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Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation launches two interactive tools

People can now enjoy a trip to Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park (GRPP) from the comfort of their own home.

People can now enjoy a trip to Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park (GRPP) from the comfort of their own home.

The Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation (GRPF), the charity that oversees the sprawling park and grasslands just east of Cochrane, has launched a pair of interactive tools that allow visitors to experience the park online.

The first tool is a virtual tour of Tiger Lily Loop – the park's most popular trail. According to Sarah Parker, the executive director of GRPF, the tool includes video, audio guides and text explanations along a tour of the pathway from members of the Stoney Nakoda First Nation.

Parker said the motivation for developing a virtual, Indigenous-led tour was the cancellation of the park’s National Indigenous Peoples Day celebration in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the annual event celebrates and acknowledges the history and contributions of Canada’s Indigenous Peoples.

“We started thinking about how we could bring the interactive, educational [aspects] of our Indigenous Day event to people in a virtual way,” she said.

“The other thing is that Stoney Nakoda and all Indigenous peoples of Canada have a culture that was created and influenced by the very lands we all live on. Their connection to nature and the plants and animals we have all around us is so great. I really do believe we could all benefit from looking at our landscapes in a different way – particularly now, with more and more people recognizing how much we as humans connect with our natural spaces.”

Parker said the virtual tour took about six months to create and was made possible thanks to grants from the federal government and the Cochrane Foundation, as well as GRPF’s partnership with Urban Systems.

The tour starts off with a video of a traditional pow wow song from members of the Bow Valley Singers group. As the tour continues, Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, historians and advisors from the Stoney Nakoda provide audio explanations about various elements of the park.

The speakers, including Buddy Wesley, Virgil Stevens, Gloria Snow and Glenda Crawler, provide recorded messages about the park’s various plant life, and how it relates to Stoney Nakoda’s history, culture, stories and language.

“We’ve always woven Indigenous education into our programming, but we’re really trying to include more and more of that into what we do here at the park because the Indigenous history runs so deep here,” Parker said.

Parker said the foundation’s hope is for the tour – which lasts about 20 minutes – to be used by individuals, families and teachers.

Coinciding with the launch of the virtual tour, Parker said GRPF also released another resource on its website – an interactive park map that allows people to see 360-degree views from various points of the park, as well as current weather conditions and trail elevations.

“That’s something visitors to the park have been asking for, so we’re pleased to offer that,” Parker said. “You’ll be able to see each trail and its elevation. If you’re someone looking for more of a challenge, you might choose one with higher elevation.”

Parker added the tool is not only great for planning a visit to GRPP, but also an alternative way to experience the park for those who cannot make it in person.

“This is a fun way for people to see the park and different points of interest of the park from their home,” she said.

According to Parker, an influx of visitors to GRPP in 2020 – brought on largely by the pandemic – was the main motivator for the foundation to come up with some interactive tools. Despite the park being closed to vehicle traffic for the first two months of the pandemic, GRPP saw a record number of visitors in 2020.

“More and more new visitors are coming to the park,” Parker said. “In the summer months, we had a 157 per cent increase in park visitation [compared to 2019]. A large portion of them were brand new to the park.”

To use GRPF’s new interactive tools, visit grpf.ca and click on the Virtual Tours tab at the top of the home page.

Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19

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