West Bragg Creek trail network connects to the Great Trail

Visitor use of recreation area has quadrupled over past eight years.

There’s no fibre optics involved with this national network.

Saturday afternoon, in Bragg Creek, representatives from the province and the Greater Bragg Creek Trails Association are hosting a ceremony to celebrate the grand opening of the West Bragg Creek Provincial Recreation Area.

That celebration includes marking the connection of the Bragg Creek hiking trails to the Great Trail, the 24,000-kilometre national trail network.

And if joining a national network of trails isn’t good enough news, the recreation area has also received a major facelift, association president Conrad Schiebel said in a Friday interview with the Calgary Eyeopener.

“We’ve got lots of things to be celebrating out in Bragg Creek this weekend,” Schiebel said.

That $2.5-million facelift includes expanding the parking lot from 190 stalls to 485, in order to accommodate an explosion in visitors — the figures have quadrupled over the past eight years.