Walking Trails in Grande Prairie Alberta

One of the best kept secrets are the fabulous walking trails down by the Bear Creek Ball Diamonds in Grande Prairie, Alberta. The same place where ball tournaments and the East Coast Garden Party are held every year. I know! Who knew!!

Just a short drive to the south end of the city, and still well within city limits, it's like being in nature with all the cell service a person could want!

I've been exploring the area and have gone at various times during the day and it seems that hardly anyone uses them. I've run into maybe a half dozen people on the trails themselves. The trails leading to it that run the length of the city are fairly busy but not once you get past the ball diamonds.

Picture from the bridge.

It's nearly impossible to get lost. If you get off trail, any direction you go will take you back to civilization. But just in case, there are apps out there that let you draw trails so you can back track. Or better yet, return to the side trails that lead you down to the creek. There's a number of them. I'm not going to tell you where. You'll have to find them yourself ;-)

To make this post a bit easier to read, and if you need the map, there are more photos of the Bear Creek walking trail below the map.

If you don't mind using your data... the app I used below is Gaia GPS. It's available in the app store on iTunes. I'm not sure about Android.

 

The map that's outlined in purple is a little less 4 km long. The one in blue on the left is a smidgen over 2 km. The loop on the right is roughly 1.7 km. The shorter trail on the left is ok but not my favourite. It's a little woodsy, but you do end up walking right by the ball diamonds in some open area too. 

The blue, shorter trail on the left isn't very well marked and doesn't really look like much at the start of it from the walking bridge from 68th Ave. Look for this garbage bin. That's the marker...I guess.

And in case you have small children in strollers or on bikes (I'm envisioning training wheels. Adult and experienced bikers can ride these) or need to have paved walking trails, DO NOT use these! They are "sort of" kept up by the city. There are fallen trees in places on occasion, muddy spots and lots of tree roots you need to negotiate. Most strollers or wagons are going to be hard to push or pull through.

If you're looking to "get away" from the city for a little while, but still be able to hit Starbucks in minutes, then I highly recommend checking out this awesome spot.

Bridge from below

Ducks. There's lots of chickadees, geese & other birds, too!