Navigate

25 Bucket List Fall Activities & Adventures in Alberta

Alberta’s fall colours are beautiful no matter where you go, and we can enjoy them in a number of ways like the obvious hiking, but also by boat rides, paddling trips, or by horseback. And even if you’re after a simple hike, you can plan for epic end-views with the golden mountain larches, wildlife and birds, badlands, forests, and more.

There are many other reasons to look forward to falling in Alberta, including a number of festivals centred around the harvest, Halloween, and Oktoberfest. These festivals can usually make for a memorable family trip, while some also offer adult-only nights or events for date nights and social nights.

Make the most of the fall with a getaway, outdoor recreation among the changing colours, or a celebration of this very short season.

When planning your trip, it is important to remember that unlike many other parts of Canada, Alberta’s ski season starts in the mountains by late October/early November. Access to select roads such as Moraine Lake Road closes after Thanksgiving Monday (the 2nd Monday in October). If you are new to the country, just like rest of Canada, all summer attractions close by Thanksgiving weekend to reopen in May (Victoria Day Weekend).

1. Hike the Colourful Mountain Trails

The fall colours of Alberta come alive in the Rockies, no matter which area in the mountains you visit. The scenery will be available right away from your car or bus windows and can be enjoyed or photographed further via a few noteworthy hikes.

  • Pyramid Lake trails in Jasper can make for a short hike under 5km or a longer day hike over 10km.
  • Pocaterra Ridge in Kananaskis is a more challenging hike to the bright gold larches and other fall scenery.
  • Larch Valley in Banff National Park becomes an awe-inspiring sea of gold each fall.
  • Upper & Lower Rowe Lakes in Waterton Lakes National Park are a must-visit if you’re here in fall, as the area becomes incredibly colourful.

For more:

2. See Fall Colours From Above

If you want to splurge, book a tour of fall colours from the skies. You can choose from several different locations and attractions to fly over, like the Bow and North Saskatchewan, the Rocky Mountains, the boreal forest, the Red Deer River Valley and the Drumheller Badlands. You can also find unique air and aviation tours such as hot air balloon rides, small plane tours or helicopter tours.

3. Paddle!

 

The cooler fall weather can make canoe and kayak trips more comfortable and enjoyable; they also give you the chance to see the changing colours of the leaves, birds, and other wildlife from a whole new view! This is one of the most beautiful times out of the year to see the fall foliage surrounding the smaller Rocky Mountain lakes.

  • Beaver Lake Provincial Recreation Area(near Lac La Biche, year-round) is on an odd-shaped lake, so you can spend hours exploring small inlets and bays.
  • Cross Lake Provincial Park(near Westlock) becomes a bright array of fall colours by September end.
  • Little McLeod Lake in Carson Pegasus PP allows paddling until end of September, but you can enjoy a later fall paddle (if weather permits) with the McLeod Lake day-use area, open year-round.
  • You can rent a canoe at Moraine Lake Lodge until mid-September this year to view one of Canada’s most beautiful lakes up close.
  • The Bow River has three popular sections for canoeing, kayaking, and rafting within Banff National Park – if you’re looking for more of a challenge.
  • The Icefields Parkway has four lakes on which you can launch a non-motorized boat: Herbert, Hector, Bow, and Waterfowl.

4. Few Thrilling Rides

5. Find your way through a Corn Maze

Stop by one of these farms day or night to challenge your friends or family to a corn maze. These locations have other fun fall activities on site, too. Some allow you to purchase tickets in advance for added convenience.

  • Vegreville Corn Maze runs in September and October with a petting zoo, themed weekends, and food for sale.
  • Plan time for your Edmonton Corn Maze Experience, as this giant labyrinth can take a couple of hours if you get lost enough.
  • The K3 Corn Maze & Family Farm is a great family destination with a few other farm-themed games and activities for kids to enjoy.
  • The large and abstract geometric patterns in Lethbridge’s Corn Maze might offer up a bit of a challenge for you and your family and can take “anywhere between 20 minutes to 2 hours” to complete!

