, particularly because the terrain we returned to differed significantly from what we had left behind. We left  one Alberta and returned to another. The first was prairie, road, rail trail, urban crossings, and heat. The second was foothills, mountain trails, backcountry campsites, bear country, and the approach to the Continental Divide.

Yet what remained consistent throughout was the need to adapt. Alberta does not offer a single type of experience, and moving across it requires adjusting to each of its regions and trail sections in turn.

Guide to Hiking the TCT in Alberta

This information is not a guide in the traditional sense. It is not prescriptive, nor is it intended to suggest that this is how the route must be walked. It is instead a record of how we crossed Alberta - drawn from our journals, our daily shared blog entries, and the lived experience of our trek.

We offer this information as a means to plan and ground your own trek – to have the same type of insights based on experience that we would have loved when we set out on the Great Trail.

However, at the time of writing this (2022), the existing guidebooks for the Trans Canada Trail are incomplete, and most are more than a decade old. In some cases, the TCT has moved its route or expanded the trail system significantly. Moreover, the fact remains that some provinces – including Alberta – do not have a traditional guidebook for those attempting to walk across them. This means that for those who come next, there is a huge absence of information about the national pathway.

This record exists for those who are considering a Trans Canada journey, whether on foot or by bike. It is not meant as a template, and certainly not a promise that this is how your journey will turn out. The information here – and in our daily blogs – is a glimpse of what one passage across the province from east to west looked like, for two particular people, in one particular year.

It must always be remembered that routes change, conditions vary, and circumstances are never the same twice – day to day, year to year, and hiker to hiker.

With that said, sometimes knowing where someone once walked, struggled and succeeded can make things easier at the end of a hard day on the trail. Knowing that you are standing and walking where others once also did to can make a world of difference in moments of doubt. We certainly took faith in knowing that Dana Meise, Sara Jackson, Dianne Whelan and Mel Vogel had come before us.

The Trans Canada Trail in Alberta

The Trans Canada Trail in Alberta is not defined by a single trail corridor, but by a sequence of connected regions, each with its own character. That is what makes it both rewarding and complicated.

The eastern portion of the province begins in a way that feels familiar after Saskatchewan. The route follows gravel roads, rolling ranch country, wetlands, and the North Saskatchewan River before joining Alberta’s Iron Horse Trail. This early section contains much of what makes prairie walking both beautiful and difficult: long distances, limited shade, exposure, mud, heat, mosquitoes, rural road sections, loose dogs, oil infrastructure, and small communities spaced far enough apart that every resupply decision matters.

At the same time, the Iron Horse Trail gave us one of the more developed and intentional prairie trail experiences on the TCT. The multi-use trail follows an old railway corridor and is open to ATVs, horseback riders, cyclists, horse-drawn wagons, and hikers. In our notes, the trail offered staging areas, picnic tables, fire pits, washrooms, interpretive signs, and a strong trail culture, even if conditions varied from hard-packed trail to soft sand and sticky mud. The Alberta blog describes Heinsburg as the start of the Iron Horse Trail, notes that the multi-use trail is just over 300 km long, and identifies the 178 km portion you walked as the longest completed section of the Trans Canada Trail in Alberta.

From Waskatenau and Redwater toward Fort Saskatchewan, the route became less about one iconic trail and more about how sections connected. Alberta, like the provinces before it, reminded us that the TCT is not always a single visible pathway. Sometimes it is a rail trail. Sometimes it is a paved shoulder. Sometimes it is a local path through a town. Sometimes it is a gravel road. Sometimes it is a conceptual connection between communities that requires more interpretation than confidence.

By the time we reached Fort Saskatchewan and Edmonton, the province had already shifted. Edmonton’s river valley trails were one of the most impressive urban sections we had encountered anywhere in Canada. After long days of exposure and rural roads, forested pathways through the city felt like a gift. Here, the TCT became an urban greenway, a ribbon of public space moving through parks, bridges, riverbanks, and neighbourhoods.

South of Edmonton, the route again became more complicated. Devon, Leduc, Wetaskiwin, Ponoka, Lacombe, Red Deer, Innisfail, Olds, Torrington, Linden, Irricana, Airdrie, and Calgary brought together local trail systems, busy roadways, highway shoulders, paved cycling routes, and long-term practical decisions. Some sections were beautiful. Others were deeply stressful. What we came to term the “Not Worth Dying For” stretch toward Airdrie became one of the clearest reminders that not every official or practical route is equally safe for walkers.

Then, west of Calgary, Alberta, began to change in a way that could be felt in the body. The approach to Cochrane and Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park introduced rolling grasslands, the Bow River, historic ranch country, and a sense that the prairies were beginning to fold upward into foothills. Your notes describe Glenbow Ranch as one of the TCT’s recent additions, with a packed gravel trail, interpretive panels, benches, scenic outlooks, and excellent opportunities for bird and wildlife viewing.

