Edmonton’s Best Dog Walks – Part 3

This morning started off with a scramble and ended up with more lovely discoveries of Edmonton‘s glorious river valley. Because we were running late this morning, I ended up driving my daughter to school which had the potential to throw off my morning river valley walk.

However, after I dropped her off at school, I parked the vehicle and headed with my dog down into the river valley. I took the trail down from Concordia College and alongside the golf course to the base of the Capilano Bridge. Wait, make that the Gretzky Bridge. (If you’re from Edmonton, you’ll know what I mean — if not, the bridge had a name change in the last few years to honour “The Great One” and his years as an Edmonton Oiler.) At any rate, I intended to take my usual trail westwards towards home and just loop back to the vehicle after about 20 minutes of walking. When I got to the trail head I realized that I had only ever gone in one direction, but that there was unexplored trail in the other direction as well! So, off we went Eastward bound.

This trail runs along the edge of the river between it and the golf course as well, and on a sunny morning like today with a hint of breeze, it was beautiful! The sun was glinting off the river and as I walked the path I could almost imagine that I was far from the city. The faint sounds of traffic along Wayne Gretzky drive and the occasional noise from the golf course were the only reminders of my urban location. The birds were out in force and the sweet call of the meadowlark thrilled my little heart!

We met several people on the trail, some with dogs and several without. This made the trail feel like a safe place to be and we were able to enquire about where we were going. One gentleman told us that if we continued on the trail we would come to a footbridge which went across the river to Capilano Park. From the park, a paved trail runs west and joins with the Capilano/Gretzky Bridge, making it a nice large loop. That will be a trail for a day when we have more time. Today’s walk was from the golf course up to the bridge and then up the hill where we got onto Ada Boulevard at about 50th Street. We walked on the grassy side of the street and enjoyed looking at all of the beautiful homes.

There is at least one heritage home along this stretch of the Boulevard — the home of the gentleman that developed the Highlands neighbourhood. It is a huge brick home surrounded by a wrought iron fence. We continued to follow Ada Boulevard back to Concordia where we had parked. This entire trip took us almost exactly one hour. My suggestion would be to do it early in the day, as the sun is very warm on this south facing walk. Next time I go, I will also be sure to take water with me.