Things to Do in Lethbridge, Alberta

Have you ever heard of the city of Lethbridge? I never had until my trip to Canada, but this was the place that I stayed during my vacation to Alberta. It’s the third largest city in Alberta with a population of about 100,000.  The city and the surrounding areas are very pretty, and there are plenty of things to do there!

Lethbridge is very centrally located; at least it was for my itinerary. Calgary is only 2 hours north, Banff is an hour past Calgary, and Waterton is an hour and a half south. There are quite a few fun activities right inside Lethbridge or very close by!

Here’s a few of the things to do in and around the beautiful city of Lethbridge!

1. Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens

One of our first stops when we arrived in Canada, the Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens is a beautiful park that showcases Japanese culture. It’s not huge, and only took us about an hour to walk around, but the scenery is lovely! We took a lot of photos of the gorgeous flowers and Japanese buildings. This is a great place for a photo shoot, or just to take a nice walk and admire the beautiful gardens.

Peonies in Nikka Yuko

Me standing in front of the waterfall and pond in the gardens

2. Henderson Lake

After you visit Nikka Yuko, stop by Henderson Lake right next to the gardens. This gorgeous lake and park area is perfect for an afternoon walk. You may even spot some Canadian geese! There were several locals walking, riding bikes, or just sitting and enjoying the view. Henderson Lake is definitely a beautiful place to relax!

3. High Level Bridge and the Coulees

The High Level Bridge is probably what Lethbridge is most known for. This bridge is the longest and highest rail bridge in the world! Unfortunately, you can’t cross it by foot or car because it’s only for trains, but it’s still very cool! You can also see a little bit of the Coulees in the picture above on the left. The Coulees are sometimes called the”inverted mountains,” and they are beautiful, steep valleys caused by erosion. The ones we saw were mostly by the High Level Bridge, and they have some beautiful walking trails.

The High Level Bridge is so massive, and my photos don’t even do it justice! We saw it several times during our stay, but for some reason I never took pictures until our last night. However, seeing it so late made for some great sunset shots!

4. Lethbridge Soup Kitchen

I had never served in a soup kitchen until this trip. We helped out one day by serving breakfast to the people of Lethbridge. This soup kitchen is maintained by kind and dedicated volunteers, but they always could use more help! It was a great experience for me and for my friend Brittney. Volunteering at the Lethbridge Soup Kitchen (or any soup kitchen!) is a great way to give back to the community and help someone in need! They are always happy to welcome new volunteers.

5. Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park

This provincial park was such a cool experience! The park is filled with rock formations called “hoodoos,” and some of them have ancient writings on them from the indigenous people. This is a very interesting historical area, and it’s also very scenic.

There are several walking trails, some of which you can take to get a better look at the rock formations and stone writings.

The hills in the distance are called the Sweet Grass Hills, and they are actually across the border in Montana!

The Milk River is also a nice place to take a break from hiking and wade in the water. Writing-On-Stone is a beautiful place that is much different than the other parks in Alberta. I would definitely recommend saving a few hours during your trip to visit, hike, and just take in the views. You can also camp there, and we used the picnic tables for a lovely picnic lunch!

6. Abandoned farm

One of the most unique stops we had near Lethbridge was this abandoned farm and old rusty truck.

This is me trying to take photos of the old truck 🙂 See the photo below!

It was honestly one of my favorite stops of the day, just because it was such an unexpected find. Just look at that tall green grass! The scene was so perfect it almost didn’t look real!

Honestly, I don’t know if I could tell you how to get to this, because we found it accidentally. We got a little lost after we left Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park and came across this interesting place. You can see the Sweet Grass Hills in the background, so I know it’s not far from Writing-On-Stone! But we had a good time taking photos of this picturesque scenery. Old abandoned places are so mysterious!

As you can see, there is actually a lot of things to do in and around Lethbridge. It’s a beautiful city, and we only scratched the surface of the many activities and parks to visit! If you are ever in Alberta, then you should put Lethbridge on your list of places to go!

Recommended:

Banff and Canmore: 1 Day Itinerary

Things to Do in Waterton Lakes National Park