- Trail:
- Sawmill Loop Trail (Peter Lougheed Provincial Park)
- Status:
- Minor Issue / Yellow
-
Issue status:
- Condition:
- Unknown - please contribute condition
- Reporter Primary Activity:
- Hike
Description:
Heads up that the trail had some high water flow damage over the summer of 2026. The lower section that travels through the river valley (the lower west side of loop) had a lot of damage - you now pick your way though the boulders as most of the trail that bordered the river has washed away. Most fallen trees have been trimmed so it's not too hard to pick your way. This will fill with snow in in the winter and should be fine.
However, the short steep switchback that took you from the river valley into the trees has completely washed away and it will be difficult to climb out of the river valley once the washed out bank is icy and snow covered (it's a 15-20 foot high steep crumbly bank now). Doing the complete loop will be difficult until a new path through that short troublesome section is established.
The trail still has excellent views and is a great snowshoe or fat bike. Instead of doing a loop, the next time I will travel up the eastern part of the loop to the intersection where you start to descend (i.e. the first half of the loop counterclockwise), but instead of descending the loop, I will continue straight along the Snowdrift trail and continue to the bridge that crosses Headwall Creek, and then return the way I came. The bridge is very beautiful in the winter and the Snowdrift trail to the bridge needs more traffic to keep it packed for snowshoeing and fatbiking. There are super views from the meadow about half-way to the bridge from the intersection.
Note that the trail signage and website explicitly allows snowshoeing and fat biking. I don’t know why trailforks calls this a hiking only trail and half of the trails shown on the Alberta parks website aren’t shown on trailforks.
However, the short steep switchback that took you from the river valley into the trees has completely washed away and it will be difficult to climb out of the river valley once the washed out bank is icy and snow covered (it's a 15-20 foot high steep crumbly bank now). Doing the complete loop will be difficult until a new path through that short troublesome section is established.
The trail still has excellent views and is a great snowshoe or fat bike. Instead of doing a loop, the next time I will travel up the eastern part of the loop to the intersection where you start to descend (i.e. the first half of the loop counterclockwise), but instead of descending the loop, I will continue straight along the Snowdrift trail and continue to the bridge that crosses Headwall Creek, and then return the way I came. The bridge is very beautiful in the winter and the Snowdrift trail to the bridge needs more traffic to keep it packed for snowshoeing and fatbiking. There are super views from the meadow about half-way to the bridge from the intersection.
Note that the trail signage and website explicitly allows snowshoeing and fat biking. I don’t know why trailforks calls this a hiking only trail and half of the trails shown on the Alberta parks website aren’t shown on trailforks.
close
3D
Trail Conditions
- Unknown
- Snow Groomed
- Snow Packed
- Snow Covered
- Snow Cover Partial
- Freeze/thaw Cycle
- Icy
- Prevalent Mud
- Wet
- Variable
- Ideal
- Dry
- Very Dry
Trail Flow (Ridden Direction)
Trailforks scans users activity logs to determine the most popular direction each trail is ridden. A good flowing trail network will have most trails flowing in a single direction according to their intension.
The colour categories are based on what percentage of users are riding a trail in its intended direction.
The colour categories are based on what percentage of users are riding a trail in its intended direction.
- > 96%
- > 90%
- > 80%
- > 70%
- > 50%
- < 50%
- bi-directional trail
- no data
Trail Last Used
Trailforks scans activity logs to determine the last time a trail was ridden.
- < 2 days
- < 1 week
- < 2 weeks
- < 1 month
- < 6 months
- > 6 months
Trail Ridden Direction
The intended direction a trail should be ridden.
- Downhill Only
- Downhill Primary
- Both Directions
- Uphill Primary
- Uphill Only
- One Direction
Contribute Details
Colors indicate trail is missing specified detail.
- Description
- Photos
- Description & Photos
- Videos
Trail Popularity ?
Trailforks scans activity logs to determine which trails are ridden the most in the last 9 months.
Trails are compared with nearby trails in the same city region with a possible 25 colour shades.
Think of this as a heatmap, more activities = more kinetic energy = warmer colors.
- most popular
- popular
- less popular
- not popular
ATV/ORV/OHV Filter
Max Vehicle Width
inches
US Cell Coverage
Legend
Radar Time
Activity Recordings
Trailforks uses anonymized public activity data.
?
Activity Recordings
Trailforks uses anonymized public activity data.
?
Winter Trails
Warning
A routing network for winter maps does not exist. Selecting trails using the winter trails layer has been disabled.
Missing Trails
Most Popular
Least Popular
Trails are colored based on popularity. The more popular a trail is, the more red. Less popular trails trend towards green.
Jump Magnitude Heatmap
Heatmap of where users jump on trails. Zoom in to see individual jumps, click circles to view jump details.
BC Backroad Status
![map legend]()
Service Road Atlas is a free to use, community-driven service for viewing and creating reports on the numerous back-country service roads around B.C. and Alberta.
Slope Aspect
Direction the slope faces
Trails Deemphasized
Trails are shown in grey.
Only show trails with no bike usage.
Suggested Layers
Based on selected activity type
Save the current map location and zoom level as your default home location whenever this page is loaded.
SaveCoordinates: 50.748875, -115.245453
Coordinates: 50.756961, -115.252228
Coordinates: 50.761131, -115.252875
Coordinates: 50.761064, -115.252869
Coordinates: 50.766311, -115.254739
Coordinates: 50.766156, -115.254089
Coordinates: 50.765953, -115.253967
Previous Reports
no previous reports.
