Wasootch Ridge
by Jared Anderson & Taffin Evans
Elbow-Sheep Wildland Provincial Park, Alberta
The Perfect Sunrise Hike and Only an Hour From Calgary!
Wasootch Ridge, located in Elbow-Sheep Wildland Provincial Park, is a 13km out-and-back-trail with 930m of elevation gain. This trailhead for this hike is located just over an hour from Calgary, Alberta, making it a great spot to catch the sunrise without having to leave too early. Also, because it’s a ridge walk, you don’t have to hike the whole trail to catch a stunning sunrise through the valley!
We normally choose to do this hike for sunrise, although, we have done it for sunset before too. We love that you can make it as long or as short as you want, choosing when you want to turn around. We often do this hike when we’re short on time; that way we still get a good workout in and pretty views, but can make it back to the city in a timely manner!
This hike is also great because it can be done in the winter or in the summer! While we’ve done it in both seasons, it can definitely get really cold and windy during the winter, so be prepared with lots of extra layers–toques, mittens and windbreakers!
When we did this hike for sunset, we did it as our last hike of 2021, and the wind was brutal that night. We were lucky we had worn extra layers, but we definitely didn’t travel too far along the ridge that day!
We absolutely love this hike. It isn’t too technical, but the grind at the beginning still gets your legs burning. The views from the ridge are stunning, and we will always keep this hike in our back pocket to do over and over again!
