June 30 2017
Distance: 5.2 km or more if you explore more trails.
Elevation gain: 100 m approx
Sometimes a good stroll through the foothills in the summer is like electroshock therapy. All your childhood trauma is magically wiped away, along with most of your personality:) This place left me smiling content as I left the parking lot to cruise Plumbers road somewhere between Highway 22x and Millarville.
The place is Brown-Lowrey Provincial Park. A new member to Alberta parks in the last
few years this small park preserves what the foothills of Alberta are all about: Peacefulness and tranquillity as you gaze west through the rolling ranges to the shining mountains. Imagining what lies beyond. This place has a view of the front ranges like no other as it is much further east than K-Country.
This park holds an astounding amount of plant diversity as ferns, cow parsnip and bedstraw carpet the forest opening while fireweed, wild
rose, lupine and paintbrush adorn the ridge crest. Varied Thrush’s buzz in the White Spruce stands while the celestial quality of 
Swainson’s Thrushes creates an ethereal tranquility in these forests. Barb wire fences and ranches remind one of where the good life is.
My route followed the Wildrose trail to the Lookout at Eagle View where the view west over rangelands and the foothills is humbling. The foothills of Carey Ridge, Pine Ridge, Gleason Ridge and Mesa Butte are all before you with the peaks of the Sheep, Threepoint and the Elbow above. From this viewpoint the name Mesa Butte finally seems fitting as its profile looks like a flat toped Mesa from the South West, but green of course. Highway 762 peaks through below miners ridge in the foreground.
What a superb addition to our Parks system. Here’s to Brown and Lowery who donated their land for it knowing how special this place is.
