Recreational Activities

The park is open all year with fantastic summer and winter recreational opportunities.

Explore with than 50 kilometres of trails for hiking and mountain biking. Approximately 15 kilometres of trails in two separate trail systems are groomed and track set for cross-country skiing.
Enjoy three lakes and lots of water activities in warm weather! In winter, ice fishing is popular.
Go sightseeing or wildlife viewing year-round. Take your camera!
As a dark-sky preserve, the Cypress Hills are also a remarkable place to view the natural beauty of the starry sky.

The Cypress Hills are significantly higher than the surrounding plains so summers are often cooler and winters often warmer.

Medicine Hat weather (66 kilometres northwest of the park)
Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park-Saskatchewan weather

Dark-Sky Preserve

Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park is a dark-sky preserve - a sanctuary from artificial light. A dark-sky preserve is an area that maintains the nocturnal environment in as pristine a manner as possible. This makes a better environment for nocturnal wildlife and it's great for stargazing.
The Cypress Hills Dark-Sky Preserve is one of the darkest, largest and most easily accessible dark-sky preserves.
On September 28, 2004, Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park was designated as a Dark-Sky Preserve by the governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Canada, in partnership with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. It is the first park in Saskatchewan and Alberta to become fully recognized as a dark-sky preserve in North America.
The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada-Saskatoon Centre organizes the Summer Star Party each August in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park-Saskatchewan. The event is one of the largest gatherings of stargazers in Canada.
At the 2001 Summer Star Party, amateur astronomer Vance Petriew discovered a comet - officially designated as Comet Petriew (P/2001 Q2)!
There is a new dome observatory in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park-Saskatchewan which provides great astonomy viewing for beginner to advanced stargazers.

Sightseeing

Two outstanding features of Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park-Alberta are Horseshoe Canyon Viewpoint and Reesor Viewpoint. Look north on a clear day to see rolling hills, coulees and flat prairie landscape for more than 100 kilometres.

Refer to our driving routes map for sightseeing by vehicle.

Wildlife Watching

The Cypress Hills are one of Alberta's prime wildlife viewing areas. Please remember that wildlife are wild.

Review our wildlife safety tips.
Check Advisories.
Read detailed information on flora, fauna and birds in the Cypress Hills.

Animals

Spring and fall are the best seasons for wildlife viewing in the Cypress Hills. In spring, catch a glimpse of a newborn mule deer or moose. In fall, listen to the bugle of the elk.
The varied plant communities here provide homes for many animals including elk, moose, wild turkeys, deer, pine martens and cougars. There are no bears in the Cypress Hills (the last one was shot in 1890).
Download our Mammals Checklist.

Birds

This is one of the best birdwatching locations in Canada. The Cypress Hills are an island of forest in a sea of grassland. More than 220 bird species have been recorded here. The area's unique environment provides habitat for typical prairie birds, plus many species normally found in the foothills and forests far to the west and north.

Northern saw-whet owls, red-breasted nuthatches and ruffed grouse live in coniferous forests.
Dusky flycatchers, ruby-crowned kinglets, yellow-rumped warblers and many other birds are common in the Cypress Hills but far from their usual ranges.
Dark-eyed juncos and yellow-rumped warblers breed primarily in the Rocky Mountains and the forests of northern Canada but there are isolated populations of these species in the park.
Ferruginous hawks, northern shrikes and Baird's sparrows, all threatened species, are occasionally seen.
Some birds seen very rarely in western Canada have also been recorded in the park. One example is the common poorwill.
The wild turkey, another unusual bird, was introduced to the Cypress Hills in the 1960s.
Download our Bird Checklist.

Plants

The Cypress Hills are an orchid-lover's paradise. Fourteen orchid species are found here including the calypso orchid and the yellow lady's slipper. Many of these fragile and stunning flowers are found on hiking trails in spring and early summer.
There are wildflowers here that are not found anywhere else on the prairies. This is a result of the park's position high on a plateau.
Download our Orchids Checklist.