Overlooking the Elbow River in Kananaskis country you find the Ford Knoll. About an hour South West of Calgary on the edge of the Canadian Rockies by the Little Elbow campground is just one of many premium hiking destinations in the area. Yes, we are spoiled as even the drive here is nothing short of gorgeous.
An epic view of the mountains fills your eyes as you drive down Alberta highway 66 towards this park (much of it closed Dec-May). There are so many trails it's hard to chose one. As it was our first time in the area we wanted something of moderate difficulty to give us time to explore the river and day camping area.
The highway winds through the foothills following the river for some of it. Watch out for cows! And deer, maybe mountain goats and other critters. There are pedestrians as parking can be limited near the popular Elbow Falls.
This stunning trail begins near the parking lot and you go through this fence to supposedly control the cows. There are horse back trails, bike trails and plenty of walking trails in the area so share the path and watch out. The place is called Elbow-Sheep and is one of many provincial parks in the area.
Like most trails in the area, it's relatively easy to follow this one, while there is some braiding and side paths, your GPS should work and the path is well traveled. It's just over 5 km long and the hill itself is slightly over 200 meters making it a moderate hike at best. I use GAIA GPS but some people prefer All Trails. Since we take most of these photos with a S20 or iphone 13 pro, we don't need GPS as it is built into the phone. Reception is hard to come by in these parts though so you should pre-load some maps of the area before heading out.
You can see the Elbow river in one direction and Nihani ridge in the other or is that Forgetmenot Mountain. Doesn't matter they are all nice. We usually stop to have lunch somewhere with a beautiful view and those aren't hard to come by in these parts.
The path takes you up the knoll around the top then back down through a pristine valley with a peaceful brook. You could spend weeks exploring the area, and we will be back for sure to do many of the other hikes. I already want to go back...
The river bank makes for excellent hiking, we broke off the trail near the bottom and followed the Elbow back to the starting point. Right by the parking lot is what seems to be a popular day camping area around Forgetmenot pond. A perfect place to bring the family and hang out for the day. 100% we will return.