For more: Corn Mazes in Alberta

6. Pick your own Pumpkin

Grabbing your own pumpkins straight from Alberta’s farms this fall is a great way to support local. Along the way, you and your family can learn about farming, visit with animals, and enjoy the other attractions at some of these pumpkin patches.

7. Taste the Local Cider

Stop by the following local cider companies to taste Alberta’s local and freshest hard ciders! Each tasting room is set up a bit differently, with some offering either a full restaurant menu or a snack menu and tasting or tour opportunities.

  • SunnyCider, in Calgary, offers premium fruit cider options (not just apple!), as well as mead and seltzer.
  • Stop by Uncommon Cider taproom in Calgary to try various hard fruit ciders like haskap, white grape, baked peaches, or dry apple.
  • Visit the True North Cider tasting room on Fridays and Saturdays in Camrose to try their classic flavours or their more unique selections.
  • Bonnyville’s Journey North Cider Company invites you to their taproom for a full meal before tasting their delicious ciders.

More: Alberta Cideries For a Day Trip

8. Visit a Harvest Festival

Truly celebrate the beginning of pumpkins, cozy sweaters, colourful scenery, and the harvest with these small-town/city festivals!

Smoky Lake Great White North Pumpkin Weigh-off & Fair

9. Tour a Fruit or Honey Winery (Meadery)

Take a scenic walk through Alberta’s wineries while enjoying the wine they go into making.

  • Barr Estate Winery Inc (Sherwood Park) offers tours and tastings by appointment.
  • Learn all about the bees responsible for the flower wine at Spirit Hills Flower Winery (Millarville) before taking a tour of the property and giving the wine a taste!
  • Visit FallenTimber Meadery (south of Sundre) for tours and tastings.
  • The Grey Owl Meadery (Alder Flats) has a public tasting room where you can order paired appetizers for the honey wine.

10. Cheers to Oktoberfest

You can pick from a few different Oktoberfest occasions around Alberta this fall. The staggered Oktoberfest celebrations make choosing where to cheer more convenient than ever.

  • Edmonton Oktoberfest: ICE District transforms into a Bavarian wonderland with a 22,000 sq ft tent hosting beer hall, German cuisine, beers, music, and family fun.
  • Red Deer Oktoberfest: Westerner Park hosts Oktoberfest with filled beer stein, food station coupons, dancing, and music.
  • Calgary Rugby Union Oktoberfest: Join the Calgary Rugby Union for an adults-only Oktoberfest with rugby, beer in glass steins, bratwurst, and gardens.
  • Beaumont Oktoberfest: Family-friendly event at Rogers Park, features live polka music, performances, picnics, craft brews, and free admission.
  • Oktoberfest Sherwood Park: German culture celebration with beer, food, family activities, and traditional attire.

11. Tour the River Scenery by Boat

Alberta’s rivers are all lined with lush foliage, which begins to change colours around mid-September. Make of the most of your fall months or time on your boat with Alberta’s larger rivers!

  • There is a peaceful stretch of the Athabasca River with launch and take-out points in the town of Athabasca, then further north in the La Biche River Wildland (recommended for jetboats).
  • You can take a peaceful and reasonably timed paddle down the Peace River between Tangent Park in the east and the town of Peace River in the west.
  • A great way to see Edmonton’s excellent fall colours is with a North Saskatchewan boat ride. Start in Devon and make your way to any of the riverside parks in the city.
  • The City of Calgary offers several access points for the Bow River, or you can travel southeast and into new river scenery outside of Calgary.

12. Go Apple Picking

U-pick opportunities are not gone with summer! These apple orchards in Alberta offer fall u-pick opportunities so you can make the perfect pies, support local, or simply get the freshest fruit.

