5 Winter Fun Facts About Cypress Hills Provincial Park

For more information, read my story: How to spend an awesome winter weekend in Cypress Hills Provincial Park on SnowSeekers.

Snowshoeing at Cypress Hills Provincial Park

1. The park is open year round! 
   • The Visitor Centre is open Wednesday to Sunday 9 am – 5 pm all winter (7 days a week in summer). Check out the cool exhibits, sign up for an interpretive program, or rent skis/snowshoes/ice skates/kicksleds.
   • Alberta Parks offers awesome interpretive programs each weekend. Get more information here: Alberta Parks – Cypress Hills Events.
   • Warm up at The Learning Centre (across from the marina, at the luge track/tobogganing hill) – open weekends as a warming hut.
     

     Cypress Hills Provincial Park Learning Centre
2. They have a ski hill (Hidden Valley Ski Resort) with great snow and a quad chair, as well as an excellent ski school!
   

   Hidden Valley Ski Resort, Cypress Hills Provincial Park

3. Cypress Hills Provincial Park is the only Alberta Park that rents kicksleds! Also known as sparks (“sparke” = kick in Norwegian), these sleds allow you to cover a lot of ground without much of a learning curve, and even carry a passenger! Glide along the shore of Elkwater Lake.
   

   Kicksledding at Cypress Hills Provincial Park

4. There are 5 cozy backcountry huts you can ski / snowshoe / fatbike to in winter (and hike or mountain bike to in summer). Some even have lighting and electrical outlets! At distances of 200 m – 8.5 km one way, these are very attainable for families. Get more information here: Alberta Parks – Cypress Hills Backcountry Huts. Check the cross country trail grooming report here.
   

   Cross country skiing at Cypress Hills Provincial Park

5. Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park is a Dark Sky Preserve and “one of the darkest, largest and most easily accessible dark-sky preserves” (Alberta Parks). This means there’s very little artificial light so you don’t have to walk far for epic star gazing. A few hundred metres from the Visitor Centre is far enough!
   

   Stargazing at Cypress Hills Provincial Park Thanks Jeff Samson for doing the light painting. 🙂

Roadtrip Tip: Fuel up and stock up on groceries in Medicine Hat (50 minutes away) before you head down.

#ExploreAlberta with SnowSeekers’ #BucketlistAB Expedition to Southern Alberta. Discover the Cypress Hills, Medicine Hat and more by visiting SnowSeekers.

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Acknowledgements

Thank you to Alberta Parks, Travel Alberta and SnowSeekers for making this trip happen! All words and opinions are my own.