The Haunting of High River

Happy Halloween!

My friend and I saw the ghost photoshoot trend going around and decided to take a road trip to High River to do it. This turned into somewhat of a tourist photoshoot with us visiting some of High River’s hot spots. We had lots of fun haunting this little town and it’s one of my new favourite places to visit for a relaxing day trip. If you want to learn more about High River, please visit the town’s website here. Enjoy!

Haunt #1 Colossi’s Coffee House

We stopped here to grab some breakfast before embarking on our ghostly adventure. This was such a cute little café with lots of cozy seating and local(?) artwork on display. They have a variety of homemade baked goods and sandwiches, as well as a huge selection of yummy drinks. I had their avocado breakfast bagel and caramel apple cider because ciders are my fav thing ever. They also have a rewards program where you spend a certain amount and get a discount on your next order, or a free drink… one of the two, I forget which one. Anyboo, another cool thing about this café is that one of their outside walls is a massive chalkboard so you can go write a message or doodle on it 😃

Haunt #2 Sunshine Lake Playground

Sunshine Lake views

Next we went to Sunshine Lake Playground to eat our food and haunt the neighbourhood. We saw lots of cute puppies being walked along the lake and all of their owners were so friendly! The lake has some cool fountains in it as well as benches to sit along the lakeside path so it’s a great place to go spend your morning. I, however, was in no mood to relax and went to play on the playground. It was a bit sad though because my ghost pal didn’t join me. So here’s me, just a lonely ghost.

Haunt #3 George Lane Memorial Park and Campground

I wanted to check out more of the parks because yay nature, so we stopped at George Lane Memorial Park next. This park had some boo-tiful fall foliage and so many trees to hide behind. This park features picnic tables, an event stage, a gazebo, horseshoe pits, and a campground. There’s also another playground and a baseball diamond. We had some fun chilling on the bleachers before continuing our walk around the area. We discovered a really boo-tiful hidden-ish path that led to the riverbed and was a bit like Fish Creek Park in Calgary. This was a very quiet path that wasn’t paved and it was very otherworldly. We found lots of cool things along the way including a tree with a sad face carved into it and a mini bonfire area beside the other river. There’s also a sign for the trails throughout the city called “Happy Trails”. The one pictured here was from Sunshine Lake.

Peek-a-boo

Haunt #4 Evelyn’s Memory Lane Cafe

We were getting hungry again after all that walking so we stopped by Evelyn’s for lunch. (Yes, ghosts eat). This was such a cute diner with great retro decor! There’s also a really cool train track diorama all around the upper walls of the diner. My fellow ghost and I tried their brie, apple, and turkey sandwich and I had their pear cider. Everything was so freaking delicious! Their bread is homemade so it’s extra yummy and the sandwich was huge! Also, this pear cider was probably the best I’ve ever had in my life. They used my favourite pear juice that my dad always buys me and added a real cinnamon stick. The flavour was amazing and sweet and cinnamon-y and I love it so much. They also have a ton of homemade pies and a great selection of ice cream!

Haunt #5 Downtown

Now that we were fed, we decided to go for a walk around downtown. We took a quick loop around to see all of the murals and sculptures. For a map of the murals and sculptures around downtown click here. I didn’t get any pictures of the murals but they were all very boo-tiful! The sculptures were pretty neat and my favourite one was of the wolves.

George Emerson Statue

The Wolves

We weren’t planning on doing any shopping but when I saw the Halloween display window at Olive and Finch Gift Shop I had to stop. This is such a great gift shop with so much stuff to look at! There’s patches, home decor, aromatherapy, cool jewellery, and more! I found some spooky-looking potion jars for under $10 each which in my opinion was a great deal! These were just what I needed to amp up the spookiness of my haunted home.

Our next stop was Maggie’s Diner which was used as a set for the TV show Heartland. I always heard about that show when I was growing up and I never realized it was actually filmed in High River! Isn’t that neat?! It was so cool to check out the diner even though it wasn’t open probably due to Covid. I could probably walk through the walls, being a ghost and all, but that would probably be boo-reaking and entering.

Next stop was the Wales Theatre which was closed due to Covid. It was built in 1927 and was originally named the Highwood Theatre. It also features one of the last free-standing balconies in Canada. I definitely want to haunt this place when it opens again! Maybe go see a spooky movie or two. Also the quote on the sign says “Never make snow angels in a dog park” which is great advice.

Our final stop was the Highwood Rail Museum where my fellow ghost took some great spooky pics of me. We didn’t go inside but we definitely want to return to haunt the place again and see all the cool exhibits! Also, the huge bear at the entrance of the museum is my new ghostly spirit animal.

Anyboo, that was our day trip to High River and I hope you enjoyed seeing all the places we haunted. I highly recommend visiting this town for brunch, a little shopping, and a nice walk along the river. If you visit the super old and historic parts, you may even see a ghost or two! If you’ve ever been here before, let me know what your favourite place was in the comment section below.

Happy haunting and have a spooktacular Halloween 🎃

Photo Creds: Thank you to my super awesome photographer BFF @sara.kopp