The World's Longest Freshwater Boardwalk Is A Wetland Wonder In Canada's Underrated 'Gateway To The Rockies'

Calling all boardwalk fans — there's a town nestled on the fringes of Canada's Rockies that boasts the single longest freshwater boardwalk in the world, plus a whole load more! Cue Hinton, a onetime mining and railroad outpost that straddles the cool waters of the Athabasca River in the province of Alberta. It's got the high, glacier-topped mountains of Jasper National Park on one side and wild forests, waterways, lakes, and foothills swirling all around it.

However prime a gateway to the famed Rockies this may be, Hinton has some nice aces up its own proverbial sleeve. Chief among them has to be the famed Beaver Boardwalk. Hit that before you head for the highlands in the west to enjoy strolls through lush wetlands, beside tranquil lakes, and along paths that get you tantalizingly close to real, live beavers!

If you're ready to catapult yourself into the Rockies with some boardwalk adventures along the way, then you should know that the nearest international airport to Canada's Hinton is Edmonton International Airport (YEG), which sits just a touch over three hours' drive away. Avid road trippers are also likely to enjoy the fact that Hinton sits plum atop the Yellowhead Highway, an epic route that links the great prairies in the east to the mountains of British Columbia in the west.

Hinton.ca, the municipal authority website, proudly proclaims that the town has the single longest freshwater boardwalk on the planet. That's further backed up by official releases from the Albertan government, who say that the boardwalk clocks in at over 1.8 miles total. (Incidentally, that's just shy of half of the great 4-mile boardwalk that fringes the ocean in Atlantic City, the New Jersey beach town that's home to the overall longest boardwalk in the world!)

Hinton's wood-covered walking route is known as the Beaver Boardwalk, or, sometimes, just Beebo — the local moniker. A map reveals that it's no straight point-to-point trail. Veering off from the south end of Sutherland Avenue, it proceeds to weave and wiggle around Maxwell Lake, with offshoots that skirt nearby creeks, and others ringing little ponds. As it goes, it crosses pockets of wetland habitat where there's ample butterfly watching, birding, and even beaver viewing to be done.

Yep, just as the name implies, this timber-built path is a prime place to spot real, bona fide beavers in the wild. Look out for evidence of beaver lodges, where colonies of the little critters are often active in dam construction and building. Apparently, there can be as many as 12 individuals residing in the water-logged lands around Hinton and its boardwalk at any one time!

The folks over at Travel Alberta, the official government tourism portal for the province where Hinton makes its home, dubs this little town a "Gateway to the Rockies." It's hard to argue with that. Hinton resides a mere 15-minute drive from the entrance to Jasper National Park, after all, with a great sweep of snow-capped peaks running along the horizon to the southwest of town.

The aforementioned Jasper National Park is very much the ace up the sleeve here. Not only is it the largest national park in the whole Canadian Rockies, but it's hailed by Lonely Planet as the wilder cousin to ever-popular and much-visited Banff National Park, touting a real taste of the Canadian outback. From Hinton, you're looking at roughly an hour's drive down the Yellowhead Highway to the postcard-worthy mountain town of Jasper, which is the hub of the reserve. That said, there are oodles of alluring mountain adventures to be had along the way, even closer to Hinton itself.

You could take a detour at Miette, for example. It's just 25 minutes out from Hinton and is a stepping stone to the mineral-rich Miette Hot Springs. The 4.8-mile Sulphur Skyline Trail begins and ends right beside said hot springs, too. It's ranked among the top three hikes in the whole of Jasper National Park by AllTrails, offering up a trip to a high ridge beyond the tree line where you can scramble to get sublime views to the north, south, east, and west.