Police Outpost Provincial Park is an Alberta Parks provincial park in the South region, 10 kilometres south and 23 kilometres west of Cardston on Highway 2. Alberta Parks lists one day-use area, one campground, and one group-use area.
The park's name comes from a Northwest Mounted Police outpost active from 1891 to 1896.
Police Outpost is one of Alberta's southernmost parks, where mountains meet prairie near the Montana border. Alberta Parks says the late-1800s outpost guarded the border against whiskey smuggling, and that today's park offers trails, lake paddling, fishing, camping, and wildlife watching.
Activities include birding, camping, canoeing and kayaking, fishing, front-country hiking, power boating, geocaching, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing on seven kilometres of ungroomed trails. Watercraft activities include aquatic invasive species reminders, so visitors should clean, drain, and dry boats and paddling gear.
Birding is a clear highlight. Alberta Parks notes loons, swans, sandhill cranes, and other species in wetlands, along trails, and on the lake. Wildlife mentioned on the official page includes swans, loons, beavers, moose, and bears.
Power boating is allowed with a 12 kilometre-per-hour speed limit on Outpost Lake. Outpost Wetlands Natural Area sits just west of the park, adjacent to the Montana border.
Plan around camping, group use, day use, Northwest Mounted Police history, paddling, fishing, birding, front-country hiking, snowshoeing, ungroomed skiing, geocaching, and lake wildlife.
Confirm campground and group-use status, 12 kilometre-per-hour boating rules, AIS precautions, fishing rules, wildlife safety, maps, weather, and Alberta Parks updates.