Beyond Cochrane, the route became more defined still. Entering Bragg Creek, Moose Creek, Lusk Pass, Quaite Valley, Canmore, and Banff, the TCT transitioned into foothills and mountain terrain. The experience of walking began to align more closely with expectations of a traditional long-distance trail. Elevation, weather, camping, water, bear awareness, trail conditions, and mountain exposure all began to matter in ways that had been largely absent across the plains.

Finally, from Banff through Spray Lakes, Buller Mountain, Sawmill, Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, and Elk Pass, the TCT entered one of the most remarkable sections we walked in Alberta: the High Rockies Trail. Your notes describe it as one of your personal favourites in Canada, an 86 km route from Banff to Elk Pass that ties together the TCT from Alberta to British Columbia through a rugged mountain landscape shaped by avalanches, forest fires, floods, lakeshores, landslides, campgrounds, wildlife, and volunteer-built trail infrastructure.

Stages and Itinerary for Hiking Across Alberta

Remembering that our trek on the Trans Canada Trail across Alberta took place in the summer of 2022, in the middle of our fourth year on the national pathway.

Taken together, Alberta took 40 trail days to complete over a span of 57 days in the province. The larger number reflects days off trail, rest days, resupply days, and days we spent giving public presentations about our #Hike4Birds citizen science outreach. In addition to this, we took 18 days off the trail beyond Calgary when life beyond the TCT pushed us to leave for a short period before concluding the province.

The time spent hiking across Alberta was not defined by distance alone, but by a combination of factors including- the distances we had already covered while hiking earlier in this year (Camino Madrid, Camino San Salvador, Camino Primitivo and TCT in Quebec), heat, terrain, the desire to enjoy parts of Alberta, and of course the realities of the world – all shaped our progress.

Itinerary for the Trans Canada Trail in Alberta

June 27, 2022 – Arrive back to SK-AB border / After completing TCT Quebec
June 28, 2022 – SK- AB border to Lea Park Campground
June 29, 2022 – Lea Park - Day off
June 30, 2022 – Lea Park to Elk Point
July 1, 2022 – Elk Point to St. Paul
July 2, 2022 – St. Paul – Day off
July 3, 2022 – St. Paul to Spedden
July 4, 2022 – Spedden to Smoky Lake
July 5, 2022 – Smoky Lake - Day Off
July 6, 2022 – Smoky Lake to Waskatenau
July 7, 2022 – Waskatenau - Day Off
July 8, 2022 – Waskatenu to Redwater
July 9, 2022 – Redwater to Fort Saskatchewan
July 10, 2022 – Fort Saskachewan to Sherwood Park
July 11, 2022 – Sherwood Park to West Edmonton
July 12, 2022 – West Edmonton to Devon
July 13, 2022 – Visiting Camino Frances Friends / Off Trail
July 14, 2022 – Devon to Leduc
July 15, 2022 – Leduc to Millet
July 16, 2022 – Millet to Wetaskiwin
July 17, 2022 – Wetaskiwin – figuring out HWY stretch / off Trail
July 18, 2022 – Wetaskiwin to Ponoka
July 19, 2022 – Ponoka to Lacombe
July 20, 2022 – Lacombe - Visiting Ellis Bluebird – day off TCT
July 21, 2022 – Lacombe to Blackfalds
July 22, 2022 – Blackfalds to Red Deer
July 23, 2022 – Red Deer to Innisfail
July 24, 2022 – Innisfail to Olds
July 25, 2022 – Olds – Day off
July 26, 2022 – Olds to Torrington
July 27, 2022 – Torrington to Linden
July 28, 2022 – Linden to Irricana
July 29, 2022 – Irricana to Airdrie
July 30, 2022 – TCT around Airdrie area
July 31, 2022 – TCT continuing around Airdrie region
August 1, 2022 – Calgary Airport to Calgary South
August 2, 2022 – Calgary South to Calgary West
August 3, 2022 – Calgary West to Cochrane
August 4, 2022 – Exploring Cochrane
August 5, 2022 – Return to Calgary on TCT / Return home
18 days off TCT - Family Emergency / Crisis of Confidence– off Trail
August 24, 2022 – Flight to Calgary
August 25, 2022 – Hike back to Glenbow PP Again
August 26, 2022 – Cochrane to Bragg Creek
August 27, 2022 – Bragg Creek to Moose Creek
August 28, 2022 – Moose Creek to Lusk Pass
August 29, 2022 – Lusk Pass to Quaite Valley
August 30, 2022 – Quaite Valley to Canmore
August 31, 2022 – Canmore – Day off
September 1, 2022 – Canmore to Banff
September 2, 2022 – Banff – Day off
September 3, 2022 – Banff – Day off
September 4, 2022 – Banff to Spray Lakes West
September 5, 2022 – Spray Lakes West to Buller Mountain
September 6, 2022 – Buller Mountain to Sawmill
September 7, 2022 – Sawmill to Boulton Creek Trading Post
September 8, 2022 – Boulton Creek Trading Post – Day off
September 9, 2022 – Peter Lougheed PP to Riverside Site / Into BC

Position Within the Larger Journey

We stepped into Alberta after finishing Quebec - the only province disrupted by Covid provincial lockdowns. This meant that we now had a continuous line across the country from Cape Spear Newfoundland to the Saskatchewan-Alberta border at the midpoint of our fourth year on the national pathway.

