Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Recreation Wildlife and Grazing Area

Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Recreation Wildlife and Grazing Area in Sherwood Park offers four-season trails and lakeside escapes for easy outdoor adventure. Just 20 minutes east of Edmonton in the Beaver Hills Biosphere, this recreation area features over 180 km of trails through aspen forest, wetlands and open pasture. Visitors can set out from four staging areas to enjoy hiking, cycling, fat biking, trail running, on-leash dog walking and horseback riding, with picnic spots along the way. In winter, groomed routes invite classic and skate cross-country skiing, while shared trails welcome snowshoeing, fat biking and dog sledding. Paddling on Islet Lake is popular in warmer months, and the area’s rich wildlife, UNESCO-designated biosphere status, role in the Beaver Hills Dark Sky Preserve and hosting of the Canadian Birkebeiner Ski Festival make it a notable nature destination.