Hotels in Grande Prairie, Alberta

A little about Grande Prairie...

Grande Prairie (55°10.1'N 118°47.9'W MST) is the chief city in the northwestern part of the province of Alberta in Western Canada. It is located on the southern edge of the Peace River Country (part of the Peace Region or simply "The Peace", as is often locally known, which encompasses much of northwestern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia). The city is surrounded by Grande Prairie County. A resident of Grande Prairie is known as a Grande Prairian.

Grande Prairie Regional College (GPRC), established in 1966, is the primary post-secondary institution in the city and offers degrees in a few programs. The present college campus was built in 1974 and expanded later in the early 1990s. Its unique architecture was originally designed by the renowned Canadian architect Douglas Cardinal.

The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) has plans to build a new campus in Grande Prairie on the southeast corner of 68 Avenue and Wapiti Road (Highway 40) in the near future. NAIT currently offers some programs through GPRC.

The city boasts a number of parks and golf courses including the large Muskoseepi Park in the Bear Creek Valley and the Dunes Golf Course south of the city. Muskoseepi Park has excellent bike trails extending nearly the entire length of Bear Creek within the city. Muskoseepi Park also has an outdoor swimming pool and a pavilion with a cafeteria and an outdoor pond which converts into a skating rink in the winter. Crystal Lake in the northeast part of the city also has parkland, preserved wetlands (great for birdwatching) and walking/bike paths around its entire circumference.

Recently there has been a huge upswing in the local music scene in Grande Prairie. This is attributed to the large number of younger citizens due to the economic growth in the last five years. Bands such as No One's Alone, Singed, Prevail, and Emerson Drive are some of the more popular.

Cultural venues include the Bowes Family Crystal Centre (a concert hall and hockey rink — the local AJHL team, the Grande Prairie Storm, plays there), the Grande Prairie Museum, the Prairie Art Gallery, Second Street Theatre and Studio "Y?".

Golfing is possible as late as after 11 o'clock in the evening in early summer due to the northern latitude. Grande Prairie has three 18-hole golf courses nearby (Dunes, Bear Creek, and Grande Prairie Golf & Country Club) and also a couple of 9-hole courses as well.

Cross-country skiing and snowmobiling are popular activities during the winter in the Grande Prairie area. There is a local ski hill called Nitehawk located south of the city on the south bank of the Wapiti River. Aside from skiing, Nitehawk also has the only North American natural luge track certified for international events and over the summer months freestyle ski jumpers can practice using the Northern Extreme water ramp facility.

The foothills south of Grande Prairie and around Grande Cache are popular year-round for hiking in the summer and for snowmobiling and other winter sports in the winter. Kakwa Wildland Park on the Alberta-BC border, about 180 km south of the city, is a beautiful and mountainous natural area and is known for a beautiful waterfall called Kakwa Falls.

The Leisure Centre — formerly, the "Rec-Plex" — is located in the northwest side near the Bear Creek Reservoir, features a pool, an ice rink, fitness equipment, and aerobics facilities.