Calgary woman created an adventure guide to help Calgarians explore the city

Kelsey Woods moved to Calgary in 2012, and being the adventurous type, she wanted to explore the city’s parks.

Like most, she would search “parks” in Google and be met with a list of results, but the results didn’t tell her the information she wanted to know.

“I’d wonder, ‘Is that greenspace a school? Is that even for public use?’ Sometimes it’d give me a golf course and I just realized that even though I wanted to spend time outside, I didn't know where to go,” she says.

That’s when she decided to take matters into her own hands and create a guide to the parks of Calgary.

“I was literally on my way to a second job one day and I was like… ‘Maybe I should make it a thing.’ I actually pulled my car over, I looked up the Instagram handle ParksofCalgary, saw it was [available], and I got it.”

More than a site

In May of 2019, Woods started using her Instagram @parksofcalgary to share her journey as she explored Calgary’s parks.

She says it’s always been her passion to explore the outdoors, but she’d never done so in just one city.

“It's always been mountains and prairies and travelling the world. It was a very different look at nature for me because it was urban nature.”

Woods shared her explorations on Instagram for others to follow. In each post she’d share a photo of the park, give its name, and explain features it had such as the views, amenities, type of trail, and where to park.

By the end of 2019, she had grown the account to 820 followers. In 2020, it continued to grow, and soon Parks of Calgary was getting tagged in other Calgarians’ adventures.

“2021 was when it really took off, and so many people messaged me during that time saying that [the account] was such an amazing find while they were all locked up in their homes,” she says.

Building a community

Parks of Calgary shifted from following Woods on her explorations to becoming a community for all nature lovers.

In mid-2020, Woods started an email list for her followers. There she would host photo challenges almost every month with prizes donated by local businesses.

She also created a Facebook group where her most loyal followers hang out, share new information, and challenge each other to get outside.

As for Instagram, Woods expanded the page to share the content of her followers. As Parks of Calgary got tagged in posts, she’d repost them to share the adventures her followers embarked on.

“Everyone always seems really grateful and excited when we repost them. It’s fun and it's helping us build our mission of getting more people outside.”

Inspiring others

Barb Lindsay is a native Calgarian who stumbled across the account on Instagram.

Although she has always loved nature, the account inspired her even more to get outdoors and begin exploring parts of the city she had never known existed.

“It's for anyone of any age and any ability to just get outside and enjoy the green spaces, the parks, and nature within your own city,” she says.

Lindsay adds that Woods makes it easier and less intimidating to visit a new place. With detailed first-hand information, Lindsay says there’s no other resource like it.

As a member of the Facebook group, Lindsay enjoys being a part of the community as she loves seeing the adventures of others and feels encouraged every day to get outside.

She adds that a couple of the group’s members who live near each other connected and now go on walks together.

A website with everything

Woods launched the Parks of Calgary website in May and has many plans for its future.

At the moment, the website’s Adventure Atlas features an interactive map with city parks and off-leash dog parks. Using its filters for park size, location, and amenities, users can customize the map to find a park best suited for them.

In the next phase of the map, Woods hopes to diversify.

“We’re going to be adding some attractions,” she says.

“A lot of those are going to be art installations, community pieces, or sculptures… It's going to start with what I found and what I've experienced. Then I'm hoping that a lot of people will see this and start saying, ‘Hey, can you go check this out,’ or ‘I've been to this spot’ and then we're going to add that.”

Promoting each other

Woods also plans to add local businesses that align with the outdoors. Her goal is to provide businesses with more exposure by putting them in front of her audience.

Arlin Friesen, owner of Lazy Day Raft Rentals, has collaborated with Parks of Calgary in the past. Friesen says his goals align with Woods’ as he wants to promote the city and what it has to offer.

“It's just awareness,” he says. “They're promoting us and we're promoting them… and I think it's helped promote Calgary.”

Friesen says he’s travelled all over the world but there’s no place like Calgary with its rivers, parks, and trails.

Lee O’Donnell has also worked with Parks of Calgary and owns Banff Boutique Inn. He enjoys the community Woods has built and the assistance they can provide for each other.

“Nature as medicine is not something new,” he says. “But when you start to add in the element of community… it expands that whole conversation.”

Growing together

Woods says without the help of her friends and followers she would have never been able to build the site.

Every photo featured on the page was taken by one of 11 photographers who contribute to the site.

She also loves how accessible and detailed the website and social media content is.

“I think there are a lot of accounts that share things people can do in the city or they share pretty pictures but it's not really applicable or tangible to people,” she says.

“I think they leave out information because people don't want their hidden gem or their secret spot to become public knowledge… [but] the more knowledge you have, the more people can get out and explore and do the things they want to do,” she says.

Woods puts it like this: 90 per cent of people are going to 10 places, clogging up popular stops. However, if everyone shared everything, 100 per cent of people can go to all the places Calgary has to offer, meaning everyone will spread out more.

Additionally, she believes it’s important for people to change their habits and explore new places.

“It’s so important for your mind to try new things and go on a new hike and maybe you'll meet some new people and just learn the area around you.”