Experience the Foothills of Southern Alberta
Connect with local History
The foothills of southern Alberta are teeming with human and natural history. When you visit WJ Homestead Disc Golf you walk the land that was homesteaded in 1896 by Wm. Jackson and has had the caring stewardship of 5 generations of the Jackson family. Aim your disc at a little bit of Alberta’s homestead history. Every historical target on this 18 hole disc golf course offers a different challenge integrating antique farm implements and tools into the course.
At Leighton Art Centre you have an amazing view of the same landscape that inspired A.C. and Barbara Leighton. They purchased the land in 1952 and began to build their home and studio. Their house is now a museum and gallery linking the past art heritage with present day art and culture.
At Chinook Honey Company and Chinook Arch Meadery you can discover mead. Mead is the oldest alcoholic beverage known to man dating back to 7000 BC. Also known as 'Honey Wine', mead has translations in 20 different languages and has played a role in all of the great eras in human history, Egyptian, Roman, Viking or Medieval.
Honey has been sought out by humans for as long as we have walked the earth and people have been beekeepers in some way for longer than we can know. Honey and bee products have a place in medical history as well, being known for their healing qualities.
Connect With the landscape
Kayben Farms is a great resource for creating your own backyard oasis. Become inspired by the gardens, plants, trees and shrubs at their garden centre. Their expert staff can help you with plans and plant material, that are chosen for the foothills Calgary area, as well as provide do it yourself or professionally installed yards.
Leighton Centre has one of the most amazing views where you can almost see forever. It’s easy to imagine yourself as an artist or settler, or cowboy riding up over the ridge and being astounded at the land and the sky. Experience texture, contrasts, light, landscape, patterns, nature, history, and emotion through the work of artists.
WJ Homestead Disc Golf gives you an opportunity to walk on part of that landscape and see up close the native foothills ecosystem. Native grasses and plants, natural rolling hills and low wet areas are all home to the animals, plants and insects of the foothills.
At Chinook Honey Company you connect with landscape on a bee’s eye level. Learning about bees and how they view the earth gives amazing insight into things that we take for granted or may not even notice. Dandelions, canola fields, alfalfa fields, native plants, vegetable gardens, berry orchards and back yards can be gold mines for bees. The honey bee interpretive centre gives you insight into an entirely different way of seeing the world connecting with our landscape and a vital link in the food chain.
When you eat the bison from Canadian Rocky Mountain Ranch you are eating the same type of animal that the native people of the prairies used to hunt to feed, clothe, house and provide tools for their community. Flavours of the Foothills even made a modern version of pemmican with dried bison, dried black currants, honey and melted buffalo fat. We don’t sell it but you could try to make your own!
Each of your visits to Flavours of the Foothills members as well as the spectacular scenery during your drive will connect you to where you live or are visiting. Supporting our members helps to preserve the heritage and landscapes of our area.