When the weather is warm and dry, there’s nothing like a long ride on the gravel roads north and east of Calgary. I had planned a 150km route with more than 50% on gravel roads that would take me north past Airdrie as far as Crossfield, east to Irricana and then back south through Chestermere. If you ride this route on a clear spring day, just remember to take your sunscreen as the sun is often intense at this time of year.
North of the highway is an ever-evolving sea of housing development.
The fastest route north out of the city centre is the Nose Creek Trail that you follow up to its terminus at the Country Hills Boulevard. In late May, purple-blue hairbells will brighten the sides of the trail by Nose Creek Park and the Grackles are back from over-wintering in the US. At Country Hills Boulevard, you need to track east for a few hundred metres, then cross the onto 14 St NE. Follow it to where it transitions into 15 St NE and eventually becomes a gravel road crossing a railway and swinging under the Stoney Trail peripheral highway. North of the highway is an ever-evolving sea of housing development. 15 St NE becomes Range Road 11 but in Spring 2025 I had to follow the Mattamy Rotary Trail up through newly-built housing called Lewiston and then gamble on following 6St NE. At times, this road is closed to through traffic during construction. I cycled through anyway ensuring my flashing lights were working to alert dumper truck drivers on the dusty road. You may need to zig-zag north on other local roads.
Your target is to reach Range Road 12 next to the huge Stampede City RV storage yard. North of Township Road 262, Range Road 12 is gravel as far as Airdrie. Imperceptibly, the road is always ascending and is paved once again where it skims the western edge of Airdrie through even more housing development. Immediately beyond the most northerly subdivision, the road reverts back to gravel carrying you over Apple Creek in a left swing. When you continue north you are a mile further west on Range Road 13.
A paved road, Township Road 282, drops you eastwards towards Crossfield and Highway 2. You could divert into Crossfield but I kept going on the smaller road that intersected the Highway 2A. This road is Crossfield’s main access south to the Edmonton-Calgary Highway 2. You cross over Highway 2 on this road that eventually leads to Beiseker and Drumheller as Highway 72. However, you need to leave the pavement after a few kilometres and turn south on Range Road 290.
The land opens up with wide views to the east as you continually zig-zag south and east. In late spring, you may find the road wetted near farms and houses. I noticed that red marker paint had been sprayed on the road margin 100m before and 100m after each farm driveway. In between the markers, the cloying surface of mud and stone chips flicks up and sticks to rider and bike alike. I tried to skirt round on the grassy verge but this was only marginally better. After one particularly bad stretch I had to stop to rub the worst of the mud off myself with a handful of grass.
The damping is a treatment applied once a year by the Rocky View County to ameliorate dust. The damping compound is not water but a solution of calcium chloride solution which is used on gravel roads all over North America and is claimed to be harmless. Needless to say, it’s worth giving your bike a thorough wash when you get home.
A sign suggesting the road may be impassable gives you fair warning
Riding gravel always takes more effort than cycling on paved roads as there is very little freewheeling except on steeper hills. As the terrain here is benign, you are always on the pedals so the few kilometres of asphalt into Irricana give you a welcome break. Irricana has gas station with a convenience store that does takeaway where I stopped, and there is also a family diner on the other side of the main street. Whether the place name is really a corruption of the words “Irrigation Canal” I couldn’t say. Whatever the explanation, a canal was never constructed and the railway that did once exist has long since disappeared.
Leaving Irricana, you traverse a series of west, south, west south gravel roads. At one point you find yourself riding down the margin of a ploughed field where Range Road 274 all but disappears. A sign suggesting the road may be impassable gives you fair warning and you can always bypass that section on another range road further west.
Many of the farms and isolated homes in this area are surrounded by a screen of trees and shrubs that provide protection from the wind as there are virtually no natural trees. In late May, the fragrant scent of Lilac wafts out from planted hedges that reminded me of the Lilac Festival centered on 4 Street in downtown Calgary.
Also present at that time of year are countless Red-winged blackbirds. Their raucously song and displays of red and yellow plumage remind me of our NHL Team. In places, herds of cattle graze outdoors again and their presence attracts swarms of tiny, hardshell bugs. It’s a good idea to keep your sunglasses on and your mouth closed here!
Eventually, you reach the eastern edge of Chestermere where, inevitably there is yet more housing development. Sadly, you have reached the last of the gravel but by then you may actually be grateful for the smoother riding on paved roads back to the city centre.
The route I rode was 150km and took me some 7 hours. You don’t have to start Downtown but could begin at, say, Balzac for a 5 hour, 100km circuit. I would advise riding when the roads have been dry for a few days as these gravel roads become like wet cement after rain. Dust may be annoying but none of the roads is heavily used by traffic so this irritant will be short-lived. You also need to be aware there are no facilities outside the few settlements: Airdrie, Crossfield, Irricana and Chestermere.
