Circling the Glenmore Reservoir reveals one of Calgary’s most layered urban landscapes.

Over roughly 15 kilometres, the pathway system connects recreational spaces, protected natural areas, major civic infrastructure, and one of Canada’s largest living history museums.

What appears at first to be a recreational loop is also a story about how Calgary grew — through transportation, water management, public space, and its evolving relationship with the land itself.

Completed after the construction of the Glenmore Dam in 1932, the reservoir remains one of the city’s most important pieces of infrastructure. Nearly half of Calgary’s drinking water passes through this system before reaching homes and businesses. Yet despite its utilitarian purpose, the reservoir has also become one of Calgary’s defining recreational landscapes.

Recent upgrades to the dam, completed in 2020, expanded storage capacity while reshaping the experience for pathway users. Dedicated pedestrian and cycling routes now allow visitors to fully circle the reservoir, opening uninterrupted connections between parks, natural areas, and surrounding communities.

The result is a landscape where infrastructure and recreation exist side by side.

Circling the Glenmore Reservoir changes your perspective about urban landscapes entirely. This journey reveals both a carefully engineered water system essential for the growth of Calgary. At the same time, it is also a network of pathways that stretch toward forests, sailing clubs, picnic sites, and quiet shoreline viewpoints.

The expanded pathway connection also strengthened links to the broader Elbow River pathway system, creating continuous movement through some of Calgary’s most significant recreational and ecological corridors.

Glenmore Parks

North and South Glenmore Parks frame the reservoir, and both offer water access, tennis courts, and playgrounds.

North Glenmore Park has more picnic and BBQ spaces, creating a gathering place centred around outdoor activity. It also features docks and a boat launch ramp. These are available for public access at the Calgary Canoe Club and Calgary Rowing Club (hand launch only).

7305 Crowchild Trail S.W. (North Glenmore Park, 24 St. S.W. off Crowchild Trail).

Throughout the warmer months, cyclists, paddlers, runners, and families move continuously through the area.

Across the reservoir, South Glenmore Park shifts toward a broader mix of recreation and community space. There are 347 hectares of open parkland, pathways connecting playgrounds, a splash park, and newer additions like the Quinterra Legacy Garden Project, where public art and outdoor gathering spaces add another layer to the landscape.

It also features docks and a boat launch ramp, accessible to the public at Glenmore Sailing Club. The club offers education, recreation, social events and racing for people of all ages and abilities.

Glenmore Sailing School – 8415 24 Street S.W. (South Glenmore Park – 90 Ave. and 24 St. S.W.)

Together, the parks demonstrate how the reservoir evolved beyond infrastructure into one of Calgary’s most active public spaces.

Into Weaselhead Flats

The atmosphere changes dramatically as the pathway enters Weaselhead Flats.

Open reservoir views give way to dense forest, quieter trails, and one of the most ecologically significant landscapes within Calgary’s boundaries. Designated as a Special Protection Park, the area contains large stands of urban forest, extensive wildlife habitat, and the only true delta environment within the city.

The meeting of the Elbow River and the reservoir creates a landscape that feels surprisingly removed from the surrounding urban environment. Birdsong replaces traffic noise. Narrow pathways weave through wetlands. Seasonal flooding continues to shape the terrain much as it has for generations.

Along with trails and pathways, this is a great place for birding, canoeing and kayaking. 

Learn more in our guide: Best Trail for Fall. 

A City Built Around Water

In a prairie city far from any coastline, the Glenmore Reservoir is a beckon for water enthusiasts. It is the only facility in Calgary for sailing, disabled sailing, dragon boat racing, rowing, canoeing and kayaking.

These all developed here alongside the infrastructure required to sustain a rapidly growing city. That balance between recreation and protection remains essential today.

Nearly half of Calgary’s water supply is drawn from the Glenmore Reservoir. The Glenmore Water Treatment Plant is one of two plants that supply over 1.3 million Calgarians and surrounding communities with high-quality drinking water. 

The source water is susceptible to contaminants. This makes treatment more difficult and costly. Limiting recreational use to reduce pollution is critical. The following are prohibited:

• No drinking of alcohol.
• No power motors
• No inflatable crafts or boats.
• No paddle boards.
• No swimming.
• No fishing from docks or ramps. Fishing is permitted in boats and along the shore. The area is home to a diverse population of fish, including rainbow trout, brown trout, and pike.
• No pets on shore, in water or in watercraft.
• No launching boats from undesignated shore areas. Approved life jackets or self-inflating personal floatation devices must always be worn while on the water.

