From Mountain to Coulee: 2025 Adventures for Wilderness Roundup

June 8, 2026

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• Adventures for Wilderness
• WLA Archive

Wildlands Advocate article by Lindsey Wallis, AWA Adventures for Wilderness Coordinator

Read the PDF version here.

 

Alongside our “What’s Your 60?” challenge this past year, our Adventures for Wilderness (A4W) program continued connecting folks to Wild Alberta through a myriad of experts in different fields and across a variety of different ecoregions across the province. The Adventures program, now in its sixth year, brings out folks of many different backgrounds and interests and provides a way for them to learn about the places in our Alberta backyards, as well as the work and mission of AWA.

Wild Alberta has so many gorgeous sides to it through every season, and our adventures last year explored them all! Our participants were able to experience a full moon glinting off the snowy winter landscape, learn to draw crocuses as they poked their fuzzy heads out of the earth, witness the spectacular carpets of sunny yellow balsam roots on the hillsides of the southeastern slopes, stand under the shade of hundreds-of-years-old Douglas firs, and wander through golden fall aspen in the Ghost.

My personal favourite this year was doing a deep dive into southeastern Alberta’s remote coulees. We spent two days exploring the Milk River Natural Area and Hargrave Coulees Natural Area. With no trails or infrastructure, and difficult access, these are places a very small percentage of Albertans are able to see. Our small group was gifted dramatic cliffs, prairie falcons, colourful flowers, plus a great plains toad and five snakes — four prairie rattlers and a bull snake! The weather was also generous; we had a little of everything, from cobalt blue skies with cotton batting clouds scudding along the horizon, to moody, heavy, dark skies. But other than a brief downpour, which briefly turned the bentonite clay soil into slick sludge, we stayed dry. The old adage is quite apt — if you don’t like the weather in Alberta, wait five minutes!

We were also lucky to have Cliff Wallis along on this trip, who has probably spent more time in the Milk River Natural Area than almost anyone else, and who is full of knowledge about its history, management, and inhabitants. All our participants came away from the adventure with a full heart and a deeper appreciation for Alberta’s native prairie.

And really, that is the key to a successful Adventure for Wilderness — coming away with a better understanding of, a deeper love for, and a commitment to protect these places in Wild Alberta that don’t make the headlines like our Rocky Mountain parks. I think everyone on this adventure would agree that the landscapes and inhabitants of our prairie coulees are equally as dramatic and iconic as the Rockies, just in different ways.

Our other adventures this year also focused on gaining knowledge in new areas. We hiked Mount Lipsett to learn about the history and future of coal and forestry in the region, scouted for whitebark pine saplings on Plateau Mountain to learn how the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation is working to protect them from the threat of blister rust, and learned what a UNESCO biosphere reserve is and how the Beaver Hills are using a combination of public and private land to protect this unique ecosystem. Adventure participants also learned about what Okotoks is doing as a bee city while we searched for pollinators. On yet another adventure, we experienced the majesty of the Oldman Gap in the headwaters of a critical watershed in southern Alberta, one that is facing many threats to its water and fish.

This year we also leaned into art, and the connection between the natural world and artistic expression, with several adventures where participants connected creatively to nature. Carolyn Fisher and Barbara Amos shared their artistic talents and love for the natural world around us.

As the Adventure for Wilderness Coordinator, I want to say an enormous thank you to all our volunteer coordinators who give so generously of their time for this program. We couldn’t do it without you! And a thank you also goes out to everyone who joined an adventure in 2025. Learning and connection are such important parts of fully appreciating Wild Alberta, and the first steps towards protecting it. Happy adventuring, all. We hope to see many of you on our 2026 adventures.