  • Happy Acres U-Pick Farm (Spruce Grove) lets you pick more than just apples, like pumpkins and a variety of vegetables.
  • Attracted2Apples (Fort Saskatchewan) opens their apple U-pick as soon as they’re ready, which should be the first week of September. Their 800-tree orchard offers a dozen or so apple varieties.

13. Nights under the Stars & Northern Lights

So far, Alberta is having a pretty good year for northern lights viewing. You can increase your chance of seeing them and an insane number of stars this fall by visiting one of Alberta’s many dark sky preserves.

  • Any one of Alberta’s National Parks offers exceptional dark sky viewing, and because of their large preserves, you can enjoy stargazing from a few Provincial Parks, too. Jasper even hosts an annual Dark Sky Festival each October.
  • Cypress Hills, in Alberta’s southeast, and Lakeland Provincial Parks are among the newest dark sky areas in the province.
  • Cooking Lake and Miquelon Lake both enable you to view under the Beaver Hills preserve (same as Elk Island)
  • Lastly, any more remote Rockies, Kananaskis, or Badlands areas can provide epic views of the starry skies.

14. Stroll through the Gardens

Many of Alberta’s gated or botanic gardens will close soon, so fall is your last chance to stroll the colourful scenery before winter programming and events start up.

  • Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden (Lethbridge) is insanely beautiful in the fall, thanks to the numerous Maple Trees decorating the grounds and a variety of other large trees.
  • You have until Thanksgiving weekend to visit the U of A Botanic Gardens (Devon), which are a short drive from Edmonton. The mature trees on the grounds create a beautiful backdrop in the fall.
  • Trochu Arboretum lets you walk among hundreds of different trees until the end of September and is an especially great place for birdwatching, too.
  • George Pegg Botanic Garden (northwest of Edmonton) is home to numerous Heritage Trees, significant for their size, age, and type, and offers a beautiful landscape for an afternoon walk.

15. Birdwatching

Fall in Alberta is an especially wonderful time to watch for the hundreds of species of birds who call the province home- permanently or temporarily. You might be shocked at what you can spot and hear within our protected natural areas. A great way to start any birdwatching adventure is with Provincial Parks, National Parks, and Conservation Areas.

  • For birding in northern Alberta, try Lesser Slave Lake or Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park.
  • Rocky Mountain birdwatching in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park allows you options for several trails to tour or bodies of water like the Kananaskis Lakes and other small ponds.
  • Central Alberta’s Beaverhill Natural Area, or the nearby Elk Island NP are both quick drives from Edmonton, but both offer the chance to spot over 100 bird species.

For more: 25 of the Best Alberta Provincial Parks For Birdwatching

16. Climb Aboard a Train Excursion

Experience life on the rails! Alberta has four different train operators offering themed excursions, family events, and their special features for fall.

  • Alberta Prairie Railway in Stettler has a Fall Colours tour fast approaching, as well as other excursions.
  • Aspen Crossing has a Train of Terror event lined up for Halloween.
  • Take a train tour from Jasper, marvelling at the fall colours.

17. See the Fall Colours by Horseback (Trail rides)

Getting out to see the trails and fall scenery on horseback gives you a chance for views you may not get to see on foot or is a great chance to help kids learn how to ride.

18. Picnic!

Making the most of the fall season doesn’t always mean leaving the city or getting away. Alberta’s major cities are fall destinations on their own, with beautiful places to picnic. Plan a family gathering or date night around a campfire picnic!

  • The reservable sites, or sites with firepits, that are maintained by the City of Edmonton give you plenty of options all along the North Saskatchewan River Valley.
  • The same can be said for the City of Calgary with manyof the sites around the Bow River Valley. The Glenmore Reservoir is another large and scenic fall picnic spot.

Some of Alberta’s National and Provincial Park areas were built with our sightseeing needs in mind. You can find scenic routes through the prairies, foothills, and mountains via Alberta’s Parkways, all of which offer beautiful picnic areas.

