Edmonton River Valley photo Courtesy Edmonton Segway

Edmonton, Alberta – Edmonton’ s beautiful River Valley, which lies along beside the North Saskatchewan River, is the longest stretch of connected urban parkland in North America. Covering a length of 48 km (30 mi) and including 11 lakes and 22 ravines, it’s actually 22 times larger than New York City’s Central Park! Altogether there are  20+ major parks and over 150 km of trails for walking, bike rides, picnics, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and four downhill ski slopes. And, there’s wildlife – keep your eyes open for porcupines, deer, coyotes, skunks, muskrats, rabbits, and beavers.

Activities available range from golf to Segway tours. Segway Edmonton introduced the first guided Segway tours on public land in Canada here.  The tours start with a training video and instruction to help you get your ‘Seg Legs’, then it’s off on a scenic glide along riverside paved paths – through Government House Park along River Valley Road, through the beautiful trail up to St. George’s Crescent and back to Government House Park.

According to Wikipedia in January 2008, the City of Edmonton paid a C$7 million to buy a parcel of land that would fill a gap in the otherwise continuous chain of parks.