Legacy Trail Extension to Three Sisters Remains Unfunded 11 Years After Proposal

Canmore’s 2015 trails plan listed an extension of the Legacy Trail to Three Sisters among its many possible projects. Eleven years later, residents are asking for it again.

The Town of Canmore’s Open Spaces and Trails Plan, approved in 2015, amended in 2021 and still in force, lists extending the Legacy Trail from the Cougar Creek underpass to the Three Sisters interchange among its proposed trail projects.

The existing Rocky Mountain Legacy Trail stretches 26.8 kilometres from the Bow Valley Parkway to Canmore, with the proposed extension continuing east toward Three Sisters.

The 2015 plan rates the proposed extension as high cost and low priority, with no funding identified. No planning document reviewed for this story includes a cost estimate.

This spring, residents raised the idea again during the town's public engagement on its new Integrated Transportation Plan (ITP), which sets priorities for how people get around Canmore.

For people in Three Sisters, the gap shows up in minutes. Michael Fraser works from home there and goes downtown most days. He described how long each trip takes in an email.

“If I walk it takes about 70 minutes, jogging takes 45 minutes (I'm a slow runner), and 20 on my mountain bike. The bus takes about 20 minutes too.”

Whether the extension moves forward depends on how the ITP ranks it and, for a route along Highway 1, whether the province approves it.

What residents asked for

The town's public engagement on the new ITP ran from March 17 to April 17, although the interactive map stayed open until April 24 after a registration email problem.

It drew more than 1,300 pieces of input, including 402 survey responses and 685 pins on the map.

A community night on April 13 drew 143 people, and an April 16 workshop drew 26 people from 19 organizations.

The town's engagement summaries of the community night and workshop both mention extending the Legacy Trail. The community night summary also lists better commuter connections between Three Sisters and Elk Run.

Tim Perkin, a Three Sisters resident, cycling journalist and owner of Mountain Massif, said in an email that he supports an extension but believes it is not enough on its own.

“Yes, completely. But you also need to connect Three Sisters to Cougar Creek and provide an easy, safe route through to Silvertip.”

Perkin also pointed to a recently installed cattle guard, known as a Texas gate, on Highway 742 as an obstacle for cyclists.

“There is currently no easy or safe way to get from Three Sisters to the Legacy Trail,” he said.

While residents want better connections, that doesn't necessarily mean they want more development. Fraser, who also rides the free bus, said he is not sure Three Sisters needs to grow much more.

“Personally, I'm not sure we need to develop Three Sisters a ton more. It's actually nice having a quieter side of Canmore versus the busier downtown.”

What people like now, and why they want more

Survey results suggest residents value Canmore's existing trail network. In the town’s survey for its Open Spaces and Trails Plan, 72.8 per cent of respondents said they use the pathways and trails daily, and 77.7 per cent rated their satisfaction at least seven out of 10.

The most common reasons people gave for valuing the trails were the ability to hike or walk (376 respondents), connection to nature (369) and the ability to bike or roll (319).

The town’s summary of the April 13 ITP community night reflected similar praise, with participants describing Canmore’s bike paths as “excellent” and expressing appreciation for the connected trail network.

The same summary also highlights gaps residents want addressed.

Participants said limited options for active transportation in winter increase their reliance on the bus. They asked for more frequent service to growing areas such as Three Sisters, and for more direct links between Three Sisters, Cougar Creek and Elk Run that do not go through downtown.

At the April 16 stakeholder workshop, participants noted gaps along Three Sisters Parkway and described success as having “connected, separated bike lanes that are cleared year-round.”

A trail is not the only thing residents want.

Snow and ice were the most commonly selected barrier to cycling in the ITP survey, chosen by 221 of 402 respondents.

Asked which transportation options they would like to use more, 175 respondents chose the bus, followed by 167 who chose cycling and 136 who chose walking.

An idea already on the books

The 2015 plan lists the extension among 12 desired projects for the Three Sisters area.

“Construct an extension of the Rocky Mountain Legacy Trail/Trans-Canada Trail from the TCH pedestrian underpass at Cougar Creek to the Three Sisters Interchange (paralleling the TCH).”

TCH stands for the Trans-Canada Highway. A separate item in the plan calls on the town to work with the MD of Bighorn to extend the trail as a paved path from the Three Sisters interchange to Dead Man's Flats.