The last publicly accessible dock and boat launch is at Heritage Park. 8003 14 St. S.W. (West of 14 St. at Heritage Drive S.W.)

Heritage Park and Civic Memory

On the western shoreline of the reservoir, Heritage Park Historical Village occupies a 51-hectare (127-acre) peninsula surrounded by water on three sides.

Opened in 1964, the park was created to preserve and interpret Western Canadian history through reconstructed streetscapes, historic buildings, transportation exhibits, and public programming. More than a museum, it functions as a physical representation of how communities across the Prairies emerged and evolved.

The location itself is symbolic. Positioned beside one of Calgary’s most important infrastructure projects, Heritage Park connects the story of settlement and transportation to the modern systems that allowed the city to expand through the twentieth century.

There are over 180 exhibits inside the park where visitors can still ride the steam train, explore historic streets, or sail aboard the S.S. Moyie — a sternwheeler originally launched in 1898 and now one of the most recognizable symbols within the park.

Outside the admission gates, the public plaza and surrounding pathways extend the experience into the broader reservoir landscape, blending recreation, gathering space, and civic history.

The plaza hosts free music in the park throughout the summer. You can also explore Gasoline Alley, Mercantile Block, or the train station. 

The Railway and the Growth of Calgary

The reconstructed train station outside Heritage Park reflects the transformative role railways played in Calgary’s emergence as a regional centre.

Rail infrastructure accelerated migration, commerce, industry, and urban growth across Western Canada. The original CPR station, dubbed the Depot, was a modest wooden structure. The later sandstone stations reflected the city’s growing ambitions and its access to locally quarried stone following the 1886 fire, which reshaped Calgary’s architectural identity.

Two buildings were joined by a continuous canopy; a reproduction based on these buildings stands outside the gates of Heritage Park.

By 1910, it was clear that this gateway to the West needed an even larger station. The CPR decided to repurpose the 9th Avenue Depot and carefully dismantled it. They modified it and reconstructed the west half in High River, with the other half in Claresholm. 

Opening as independent train stations in 1912, these architectural rarities helped facilitate the growth of Western Canada.

Visit our guides: Emergent-Towers or Behind Stephen Avenue to explore spaces that reflect the railroad’s impact on the city. They showcase the Sandstone Building Legacy that extends beyond the city limits. These stations continued to operate until they closed in 1965 and 1971 in High River. It reopened as the Museum of the Highwood. 

CLICK HERE to VOTE for the BEST Sandstone Building

These structures are reminders that Calgary’s development did not happen in isolation. The city emerged through interconnected systems of transportation, natural resources, water management, and regional expansion.

A Place to Dream

Near the Glenmore Dam, along the pathway connecting the communities of Mayfair and Bayview, a simple chalkboard invites passersby to stop and leave something personal behind: a dream, a goal, or a reflection.

At first glance, it feels like a small and unexpected addition to the pathway. But after circling the reservoir — moving through spaces shaped by engineering, environmental stewardship, recreation, and history — the board becomes something more meaningful.

There is something fitting about finding it here. The reservoir itself exists because earlier generations imagined a growing city and built the infrastructure needed to sustain it. The railways, parks, pathways, and public spaces surrounding the reservoir were all once ambitious ideas tied to Calgary’s future.

The chalkboard quietly continues that tradition on a human scale.

As a final stop, it serves as a reminder that cities are not only shaped by planners, engineers, and builders. But also by the aspirations of the people moving through them every day.

Next steps – where to go from here

The Glenmore Reservoir loop is more than a recreational circuit.

It is a landscape where multiple Calgary stories intersect: environmental preservation, engineering, transportation, recreation, and urban growth. Pathways built for movement now connect people to histories that stretch from Indigenous gathering places to railway expansion and modern city-building infrastructure.

The experience also reflects a broader pattern — reshaping the landscape to sustain growth while simultaneously creating new forms of public space.

From here, you can follow the 9 km journey along the Elbow River to its confluence with the Bow River. It tells the story of how cultures often develop through a connection to the land.

Long before Calgary emerged as an urban centre, Indigenous peoples gathered along these river systems. The Elbow River corridor formed part of a larger cultural landscape connected to Mohkinstsis — the Blackfoot name often translated as “Elbow.”

Did you know? The Mawson Plan first identified riverbank protection as a priority for Calgarians in 1914.