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Brown-Lowery Loop
Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, Alberta
October 26, 2020
Distance: 6.9 km
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 175 m
Brown-Lowery Provincial Park is a small, forested sector near Priddis. Surrounded by farmland, the foothills retreat offers an excellent viewpoint and several wooded trails. The trails are short, but by linking several of them together, Dinah and I created a 7 km perimeter loop. The trails are well maintained, and maps are located at the trail junction making navigation easy. The park asks for a $5 donation per vehicle, well worth, I think, what it has to offer.
We followed Chickadee, Red Willow, Pine Hill, Lookout and Wildrose West trails, although we simply kept left at the intersections. By hiking the loop clockwise, we left the best part of the trip – the two viewpoints – near the end. Both are on a high point on the west side of the park. The east viewpoint offers an exceedingly narrow opening to see the skyscrapers in downtown Calgary 40 km away – an impossible distance to see much of anything – while the west viewpoint provides an expansive view of the faraway mountains.
Brown-Lowery Park is so close to Calgary that we'll likely visit it in the spring or summer. By then the park will take on a refreshingly different look.
Starting down the trail
We crossed several small bridges like this one
For the first several hundred metres, Chickadee trail climbs
The aspens here were among the tallest I've seen
One of two ruffed grouse we saw
Every junction had a map
The trail passes a collapsed cabin
We passed a meadow, the only one in the park
After crossing Pothole Creek, we hiked up Red Willow trail
Most of Pine Hill trail follows a cutline
Pine Hill climbs before leveling off
Looking back after the trail levels off
The trail briefly follows alongside a fence
Just before the viewpoint, Lookout trail runs through an aspen grove
There's a restricted view east of the City of Calgary (mouse over for a close-up)
The west viewpoint is a short walk
The view would undoubtedly be better on a clear day
The long ridge in the background is Allsmoke Mountain, while the hill to the right of it with two bare slopes is Mesa Butte
82 J/16 Priddis