  • The Icefields Parkway is Alberta’s largest scenic route and connects Jasper to Banff. Take your pick from over a dozen places to stop for a meal.
  • The Bow Valley Parkway is a gorgeous drive between Banff and Lake Louise through forest and mountain valleys with picnic sites at Johnston Canyon, Castle Mountain, and a few which don’t appear on maps.
  • Hop on the Akamina Parkway from Waterton Lakes National Park for beautiful Creekside picnic areas or the last stop at Cameron Lake (this parkway is an out-and-back drive).
  • The Elk Island Parkway can sometimes offer nonstop wildlife viewing, with bison hanging out in the grass, as well as numerous picnic spots.

19. Spectacular Waterfalls

You can hike to many of Alberta’s prettiest waterfalls while they’re frozen over winter, but we still have time to enjoy them while they’re flowing. Fall can be a beautiful time for these areas with the bright blue contrasting against the foliage’s reds, yellows, and oranges.

  • The Eaton Falls (Grande Cache) trail begins at the beautiful Sulphur Gates Area and can be completed in under three hours. The falls are in an incredibly quiet and pretty area.
  • Reaching the Athabasca Falls (Jasper) is as easy as stopping off the Icefields Parkway.
  • To reach Siffleur Falls (David Thompson Country), follow the scenic trail over the North Saskatchewan River and through various meadows.
  • The Bow Falls in Banff, behind the Banff Springs Hotel, are easy to access and look incredible in the fall with the castle-of-a-hotel behind it all.
  • Upper & Lower Bertha Falls (Waterton) give you an option between a short hike and a longer day hike- it depends on whether you’d like to see both!

20. Fall Camping

Camping in Alberta’s fall season makes for more star-gazing time, more time around the fire thanks to cooler weather, and some exceptional fall scenery. There are eight provincial park campgrounds which are open year-round, and which do not require reservations! Plan an impromptu camping trip this fall with these first-come-first-served sites.

  • Elk Creek– Elk Creek Provincial Recreation Area (Rocky Mountain House)
  • Fisher Creek– Fisher Creek Provincial Recreation Area (Bragg Creek)
  • Graveyard Lake– William A. Switzer Provincial Park (Hinton)
  • Peppers Lake– Peppers Lake Provincial Recreation Area (Nordegg)
  • Rochon Sands– Rochon Sands Provincial Park (Stettler)
  • Seven Mile– Seven Mile Provincial Recreation Area (Caroline)
  • Sulphur Gates– Sulphur Gates Provincial Recreation Area (Grande Cache)

21. Take a road trip

The best way to enjoy Alberta’s autumn scenery is by going on a road trip and stopping at scenic viewpoints. Depending on your location or driving appetite, explore:

  • Icefields Parkway
  • Highway 3 and Crowsnest Pass
  • Dinosaur Trail
  • David Thompson Highway

For more: 15 Scenic Road Trips / Drives in Alberta

22. Book a Cabin Escape

Some of Alberta’s cabins and lodges are located within the best scenery. You can book a fall escape for a romantic getaway, family trip, or any special occasion with friends.

  • The Rockin’ R Guest Ranch near Calgary is a year-round bed and breakfast with some added luxury and the chance for trail rides or spa treatments.
  • You can stop by the Prairie Creek Inn near Rocky Mountain House for a beautiful fall getaway or romantic vacation.
  • The Tekarra Lodge in Jasper is a great family getaway destination with pet-friendly accommodation options and an outdoor playground.

For more:

23. Cross Some Bridges

While you can visit Alberta’s scenic bridges at any time of the year, crossing Alberta’s bridges backdropped by spectacular fall colours or evergreens sprinkled with powdery snow is a totally different experience.

24. Visit Ghost Towns

From cemeteries to abandoned coal mines, Fall is the perfect season for a Ghost town road trip to see them all!

25. A Very Haunted Halloween!

Fall also means Halloween; it is time to consider costumes, candy, and how you might celebrate. Here are a few ideas to get you in the spooky spirit:

Alberta in Fall

 

Discover ABFall Fun

This website uses cookies.