Winnipeg 
The skating season has ended for Winnipeg’s Nestaweya River Trail.
Photo Credit: Tourism Winnipeg/The Forks North Portage Partnership
The Forks announced that the trail is now officially closed and that it is no longer monitoring or maintaining the ice.
Each winter, the Nestaweya River Trail draws visitors to skate along Manitoba’s iconic waterways. The trail begins at The Forks, the historic site where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet in Winnipeg.
Depending on weather conditions, the Nestaweya River Trail can stretch upto 10 kilometres, making it one of the longest skating trails in Canada. According to The Forks, this season’s trail reached six kilometres in length and remained open for 62 days.
Historically, the longest operating season for the trail was 76 days in 2019. In contrast, the shortest season occurred in 2024, when the trail was open for just nine days.
Now that maintenance has stopped and the ice is no longer being monitored, the officials are advising the public to stay off the rivers.
The name Nestaweya comes from Cree and means “three points,” referring to the way people historically reached the area by river from three directions. The name reflects the rivers’ long history as gathering places and travel routes, long before The Forks became the modern public space it is today.