Public comments from the 2015 engagement, reproduced in the plan, show the idea had support then too. One participant wrote:

“Continuation of the Legacy Trail out to the Three Sisters intersection would be a nice addition and decrease highway riding… would be a big asset to the area.”

What the current process will decide

Zabrina Pendon, the town's manager of engineering, said the ITP will stop short of determining an exact route for the extension.

“The plan itself wouldn't identify the alignment for the pathway, or the timing, or how it might be implemented. That work would be in follow-up work coming out of the ITP.”

The town plans to prioritize the recommendations and bring the highest-ranked projects to council for budget consideration.

Pendon said projects will be ranked based on transportation needs and the plan's goals, rather than where they are located.

“The prioritization sequence is not based on the geographical location of the missing link within the network, but more so how the project fulfils the needs of the transportation system and aligns with the goals of the integrated transportation plan.”

Asked where the extension might land in that ranking, Pendon said it was too soon to say.

“It's way too early to know that.”

The town is currently using feedback from the first phase of engagement to develop its draft transportation plan, according to its published project information.

Pendon said the town intends to share the draft recommendations with people who participated in the engagement process and the broader public before moving forward.

Whose land it would cross

The corridor beside Highway 1 is provincial right-of-way managed by Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors.

Pendon said any route using provincial land would require approval through the ministry's roadside development process.

“Alberta Transportation has a formal process of roadside development approvals that we would apply through. We regularly collaborate with our business partners through Alberta Transportation, the MD of Bighorn and others.”

The 2015 plan names the MD of Bighorn as the partner for the Dead Man's Flats segment.

The town's background report for its current trails review says the province's draft Canmore Area Trails Master Plan covers trails outside town limits, and that the town does not have jurisdiction over that plan.

Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.

The wildlife question

Any new trail would also need to account for wildlife habitat and movement corridors in the Bow Valley. Kennedy Halvorson, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association, described the region's ecological importance in an emailed response.

“As one of the few east-west passages across the Rockies, its natural connectivity is critical for the movement of iconic species like grizzlies and cougars.”

A 2022 study in the journal Movement Ecology, led by Jesse Whittington of Parks Canada, used 20 years of grizzly bear and wolf tracking data from in and around Banff National Park.

It found that development at the time of the study had reduced high-quality habitat between Banff and Canmore by more than 35 per cent and made it significantly harder for wildlife to move through the area, with modelled connectivity reduced by an average of 85 per cent compared with conditions without development.

The town's background report for its current trails review maps wildlife corridors on both sides of Highway 1 through Three Sisters.

In the town's survey for that review, 90.8 per cent of respondents, or 425 of 468, supported the principle that ecological integrity should be central to trail and open space planning.

Some residents also expressed concerns about further trail development. In that survey, the most common theme in written comments, with 49 mentions, was keeping green spaces and trails natural or undeveloped.

The town's summary says many of those comments worried that more paving, lighting and connectivity could harm wilderness character and wildlife habitat.

Halvorson said building trails alongside already disturbed areas could help limit their environmental impact.

“To mitigate impacts, trail planners can consolidate trails or co-locate them with already disturbed areas.”

She noted that a trail alongside Highway 1 could “potentially” be a suitable location for consolidating transportation routes from a habitat perspective, although several environmental questions would need to be considered first.

“Will it reduce the width of any existing wildlife corridors or create pinch points? What edge effects would it induce on the surrounding habitat? Will it need to cross any streams or creeks? Do precautions like buffers or fences need to be constructed to ensure cyclist safety beside the highway, and how does this impact the surrounding landscape? How does the trail connect with the surrounding network?” Halvorson said.

Halvorson also emphasized that some areas may not be suitable for further trail development.

“Trail planners can recognize when ecological limits have been exceeded and further trail development is no longer appropriate.”

Pendon said wildlife corridor impacts would be reviewed once a route is chosen. No route has been chosen, and neither the 2015 plan nor the background report explains whether or how the extension was assessed against the mapped corridors.

What happens next

The next step is the draft ITP and further opportunities for public feedback.

Even if the extension is included, the town would still need to determine a route, estimate costs, assess environmental impacts and secure any necessary provincial approvals.

Extending the trail beyond Three Sisters toward Dead Man's Flats would also require coordination with the MD of Bighorn.