3 days ago
What's in Kananaskis? Explore the outdoor escape where G7 leaders will gather
The G7 Leaders' Summit descends on Alberta's Kananaskis Country from June 15 to 17. Kananaskis – just an hour's drive from Calgary – isn't a national park. Rather, K-Country, as locals call it, is a 4,000-square-kilometre network of connected provincial parks, reserves and recreational zones encompassing mountains and foothills. Parts of it feel so isolated and eerily quiet they were able to serve as post-zombie apocalypse terrain in HBO's The Last of Us.
Sounds like the perfect place for a series of ultra-secure meetings of the most powerful leaders in the world.
Kananaskis is closer to Calgary than the substantially more tourist-heavy Banff, Alta., and it has a relative lack of commercial services surrounded by fortress-like mountains with placid lakes and streams. This region at the eastern foothills of the Rockies has long been a beloved escape for nature lovers.
It's also the second time such a meeting has been held in Kananaskis: Former prime minister Jean Chrétien hosted the G8 Summit here in 2002. This year's G7 group of political and economic leaders will also descend on one of the few hotels located deep in Kananaskis – the Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge – to take advantage of both the luxury resort and its easily secured perimeter.
If this place has the power to relax politicians as they make potentially world-altering decisions, just imagine what it can do for regular Canadians looking to clear their heads.
'Banff feels more curated, but in Kananaskis, we let the nature do the talking,' says Lodge general manager Elizabeth Tovey-Smith.
The main draw of the area is the nature itself: hikers, sports fishermen, wintertime skiers (cross-country or downhill at the Nakiska ski hill), paddlers, cyclists and anyone just taking in the scenery.
Kananaskis has campgrounds and glamping options, including Sundance by Basecamp, a hip hotel group known for its affordable and Instagram-worthy accommodations throughout the Rockies. There are also a couple of smaller-scale mountain lodges including the luxe Mount Engadine and the more rustic William Watson Lodge, the latter of which provides barrier-free accommodations for people living with disabilities and Alberta-based seniors.
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To support the region, the Alberta government instituted a Kananaskis Conservation Pass in 2021, a mandatory user fee that helps fund wildlife conservation, public safety and recreational services.
Paved, wheelchair accessible walkways and interpretive trails are scattered through some of the most popular areas. And travelling though scenic routes by car rather than by hiking boot has certain advantages: wildlife, including both black and grizzly bears that you wouldn't want to run into on the trails, are commonly spotted in K-Country.
But it's not all bears and remote forest bathing – or at least doesn't have to be. Those who would rather nature gaze through the window of a stylish restaurant or who need to up their level of human interaction can head to Kananaskis Village, centred around the Lodge.
Book a fine dining table at the Lodge's Cedar Room restaurant, helmed by Quebec-born executive chef Sébastien Roelly. With five eateries on site (as well as a restaurant exclusively for spa patrons), the Lodge is Kananaskis's main dining hub, though restaurants are also found at Mount Engadine lodge and Stoney Nakoda Resort and Casino just off the highway on the edge of K-Country.
There's also a 36-hole golf course nearby (which, par for the course, occasionally posts bear warnings), but the region's crown jewel is the Kananaskis Nordic Spa. A classic hot-cold-rest-repeat-style spa, the ever-expanding facility deftly uses the mountains and forests as a therapeutic backdrop. According to Tovey-Smith, approximately 200 visitors a day flock to Kananaskis just for the spa, never mind all the hiking and other outdoor activities.
'It's absolutely a draw for a different kind of traveller than Kananaskis typically sees,' she says.
While no one can confirm if Mark Carney has plans to treat Emmanuel Macron and Volodymyr Zelensky to some spa time, or to gather around the Lodge's outdoor fire pits for a round of s'mores, or if most meetings will be confined to boardroom tables, Kananaskis will undoubtedly provide world leaders with ample space for blue-sky thinking.
Once the politicians and their entourages have left, K-Country goes back to the quieter business of providing a balm for the rest of us.
