Beaver Boardwalk: Happy Creek Trail

Happy Creek Trail, Hinton Alberta

LOCATION: The trail starts at the Beaver Boardwalk (signs will be posted). 

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Easy - I would give it about a 1/5 for difficulty - it's a great beginner's hike. 

DISTANCE/TIME: The trail is 5.5 km round trip and took us exactly 2 hours to complete. 

The start of the trail.

For this hike, Sarah and myself along with another friend Allison (who also happens to be a local blogger), started off at one of our all-time favourite places in town - the Beaver Boardwalk.  The trail ventures off into a part of the boardwalk I haven't yet explored, so needless to say I was really looking forward to going on this hike.

I brought my black lab Raya who even has her own backpack so she can carry her own supplies (just water and her bowl for this hike).  She loved coming with us, and enjoyed leading the way.

Raya.

This was a nice casual hike that's great for all hiking abilities. 

Sarah enjoying the hike. 

The terrain is really beautiful, and it was almost hard to believe that we were in the middle of residential Hinton just moments before we started our hike. 

Thanks Allison, for this great pic of Raya and I. 

Another feature that makes this a great hike for beginners are the abundance of signs along the trail - there's simply no possible way you could get lost as long as you are following the marked trail. 

Signs along the trail.

Part of the reason I gave this hike such an easy rating is because of the terrain - the most extreme hill on the hike was this one (which you can see wasn't very extreme at all!). 

My hiking partners in crime.

There are also plenty of opportunities for photo ops along the way (of nature and selfless alike). 

Here's me taking a picture of Allison who is
taking a picture of Sarah who's taking a selfie.  

All in all, I will definitely be recommending this hike to friends!  I would do it again for sure, and think that it will be a great trail for those days when I don't want to venture too far from home.

Sarah and I.

You can read Sarah's account of the hike here. 

and Allison's here.