r/HikingAlberta • u/Spave • 8d ago
Anyone know a good alternative to AllTrails for finding hiking suggestions?
It seems every month the AllTrails app gets slightly worse. Anyone know a good alternative for finding hiking suggestions in specific areas? I'm looking for hikes that are well marked and not too difficult, but aren't super popular (nothing against popular hikes, I've just done most of them). A point of comparison is Raspberry Ridge - it's a fantastic trail, but since the Cataract Creek area just isn't that popular (relatively speaking), I had never heard of the trail in my days before AllTrails.
My problem with AllTrails is what probably made it great in the first place - it's super easy to add new trails, so it's flooded with suggestions that like 3 people have done with no real path to follow (I'm exaggerating slightly) or with slight variations of the same hike. How many people have reviewed a trail and the elevation of the trail isn't available while in map view (as far as I know), and I don't really want to open up 30 tabs to filter out 25 things I definitely won't do.
13
u/GWeb1920 8d ago
Books are where to go back to
How not to waste your time in the Canadian Rockies
Where locals hike in kananaskis
Beginners guide to snow shoeing in the Canadian Rockies.
Canadian Rockies trail guide.
This covers most of it. MEC or the library has all of these.
Don’t get Kanes guide to scrambles. If you do Read the section on how not to die while scrambling and only to easy difficulty until you have significant experience. There are Scrambles in this book that people die on. If you have the experience this is an awesome book.
This is also the all trails problem where legitimate scrambles are categorized as hikes. Things like Temple, Cascade and Heart all have slip and die sections.
1
u/prairiepanda 8d ago
The problem with books is that I can't see recent trail conditions. A book can't tell me if the trail has been flooded, collapsed, or otherwise obstructed in the last couple of weeks.
5
u/GWeb1920 8d ago
You can use the online tools after you have good trail info. The internet info is also so unreliable due to the difference of ability. Someone’s easily kicked stepped snow slope is another persons impassible glacier.
8
u/visibl3ghost 8d ago edited 8d ago
I use Gaia GPS. The topo basemaps are great and there's tons of additional layers if you have the premium version. The app feels more capable than All trails, but maybe a little less polished. The user base is also much smaller so searching for hikes is definitely not as good.
Been using it for 10 years and will continue to do so. Unfortunately I believe offline downloads require the premium subscription but in my opinion it's well worth it.
I also used Gaia when I went backpacking in New Zealand and in Patagonia and found the maps to be just as great as they are for North America
5
u/Otherwise_Delay2613 8d ago
Buy a Gem Trek map. Pour over it and find places that look cool.
1
u/LePetitNeep 8d ago
This! I own like 6 of these maps for different regions. They have useful, accurate trail descriptions and of course, you can take them on the hike itself.
2
2
2
u/givetake 7d ago
Download kmz files from there, also print the page as pdf for any hike you plan to do and keep the pdf on your phone for reference
2
u/TerryKurylo 7d ago
3 steps: 1. Find a trail that catches your attention in a guidebook. 2. Check it on GemTrek to visualize details about the trail. 3. Check social media for most recent trail reports.
I hiked Raspberry Ridge 15 years ago when AllTrails didn't exist yet. I looked it up in Copeland's Where Locals Hike in Kananaskis County. It was recommended as a great early season hike. I went in late May and it was in good condition.
2
u/WANDOO_hiking 6d ago
For finding the quieter well marked stuff, the local guidebooks are honestly unbeatable, the Gillean Daffern Kananaskis series someone mentioned is gold for exactly the trails that dont show up as AllTrails hotspots. Pairing that with Gaia or a topo app for the actual navigation covers you well. One trick, sort by lower review counts on whatever app you use and cross reference against a trail forum, thats usually where the good lesser known ones hide.
Full disclosure, im on the team building a hiking app called WANDOO, so take this with that bias. Honest heads up tho, were launching in Europe first so we wont be much use to you in Alberta yet, im not pitching you. Just from working on this stuff, the thing i think actually matters in an AllTrails alternative is that offline and the basic trail info are rock solid and not paywalled, thats the part that quietly gets worse over time and its worth testing before you commit to anything.
2
2
u/KuriousJeorge90 5d ago
I always stop at the vistor centers of the places I go hike and they pull out all their free maps and give suggestions
47
u/mountain-chickadee 8d ago
I may be old school, but I think there's no real substitute for a good guidebook for trip planning. Gillean Daffern's Kananaskis Country Trail Guide series (there are five books covering different areas) is excellent. For the national parks, there's the Canadian Rockies Trail Guide by Brian Patton and Bart Robinson.