Exploring Alberta on the Trans Canada Trail: Our Walk, Stories, and Resources

Alberta on the Trans Canada Trail

From the Prairie Grasslands to the Rocky Mountains

When we returned to the Trans Canada Trail in June 2022, beginning our fourth year of #Hike4Birds across Canada, the Rocky Mountains were finally becoming more than a distant destination. Behind us lay thousands of kilometres of walking through the Maritime provinces, Québec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Ahead lay the ninth province of our journey, where the landscapes of the Prairies would gradually give way to the foothills, forests, and mountains of western Canada.

Alberta would become one of the most varied and memorable sections of our coast-to-coast journey. Beginning near the Saskatchewan border, we followed rural roads and the historic Alberta Iron Horse Trail through agricultural country and small communities before reaching Fort Saskatchewan and Edmonton. From there, the Trans Canada Trail led us south through central Alberta toward Red Deer and Calgary, passing through a combination of developed recreational pathways, rural roads, small towns, and busy highway connections.

Eventually, the mountains that had remained on the western horizon began to dominate the landscape. Beyond Calgary, we entered the foothills through Cochrane and Bragg Creek, climbed the trails of Kananaskis Country, explored Canmore and Banff, and followed the remote High Rockies Trail south toward Elk Pass and the British Columbia border.

Along the way, we encountered extraordinary generosity, discovered beautiful urban parks and wildlife sanctuaries, learned about the histories of Alberta's communities, and experienced some of the most demanding trail conditions of our journey so far. From exposed prairie roads and dangerous highway connections to difficult mountain climbs and rapidly changing weather, the province repeatedly challenged our expectations.

Throughout our crossing, we shared these experiences in daily journals, documenting the landscapes, birds and wildlife, communities, and practical realities of travelling across Alberta on foot. Since completing our coast-to-coast-to-coast #Hike4Birds, we have expanded that collection to include planning resources, walking itineraries, cycling assessments, and reflections on the lessons of the trail.

Whether you are considering a journey along the Iron Horse Trail, exploring Edmonton's remarkable river valley, planning an adventure in Kananaskis Country, or simply curious about what it was like to walk across Alberta, we invite you to explore these resources and Come Walk With Us.

Follow Our Walk Across Alberta

Our complete Alberta Trans Canada Trail journal brings together the daily entries, photographs, experiences, and observations from our 2022 journey across the province.

Beginning with our return to the trail near the Saskatchewan border, the daily postings follow us through rolling ranch country toward the Alberta Iron Horse Trail. This former railway corridor carried us through Elk Point, St. Paul, Vilna, Smoky Lake, and Waskatenau, offering a welcome return to a recognizable trail after so many long days on the rural roads of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

From Fort Saskatchewan, we continued through Edmonton's remarkable North Saskatchewan River valley before turning south toward Leduc, Wetaskiwin, Ponoka, Lacombe, and Red Deer. Our route eventually curved through Olds, Torrington, Linden, Irricana, and Airdrie before reaching Calgary. These stages introduced us to historic communities, wonderful examples of urban conservation, local generosity, and some difficult road connections that challenged our willingness to continue following the mapped route.

Our reflection, Knowing When Not to Keep Going, revisits one of those moments when the practical realities of walking along a dangerous roadway - the regional route of the Trans Canada Trail - made us reconsider the difference between persistence and good judgment.

Beyond Calgary, the character of the journey changed dramatically. Here we followed the Trans Canada Trail through Cochrane, Bragg Creek, and the foothills of Kananaskis Country, where forests, steep climbs, mountain valleys, and unpredictable weather gradually replaced the agricultural landscapes of central Alberta.

Our travel journals and regular blog posts follow these experiences through Cox Hill, Lusk Pass, Canmore, and Banff before continuing onto the High Rockies Trail. Here, services became scarce, the terrain more demanding, and the natural landscapes increasingly spectacular.

Finally, after years of walking westward from the Atlantic Ocean, we reached our 500th day on the Trans Canada Trail at Elk Pass, crossing into British Columbia and beginning the final provincial chapter of our original coast-to-coast journey.

Readers can explore the complete collection chronologically, begin with our first steps in eastern Alberta, or follow the journey into the Rocky Mountains before continuing west toward the Pacific Ocean.

Planning a Walk or Cycle Across Alberta

For those considering their own adventures on the Trans Canada Trail, we have assembled several resources examining the possibilities and challenges of travelling across Alberta on foot or by bicycle.

Our Southern Alberta planning and research guide explores the east–west route from Saskatchewan to British Columbia, including communities, resupply opportunities, accommodation and camping considerations, trail conditions, and the logistical questions involved in planning a longer crossing. Complementing this, our walking itinerary for the Trans Canada Trail in Alberta documents our daily stages, distances, interruptions, and the time required to cross the province.

Alberta offers some extraordinary recreational pathways, but the character of the route changes considerably between regions. The Iron Horse Trail provides a long former rail trail through part of eastern Alberta, while Edmonton and Calgary contain impressive urban trail networks. In Kananaskis and the Rocky Mountains, the national trail follows demanding footpaths, forest routes, and mountain passes where weather, elevation, and available services become increasingly important considerations.

The Rocky Mountain Legacy Trail between Canmore and Banff offers a particularly accessible mountain experience, contrasting sharply with the more remote High Rockies Trail farther south, where walkers must be prepared to carry supplies and travel through areas with limited services and communications.

We have also examined whether the Trans Canada Trail in Alberta can be cycled. Although the province contains some excellent opportunities for recreational cycling and long-distance touring, extensive road connections, changing surfaces, and challenging mountain sections mean that travelling across Alberta by bicycle requires careful consideration of the route.

