When it comes to lacing up the shoes and heading for a bit of outdoorsy activities, people in Calgary make a bee line for K-Country.

Kananaskis Country is more than 4 200 square kilometers of foothills, mountains, lakes and rivers. More than 9 Provincial Parks are located in K Country giving outdoor enthusiast pristine access to a variety of activities. A 66-km long section of Highway 40 (this segment also called Kananaskis Trail) runs through the area enabling easy access.

Summer, winter, spring or fall, this is the place to ride, four wheel, run, hike, ski doo, ski, boat and more.

A mere 35 minute drive from our place on the west side of Calgary, we chose a couple of the easier more laid back picnic type spots to do some exploring. I mean Zacharie is 3 so a 1k hike around a water fall and a 30 minute bushwack looking for our first ever geocache are a perfect way to spend the morning.

Elbow Falls
20km west of Bragg Creek, this picnic area features dozens of picturesque picnic sites (some with firepits) along a smooth paved path along the Elbow River. An easy hike of a few hundred metres gives you many different views of the rushing Elbow Falls. We spent 40 minutes or so wandering and gandering.

Allen Bill Pond
By the time we arrived, just before 9a, there were already half a dozen chairs spread around the pond with Fathers and daughters and sons tossing a line in looking for one of 3000 rainbow trout that are stocked in the pond each June. Without our gear, we decided to try for our first ever geocache and .. .. were successful!

It was a great morning, we left the home before 7 and were back by just past 10.

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Tags: allen bill pond, calgary, daytrips, elbow falls, hikes, kananaskis, kcountry, kids, walks