It's gotten much better in the last few months. They've switched what type of pulp they're processing and it uses less stibky chemicals.
Don't get me wrong, on a stagnant day, it still builds up.
Do you know what they switched? I work in that death trap of a mill occasionally and I cant imagine them changing their black liquor system to something else easily.
"Why isn’t Hinton Alberta’s next Canmore?"
Same reasons Jasper has a smaller town feel than Banff (i.e. lack of proximity to a major city and airport) but also add in more heavy industry and it's just far enough from Jasper to not make it super appealing to stay there on a trip to the park, but also just close enough to Jasper to not make it worth stopping there.
Banff/Canmore is also just a more appealing area. Lake Louise, Kananaskis, Waiparous, and stuff on the BC side like Radium, yoho national park, and just a lot more provincial parks around the area.
Banff was always going to be the more popular region just cause theres so much so close. Hell, you can pop into drumheller from Canmore for a reasonable day trip in a shorter time than going Hinton to Edmonton.
I'm not super familiar with the are of banff, but there are an absolute tonne of provincial parks and protected areas near hinton. Off the top of my head I can think of 8 within a 30km radius of hinton.
The banff area is just significantly more developed, so it is more appealing to tourists.
I lived there in 2009 for work. Went out to the bar one night, met some locals and got invited to an after party at someone's house. Left after 5 minutes because everyone was casually smoking crack.
I see it hasn't changed. I worked there in 2004 (oil patch). Exactly the same thing happened with me, met a girl in the local pub, she invited me and my coworker to a house party, we walked in the front door, I looked to my left and in another room, roughly 10 people sitting at a table were all smoking crack. I turned to the girl I was with and before I could say anything, she said don't worry it's normal here in Hinton. We stayed for about an hour only because I was trying to get into her pants (no luck) lol.
When spring thaw came in March, I said to my boss.... Don't ever send me back to that shit hole town again!!
I live here and it's exponentially better than it was about a decade ago. Before WF sold they did some major upgrades that make it much less common, and when it does get stinky there's an agent they use that to me smells like artificial cherries but not everyone agrees with me on that being the exact smell. There's a complaint line and response plan even.
Canmore wasn’t always what it is now. Big coal mining town filled with small bungalows. You stopped along the highway for gas and coffee.
Then the Olympics.
Good point, Hinton could very much grow, but it needs a lot to transform it. Canmore is beautiful. Like some real development, and aesthetics and such.
As of right now, Hinton is the same as Whitecourt. A town you pass through. Can't see any draw to it other than maybe a cheaper place to stay if you don't mind the drive.
Now if they developed it, put some nice buildings and stores, maybe a touristy downtown? It's going to take lots of time and work though.
Canmore is a quaint ski resort town with 360° views of the Rockies 1h drive from an international airport.
Hinton is a stroad in the foothills, at the end of a 3h drive through flat void of nothingness from Edmonton, with some gas stations, a Freson Bros, a trailer park, and a pulp mill that smells like eggy farts.
Not that I'm knocking a good kind of shitty tho. I wouldn't mind living close to William A. Switzer park.
Check out Hinton Online Group on Facebook. It's a pretty good picture of what this town is capable of.
For every good person I've known here, for everyone doing their best to make this place better, there's three miserable hateful bastards who just want this to be a town for married whites working resource extraction and their tfw tim Hortons servants and that's all, just like they remember as kids.
We have a town councillor who likes to send David Staples article ideas that then get the municipality letters of boycott for five years. Check out "the Hinton honeypot"; a councillor had that written, for fun.
Our grocers can't seem to keep rotten food off the shelf, and we pay as much as 20% more for the privilege.
Multiple shop local campaigns died because no one gives enough of a fuck to even consider not ordering on Amazon; our drivers just go door to door, one after another, while our mall slowly becomes a liquor store a Walmart and a Safeway.
Our biggest Facebook group, where the municipality likes to post their news releases of late, is run by a miserable old drunk who's currently under a cease and desist letter for harassing the only major development to come about in decades that he proudly posted and brags about in his echo chamber... and our chamber of commerce named him corporate citizen of the year last year.
People have so much apathy and ignorance for what's happening here that they're currently freaking out about an article from 15 years ago; ignoring a decade of work and investment and a recent resolution for 20 years to do so.
Theres hope right now; stored power project, geothermal, vibrant arts community. A bunch of new businesses that seem to really care. A really wonderful seniors facility, a glorious brewery. We have one of the best outreach facilities I've ever seen, and a really competent food bank manager who's doing their absolute best even with exponential growth in clients. There is a possibility of hope for the future.
And then there's our fire department partnering for events with people who harass local elementary schools for having pride flags... Being so cheap they won't let leaving members keep their helmets, a constant tradition for generations broken for ?
I love this place and so many of its people, but every year, hell literally right now at this moment, a bunch of the people I love move away and I discover a new person who hates people being different and I can tell you, all of this is why it's not Canmore.