That meant that for us, Alberta also marked something more personal. After finishing Quebec, we finally had completed most of the Trans Canada Trail across the country from Cape Spear to the Saskatchewan-Alberta border. When we stepped west again, we were not just resuming a journey. We were continuing a line that had been broken, repaired, and made whole.

Which might sound overly dramatic. However, in earlier years, the TCT had often felt like something we were trying to hold together through sheer effort and uncertainty. In Alberta, it felt like something that had endured. The route was still imperfect and challenging at times – a point reflected in how long it took us to complete this province. The days were still hard. The dangers were still real. But the line across the country now existed behind us, and each step into Alberta extended it farther west.

Alberta was also a province of transition in the most literal sense. We began amid open prairie landscapes, ranch country, rural roads, and the long corridor of Alberta’s Iron Horse Trail. As we moved west, the province slowly changed around us. The open agricultural landscapes gave way to larger urban centres, river valley pathways, foothills, mountain trails, and eventually the Rockies. Edmonton, Red Deer, and Calgary offered some of the strongest urban trail experiences across the entire TCT. We also delighted in our time on the newly opened Meadowlark Trail, which was a wonderful green corridor to explore. In addition to this, later sections through West Bragg Creek, Kananaskis Country, the Rocky Mountain Legacy Trail, and the High Rockies Trail, were all highlights that we greatly enjoyed trekking along.

For this part of the journey, however, Alberta carried us west. The day we walked into British Columbia was also our 500th day on the Trans Canada Trail. By then, we had trekked roughly 12,000 km from the Atlantic toward the Pacific. In this way, Alberta became more than a province between Saskatchewan and British Columbia. It was also where the journey began, less an abstraction, and we began to feel that our westward trek from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean was nearing its successful completion.

It is also important to note that the itinerary above covers only the southern east-west portion of the Trans Canada Trail through Alberta - the route used by those following the Atlantic-to-Pacific corridor. Alberta is unique within the national trail system because it is also a crossroads. Near Fort Saskatchewan, the Trans Canada Trail branches north, beginning the long land and paddling route toward the Arctic.

For those looking to understand Alberta more fully within the Trans Canada Trail, this entry connects directly with our broader series:

Come Walk With Us along the Trans Canada Trail

The Trans Canada Trail In Alberta

Reflecting on the TCT in Alberta

Cycling the Trans Canada Trail in Alberta

For Those Who Come Next : Itinerary for Walking to the Yukon on the Trans Canada Trail (including TCT Route through Northern Alberta)

Each offers a different perspective on the experience of exploring the TCT.

For Those Who Come Next

In total, it took us 40 days of hiking, spread across 57 days to walk a little more than 1235 kilometers along the Trans Canada Trail across Alberta – which is not the entirety of the national pathway in the province but which for us allowed us to visit the capital city, explore more of the province, meet with friends, and connect the route we were following between provinces.

These sections of the TCT represent the largest provincial collection of pathways on the Great Trail.

If you are considering walking across Alberta, know that it is possible to do so within a defined period of time. The route exists, the connections are there, and the province can be crossed in a continuous line from east to west. This makes it a wonderful hike across a varied and stunning region.

If you are reading this because you are considering hiking across Alberta on the TCT, whether for a weekend or weeks or months at a time, we hope this listing helps in some small way. Not because it tells you what to do, but because it shows what was possible under a specific set of circumstances, at a particular moment in time.

Your journey will not look exactly like this. It shouldn’t. Weather, wildlife, wildfires, construction, health, timing, and luck all shape how the TCT, each province and Canada as a whole reveal themselves. Some days will go farther than planned. Others will end early. Some will feel almost effortless; others will ask more than you expected to give. Some will end in the joy of that day’s achievements, others will end in doubt and tears.

What matters, in the end, is not matching someone else’s itinerary, but learning how to move through this landscape with the willingness to be adaptable, leaving no trace and with care. If this record helps you plan, adjust, or simply imagine your own path, then it has done what it was meant to do.

We wish you safe walking, open eyes, and the grace to take each day as it comes.

See you on the trail!