Hiking Foran Grade, Windy Point and Sheep River

The Sheep River bisects Bluerock Wildland Park, filled with untouched beauty and surrounded by parkland. We drove about 40 minutes South West of Calgary to get here last weekend and it was our first time in the area. We made sure to stop by Sheep River Falls, pictured below which is a fantastic place for family fun and day camping.

The Foran Grade trail starts on the side of the road, you can start at a couple of locations with ample parking and we chose to start at this sign. It's a mixed used trail that's about 8km long with 300 meters of vertical. A perfect warm up and not too strenuous, you'll see why.

It starts with a gentle ascent up a rolling field, you have to go through a gate and there is lots of evidence of horseback riding in the area...one day.

After crossing the open field you arrive at a path that continues up the hill into a birch forest. Since it was hot, this was a welcome relief, who wants to hike in the beating sun?

Further up the hill, the trees switch to be more conferous than deciduous in nature. The smell of pine should have filled the air. We crossed from the Wild land into the Alberta park land that makes up the giant Kananaskis park system between Calgary and Banff.

You can't see the mountains from up here because it was smokey, wildfires a few hundred kilometers north filled the air with particles. It reminded me a little of hiking in Korea. Usually the sky is blue and you can see the mountain peaks far off into the distance, which wasn't the case last weekend.

The smoke didn't bother us too much, we escaped the worst of it by going West, just not West enough. Being a long weekend with the Slush Cup, Canmore and Banff would have been packed.

We saw a few critters along the way, along with some goats and deer along the road. Squirrels and grouse are common in these parts.

The top of the hill had obvious signs of lightening damage and dryness, it was more lush in the valley below. Upon coming down the hill there is a junction with the Windy Point trail, which links up with the Death Valley trail forming a loop almost three times as long and best saved for a clean air day.

We continued down the hill back towards the river and the road.

Hiking along the river makes for much more epic scenery. It was close enough that the smoke didn't spoil the view and the river is truly wild.

I can picture myself sitting on one of these benches for hours, taking it all in. You can just barely make out the Rocky Mountains in the background. There are thousands of hikes to do, we have our weekends planned for the next few decades.

You can walk along the river or the shoulder of the road. We chose the former and in a few places, you would not want to slip.

The best part about long weekends is that you get an extra day to explore natures beauty and that we did. Thank you for reading and have a great week!

All photos taken with an s22 smartphone and are unfiltered