For a broader introduction, our guide to understanding the Trans Canada Trail in Alberta explores the provincial trail network, the distinctions between its major regions, and the practical challenges facing walkers and cyclists.

Alberta also marks an important crossroads in the national trail system. Near Fort Saskatchewan, the Trans Canada Trail branches north toward Canada's Arctic. For those interested in following that very different journey, our Walking the Trans Canada Trail North: Fort Saskatchewan to Whitehorse planning guide introduces the routes, communities, distances, and logistical considerations involved in travelling through northern Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon.

These resources are intended to help future visitors understand the possibilities and limitations of the national pathway rather than prescribe a particular adventure. Our southern Alberta crossing took place in 2022, and current trail conditions, access arrangements, camping regulations, services, and route alignments should always be confirmed before setting out.

Discovering Alberta's Birds and Wildlife

Birding and encouraging people to reconnect with nature remained central to our #Hike4Birds throughout Alberta. Few provinces offered such a striking progression of natural environments, from prairie wetlands and aspen parkland to urban river valleys, foothills, coniferous forests, and alpine landscapes.

Our account, Birding and Wildlife on the Trans Canada Trail in Alberta, brings together our observations from this changing landscape, including encounters with waterfowl, shorebirds, grassland birds, forest species, and mountain wildlife.  It details how eastern Alberta introduced us to prairie wetlands alive with American Avocets, Ruddy Ducks, grebes, and other waterbirds, while the Iron Horse Trail offered opportunities to explore the transition between agricultural country and Boreal forest. Around Edmonton, Leduc, Lacombe, and Red Deer, urban parks and conservation areas demonstrated how accessible green spaces could support remarkable wildlife.

Particularly memorable were our visits to Telford Lake, Ellis Bird Farm, and Gaetz Lakes Sanctuary, where conservation and environmental education were closely connected to opportunities for observing birds and wildlife. While farther west, the natural environments changed again. The foothills and mountain forests of Kananaskis, Banff, and the High Rockies Trail introduced us to Spruce Grouse, woodpeckers, mountain birds, and larger mammals. Encounters with Elk and Mountain Goats on distant slopes became memorable reminders that the wildlife of the Rockies was part of a landscape very different from the prairie wetlands where our Alberta journey had begun.

Together with our daily journals, these observations preserve the birds and wildlife we encountered while walking across Alberta in 2022 and illustrate the remarkable ecological diversity of the province.

Reflections from Our Ninth Province on the Trans Canada Trail

Alberta challenged our understanding of the Trans Canada Trail in ways that extended beyond the contrast between prairie and mountain landscapes. It demonstrated how dramatically the demands of a journey can change even within a single province.  Along the agricultural roads and highway connections of central Alberta, our difficulties often involved traffic, exposure, finding suitable places to stop, and deciding whether following the designated route was reasonable or safe. In the Rocky Mountains, the challenges were different. Steep climbs, rapidly changing weather, limited services, and the physical demands of mountain travel required us to adapt our expectations once again.

Our reflection, The Mountain Does Not Care About Your Schedule, explores this changing relationship between our plans and the landscapes through which we were travelling. After thousands of kilometres of walking, we had developed confidence in our ability to persist, but the mountains reminded us that experience did not mean we could control the weather, terrain, or circumstances.

Our broader reflections on hiking the Trans Canada Trail in Alberta revisit the province's contrasts, from the generosity of its communities and the quality of its urban pathways to the challenges of connecting those places through a national route along busy roadways.

Alberta also marked an important turning point in our larger adventure. At Fort Saskatchewan, the northern branch of the Trans Canada Trail represented a journey we would eventually undertake after reaching the Pacific Ocean. By Elk Pass, having completed our 500th day on the trail, we were also beginning to appreciate just how far we had hiked since leaving Cape Spear, Newfoundland.

Looking back after completing our coast-to-coast-to-coast journey, Alberta remains one of the clearest examples of how the Trans Canada Trail connects dramatically different landscapes, communities, and experiences. It took us from prairie wetlands and working agricultural country through urban river valleys and into some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in Canada, continually challenging us to reconsider what it meant to walk across the country.

Come Walk With Us Across Alberta

Today, with our coast-to-coast-to-coast #Hike4Birds complete, we hope these collections offer something for anyone interested in exploring Alberta and the Trans Canada Trail. Some readers may be researching the Iron Horse Trail, others may be planning a cycling adventure around Edmonton or Banff, while still others may be interested in the province's birds, natural history, communities, and remarkable mountain landscapes.

Our complete Alberta archive remains the best place to discover the full collection of daily journals, photographs, itineraries, planning resources, birding observations, and reflections. We invite you to begin wherever your interests lead you, whether along the Iron Horse Trail, beside Edmonton's North Saskatchewan River, among the foothills west of Calgary, or on the remote mountain pathways of the High Rockies Trail.

For us, Alberta was the ninth province of a journey that would eventually carry us from the Atlantic to the Pacific and north to the Arctic Ocean. When we crossed Elk Pass into British Columbia in September 2022, we had reached an important milestone, with the Pacific Ocean drawing closer and the completion of our original coast-to-coast journey finally within reach.

From Alberta, we invite you to continue exploring our journey through British Columbia, where mountain valleys, historic railway corridors, river crossings, and the landscapes of the Pacific coast would introduce us to another remarkable chapter of the Trans Canada Trail.

Thank you for joining us, whether you followed our Alberta journey in 2022 or are discovering #Hike4Birds for the first time.

See you on the trail!