Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park is a brand spanking new park just 2 km outside of Cochrane. I've been…read morereading a bit about the park online, so decided to check the park out yesterday with my best friend. There aren't any signs up yet for the park, so if you're heading out, you'll want to look for Glenbow Rd. Coming from Calgary, Glenbow Rd is on the left hand side of the highway, and Range Rd 35 on the right. Be careful, the highway is busy and there's construction as well, it looks like they're twinning it the rest of the way to Cochrane. If you want to play things on the safe side, drive on through to the first subdivision at the top of the hill in Cochrane. Then turn around and head back the other direction. Now your turn will be on your right and you won't need to cross traffic on a busy highway. Once you turn onto Glenbow Rd, follow it all the way down. Yes you're on the right track. At the very end of the road you'll come across the parking lot for the park. Drive slowly, there are plenty of twists and turns in the narrow gravel road that even going 40 around them felt a little risky.
Bring your own water, there are no fountains here, at least not yet. Also, if you're in need of a washroom, your only bet is a couple of outhouses in the parking lot. Use them before you hit the park.
As you descend the first hill into the park, you'll come across the Visitor Centre. There were a couple of park stewards there to answer questions and chat with visitors who stopped in. The Visitor Centre has a few artifacts and information posters about the history of the area, the park, etc.
From there, the park is yours to explore! If the prairie lands and the hills and a big, blue, open Alberta sky take your breath away, be prepared to be awestruck as you make your way through the various paths. This park is BEAUTIFUL. Five stars for scenery. We passed people walking, riding their bikes, even roller blading (ok, so the bikers and roller bladers passed us...). Dogs are allowed so long as they're on a leash. There are two main (paved) pathways for those of you with wheels. For the rest of us, there are also some gravel paths to take through different areas of the park. We ended up taking the first switchback path down one side of the hill, and then decided we wanted to find our way down to the river. You can, but its a bit of a walk.
At any rate, the park may be open, but it isn't quite finished yet. Some things I'd like to see as it's developed are more picnic sites further along the walking trails, washroom facilities along the way, and perhaps a few other destinations in the park, like pointing the way to one of the old camping sites marked by rock circles they mention in the Visitor Centre. Also, the park is using QR codes on some of the information plaques around the park. I scanned a couple of these excited to see what they might bring up, but all I got was the same map of the park I was already looking at. While I'll admit this did come in handy 15 minutes later when there was no plaque in front of us, while at the plaque, I was disappointed that it didn't let me in on some additional facts about the park or something else that would have been a fun surprise. What's the point of scanning something if I'm only going to see what I'm already looking at?
Otherwise, the park's off to a good start. Go check it out! But remember, be wary crossing the highway traffic, dear yelpers, it's not the safest move just yet.