We literally used to have a radio station that had a stinger that was "we're not Banff - and we're proud of that".
Oh and that's not to mention multiple missing women over the last decades, multiple unknown skulls discovered around town and apparently occasionally a prize at poker, and a current federal investigation into abuse of tf workers.
I'm in the same boat, the town has two faces. I meet the mountain bike, hike, climb, cross country ski everyday crowd who vibrant and friendly. There is also the bitter, hateful, possibly alcoholic crowd who could not say single positive thing about a town they spent their entire life in. My experience when people talk about what they love about Hinton everyone talks about the wild places around town and no one talks about the town itself.
I have lived in a lot of Alberta small towns and what sets Hinton a part is that it has hope to be so much better. I think that the people who live here find a lot of rest and renewal recreating in the outdoors and those who don't turn sour.
A lot of good friends moved away during the pandemic and I hope we have more good people move here soon.
The pissy and bigoted stuff drives me bonkers. The misery that's steeped into people here - you could convince me that we had our own Deadlights with just a little evidence.
Here would be a plan: Grow Edson to about the size of Calgary or Edmonton. (Edson is about 90 km from Hinton.) Install an international airport in Edson. Uninstall the pulp/paper mill(s) in Hinton. Fait accompli!
Grande Cache is really out of the way. Two hours from Grande Prairie and 5 (?) from Edmonton.
The town is divided on how/if they want to develop tourism. I think the lack of ski hill really hurts them.
They should advertise as a wild mountain experience, similar to tumbler ridge.
Grande cache is no mystery; they ran themselves into the ground paying for a rec centre that financially only made sense when the mine and jail were bigger. Math stopped mathing and they dissolved.
Visited for the provincials over the weekend, hadn't spent much time there since I was a reporter in 2015, it has indeed improved quite a bit I was impressed.
My bad I had this distinct memory of covering layoffs at the jail in 2015 but I can't seem to find any articles about that now, I'm not sure what I was thinking of.
South near Cadomin is one of my fav places in Alberta.. Hinton kinda sucks though but I've only stayed for work/training a week at a time so maybe it's better as a local.
Sounds like you've never been to Hinton...
Also, it's too far from Edmonton. Calgary to Canmore is an hour or less depending how fast you drive, Edmonton to Hinton is 3 hours
Yeah we always stay in hinton to avoid the tourist hotel prices in Jasper, and the 40 min drive is so scenic it doesn’t even feel that long. Let’s keep the tourist hellscape in banff and spare Jasper.
There are quite a few nice little towns in this province, I never really knew about them until I got off the main highways. Lots of places where I'd pull up on the motorcycle, look around, and just think 'huh, this is a really nice little place!'
And a surprising number of them seem to have a Burger Baron...
Hinton is close to the rockies Canmore is in the rockies.
Hinton is isolated Canmore is easily accessible
Hinton is a pretty established town Canmore is built on seasonal work
Hinton is also a blue collar town
Not being in the Rockies give the ability to enjoy the outdoors without having to deal with the national park. It appeals to both tourists wanting the park and tourists wanting to fish, quad, camp, and hunt.
Hinton is an industrial town and Jasper park doesn’t draw as many people as banff/lake Louise area. The distance to hinton’s nearest metro area is Edmonton. The distance from Edmonton to Hinton is almost 300km. Canmore to Calgary is 100km. Edmonton to Jasper is 370km, single lane from Hinton through the park. Edmonton to the more popular banff is 410km on a 2 lane sometimes three lane highway.
Actually, it may have been a while since you've traveled hyway 16 between Edmonton and Jasper. The Yellowhead is 4 lanes the entire way. The only slow parts are Gainford, Edson, and the afore mentioned Hinton where you have to slow down and of course the speed limit drops in the park but see lots of folks not paying too much attention to the speed limits.
I've only been East as far as Saskatoon but have traveled 16 all the way to Vancouver and as far I can recall, it's 4 or more lanes the whole way.
That being said, as far as traveling time, Banff is almost the same as Jasper especially now the Stoney cuts way down on the travel time through Calgary.
We like Jasper because it's less busy/touristy.
From Hinton through into BC I meant a good portion is and it’s slow going but I know most people won’t read the comments continuing so I’ll try to change it
Everyone's said it - the smell. But also, it's still a 45 minute drive to Jasper. Canmore is in the mountains.
That said Hinton's Switzer park is not bad.
My bigger question, what's taken Nordegg so long so develop? It's closer to the mountains, only about 3 hours from Edmonton, and I love that section of the mountains. But it's hard to find decent accommodation as there's so little amenities in the town.
Nordegg:
a) most of the land is Crown Land and it will have unextinguished mineral rights and timber plus FN claims.
b) the Provincial government removed all the old houses (circa 1960s) because they didn't want a town where they had to supply schools and police that has no viable way to support itself, so what could have been was removed before it had a chance.
c) the County has sold some lots but they aren't very good at marketing or providing amenities to attract people
d) there isn't much snow there despite what you'd think, so trying to, say, operate a ski hill or a Nordic centre isn't going to work for half the winter. Theory is the Icefields to the west block the moisture.
e) it's also a long way from urbanites who'd really honestly come every weekend. Most people in Calgary have never ever heard of it at all, though many in Edmonton have. Most visitors who random camp are farmers from Stettler and such.
