Recent heavy rainfall and high water levels along the North Saskatchewan River have been hitting Edmonton’s river valley trail system hard, resulting in the closure of multiple low-lying trails.
After last weekend’s deluge, two primary trails in the central and eastern portions of the river valley are temporarily closed, while a third has been shut down indefinitely due to more extensive damage.
Braeden Holmstrom, the City of Edmonton’s supervisor for river valley parks, said the massive amounts of rain and elevated river levels created a “perfect storm” for damage.

“This sort of extreme amount of rainfall we’ve gotten definitely impacts the trails in a very negative way. Paired with the high water, you see a lot of the impacts on those lower-lying trails,” he said.
Holmstrom noted that the trail areas primarily affected are further downstream in the central and eastern portions of the river valley.

According to the city’s online trail cautions and closures map, the Emily Murphy to Kinsmen Park trail near downtown and the Gold Bar to Capilano Park trail in the city’s east are both temporarily closed due to exceedingly high river levels.
Holmstrom said rising water levels present a major safety concern.
“You never know what the river is going to do. It could keep going up at a really quick rate,” he said.
“So we close the trails just to make sure that people aren’t on them, until that water level goes down to a more sustainable level.”
Once water levels start trending down, these trails could reopen as early as next week pending an assessment, Holmstrom said.
However, the heavy rain has caused extensive damage requiring extended closure in other sections.