Now that the Stampede was over for the year, it was time to head out of Calgary a little and see some mountains! First, we drove south to visit Sheep River Provincial Park in Kananaskis Country. On the way down, we decided to pull off to check out a possible camping spot down by a river, but, halfway down, it got so undriveable that we had to turn around – which was a bit of a challenge on a dirt track this steep!
Luckily we didn’t have to use a CAA recovery call-out and we decided we would play it safe and instead go to the campground in Sheep River.
As we got closer to the Rocky Mountains, we were blown away by the sheer size and expanse of them, and it wasn’t long until they were looming over us as we weaved our way up the single winding road to Sheep River.
Unlike the name would suggest, we didn’t see many (if any) sheep in Sheep River Provincial Park… We did however, see lots of cows as they roamed freely around the woodland and fields, sometimes just hanging out in the middle of the road.
There were so many awesome trails around this area, so we made sure to get out on a couple so we could really appreciate the Rockies. The Foran Grade hike takes you right up a steep incline through meadows and forests and then rewards you with absolutely spectacular views out across the mountains.
It was very tiring but definitely worth it! Joining another trail and following that around to make it a loop took us along the ridges above the river and allowed us to recover a little bit! All of these trails were also used by horses, and it looked like a LOT of fun so we’re very tempted to come back to Sheep River Provincial Park and have an explore on horseback!
