Stanley Park

Stanley Park — a summer pool and a green by the Elbow

Stanley Park is the kind of place a neighbourhood grows around rather than visits. Twenty-one hectares of flats and mature trees follow the Elbow River through Parkhill in southwest Calgary, with a steep escarpment rising on the northeast side and the water running clear and shallow below. On a July afternoon the park works on three levels at once: shrieking children in the wading basin, swimmers grinding out lengths in the big tank next door, and, a short walk away, the near-silence of bowls rolling across a manicured green.

Highlights

• Stanley Park Outdoor Pool — an eight-lane, 25-metre tank running from one metre in the shallow end to 1.8 metres at the deep end, heated, filtered and sanitized around the clock.
• The waterslide and splash basin — an above-deck slide about 1.8 metres high, plus a separate wading pool and spray deck with zero-depth entry for the smallest swimmers.
• Stanley Park Lawn Bowling Club — two greens in play through the season, one of them a hydroponic green the club describes as the only one of its kind in Canada.
• Elbow River frontage — gravel bars, fishing spots and canoe and raft access, with pathway links running downstream toward the city centre.
• The Parkhill escarpment — the sharp rise on the northeast side that gave the neighbourhood its name, carrying pathway views down over the river flats.
• Princess Obolensky Park — a dedicated pocket at the north end honouring a remarkable Calgary shopkeeper, set aside in 1984.

What you’ll find

This is a full-service community park rather than a wilderness one: everything is within a few minutes’ walk of everything else, and the river is the thread that ties it together.

• Two pools under one summer operation — the eight-lane main tank and the shallow splash basin — run in partnership with COSPA, the Calgary Outdoor Swimming Pools Association.
• Tennis courts and an open sports field.
• Playgrounds and lawn under mature shade trees.
• Picnic areas with BBQ stands, bookable in advance or taken first-come, plus seasonal washrooms and drinking fountains.
• A toboggan hill that hands the park over to winter as soon as the snow settles.
• River access for anglers and paddlers, and a pathway along the escarpment above.

Things to do — and who it’s for

• Families with toddlers — the zero-depth splash basin and spray deck let very small children paddle safely while older siblings use the slide.
• Lap swimmers — a proper eight-lane, 25-metre outdoor pool, heated well enough to be comfortable on a cool prairie evening.
• Curious beginners — the bowling club is volunteer-run and welcomes newcomers through coaching and drop-in sessions; no equipment or experience needed.
• Paddlers and anglers — canoe and raft access to the Elbow, one of the gentler urban floats in the city.
• Winter families — a genuine toboggan hill with a long enough runout to be worth the climb.
• Walkers and history readers — the escarpment path, the river bank and the scattered remains of a famous unfinished mansion.

Getting there & practical

The park sits in Parkhill in southwest Calgary, tucked into the river bend below the escarpment. The Red Line CTrain leaves you within a walk of the park, and the Route 3 bus runs along the ridge above; cyclists can follow the Elbow River pathway from the city centre in about twenty minutes. Entering the park is free and it is open daily from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. The pool and the lawn bowling club are separately run facilities with their own admissions and memberships, so swimming or bowling is a paid activity even though the grounds are not; the pool operates on a summer season with scheduled public swims, lessons and programs, and the bowling greens run through the same warm months. Parking is limited and goes quickly on hot weekends, when arriving early makes the difference. Allow two to three hours for a pool afternoon with a picnic, or an hour for a river walk. Water-quality advisories are occasionally posted for this stretch of the Elbow — check before wading or fishing.

When to visit

Spring is the river’s own season: the Elbow runs cold and pushy with mountain melt, the escarpment path dries out first, and the greens and the pool are still shuttered under their covers. Summer is what the park was built for — the pool open daily, the bowling greens busy from morning, BBQ smoke over the picnic tables and the shade of the big trees actually worth competing for. Autumn quiets everything down: the pool closes, the leaves along the river turn, and the park belongs again to dog walkers, tennis players and anyone happy to have the benches to themselves. Winter turns the slope into the main attraction, with the toboggan hill in near-constant use, frost along the open water, and the escarpment path offering one of the better cold-weather walks in the inner southwest.

Good to know

Parkhill was annexed to Calgary in 1910 and takes its name from the escarpment rising sharply above the Elbow River on the northeast side of the park. The most famous story here belongs to Dr. Neville Lindsay, who arrived in Calgary on the first passenger train on August 14, 1883, made money in medicine, Klondike investments and real estate, and in 1913 began a twelve-to-fourteen-room sandstone mansion on the riverside lot — using arches salvaged from Knox Presbyterian Church. Work stopped after the foundations, portico and archways were up: his mortgage was cancelled when the First World War broke out, and “Lindsay’s Folly” was never finished. Lindsay died essentially broke in 1925, his widow Florence lost the property to the City for unpaid taxes in 1936, and the sandstone archways had vanished by the 1950s. The lawn bowling club has its own layered history: an earlier club, founded in the late 1970s and playing on that unusual hydroponic green, folded in the early 1980s; the present club was formed in October 1986 with 34 members, then roughly doubled in 1987 when the City closed another green across town and its bowlers moved over. It now counts well over a hundred members and is run entirely by volunteers. The small park at the north end was dedicated in 1984 to Princess Tania Obolensky, who fled Russia with her family during the 1917 revolution, came to Canada in 1931 with her husband, the Austrian count Leo von Kunigl, and in 1952 opened La Boutique downtown — a shop that became a fashion and social hub of the city. In 2013 the City launched a redevelopment initiative for the park, reviewing its amenities and the escarpment pathway and adding flood-mitigation thinking after that year’s flood.

Visitor tips

• Check the pool’s schedule before you go: public swim times, lessons and programs share the same tank, and the season is short.
• Come early on hot weekends. Parking around the park is genuinely tight in July and August, and the shaded picnic tables are claimed first.
• If you have ever been curious about lawn bowling, the club’s drop-in and coaching sessions are the low-effort way in — the greens are right there and members are used to teaching from scratch.

Questions & answers

Is there a charge to enter the park? No. The grounds, playgrounds, tennis courts, picnic areas and pathways are free; the outdoor pool and the lawn bowling club are separately operated facilities with their own admission and membership.

How big is the pool? The main tank is eight lanes and 25 metres long, running from about one metre deep at the shallow end to 1.8 metres at the deep end, with a separate shallow splash basin alongside.

Is it warm enough for small children? Yes — the water is heated, filtered and sanitized around the clock, and the splash basin has a zero-depth entry, so toddlers can wade in from dry deck.

Can visitors try lawn bowling? Yes. The club is volunteer-run and offers coaching and drop-in play, so you do not need to be a member or own bowls to have a first go.

Is the pool open year-round? No. It is an outdoor summer facility, running a seasonal schedule of public swims, lessons and programs; the bowling greens follow roughly the same calendar.

Can you swim or paddle in the river? There is canoe and raft access and the river is a popular gentle float, but water-quality advisories are sometimes posted for this reach of the Elbow, so check the current status first.