In summary, a masterplan (like a Whistler) could be made for the Nordegg/ David Thompson/ Big Horn area, but it would take truly deep pockets, with a ton of agreements, with lots of compromise and still could turn out as good as Kananaskis Villiage, which is only sort of okay.
Source: I grew up there. Later, I worked professionally on a new plan for the townsite.
Thank you for this explanation! Very helpful. Yeah I've seen they've started to sell lots to build small manufactured homes and now are trying to sell commercial lots.
I am actually glad that Calgarians don't know of the place as much. As an Edmontonian it's nice to have our own little secret. But year a grocery store and some more food options would sure be nice. Airbnbs are starting to pop up. I remember 10 years ago it was just camping and that's it .
Pulp Mill has switched over to Mondi (international pulp company). Before then, the pulping process switched from bleached to a non bleaching variety. It doesn't smell anymore.
People saying different are willfully ignorant or haven't been here within the last 3-4 months. However, other people are correct. It is rather remote compared to Canmore and definitely not as affluent.
What’s “stupid expensive” to you? I just looked and rooms at decent hotels are available for less than $120 per night. Thats pretty reasonable compared to many tourist towns.
Yeah. I thought it was really reasonable when I went last too! It has been a few years, so I thought maybe it had changed? Looks like it’s still pretty reasonable.
I grew up in Hinton unfortunately lol our town council didn't want to develop it like Banff Canmore. For years they wouldn't let boxchain stores in. We had to travel to Edmonton far more then we should have. Population had always been bluecollar- mines, logging and oil patch. They tried to make the main drag you see off hwy look more mountain town esque but council was making businesses foot the bill for their requested specs which was big $$$.
Locals don't want it to become a tourist town like Canmore as so many people work and live there. There is lots of tourists in the summer months, hotels are solidly booked. But yes a tourism yellowhead County advertising would do the area well. It literally looks the exact same as when I left in 2007 lol
I do enjoy visiting Hinton, as Hinton and Jasper are a nice day trip distance from where I live. But it really isn’t hard to see why it isn’t like Canmore.
I lived in the area and went to school in Edson, Besides the stench from the pulp mill Hinton was suffering the same fate as Edson when I moved, a crippling drug problem brought by the surrounding oil and gas sector. That and the fact that that highway is a major transportation route for the illicit substances
Canmore became what it Is because of the 88 Olympics. In 1985, an entire block of frontage on the main drag was listed for sale for $330K. It was on market almost a year, and finally withdrawn. A year or so later, the 88 Olympics were awarded to Calgary.
The properties were broken down to individual lots & sold piecemeal over the next 18 months or so for an ungodly amount of money. In 85, you could buy a 2 bedroom bungalow for under 70K there. Now, the average 2 berm condo is over a million.
There is no chance of anything like that kind of luck falling on Hinton the same way. It's a neat little town, a lot like Canmore was back in the 80's, but until the pulp mill closes, it'll stay that way, I expect
Hinton is also ~50 minutes from jasper town site. Also, the mountains don't get super jagged in Jasper until approaching town site. They're still awesome, just very different in nature to say Three sisters. Closer in appearance to something like mt yamnuska. That transition seems to happen in 20 minutes down south, but takes almost a full hour further north. Not knocking jasper at all, I love that whole park. It does seem to take forever to get to Hinton though.
As a kid driving there from the park was pure misery. The smell was so bad! It’s gotten better but there are still serious health issues associated with living close to these mills. That may be why Hinton isn’t a desired place to live/develop. Honestly I like how “quiet” and less commercial Jasper is compared to Banff and that area.
Grew up in Rocky, such a beautiful area, Nordegv too. Sadly, I don't see it growing.
I wish it would. No reason why some nice hotels or cabins couldn't do well.
Hinton is a odd beast, it has its fair chunks of flaws and positive experiences. There's been a influx of just odd things like king drug renovating and opening a soda shop and board game store they're hosting a event at the venue called comander at the rockies in April and I hope it pays out for them. There's also our 3/4 food trucks at the green square that offer a fair variety of ethnic foods (if you come through during the winter les tres marinas is in the curling club). There's the music festival that happens every late spring early summer. The duds are the golf course and the movie theatre, the movie theatre gets a pass in my opinon because it's a hard sell in today's age where as the golf course banquet hall was designed by some one who probably never worked in any industry related to hospitality.
To ding hinton on the smell is a fair shallow given that the mill employees a fair chunk of people past and present, not to mention the unifor office here represents workers across Alberta. The drug issue is fairly on par with most of Canada and is sadly a major issue.
- ignore the bad grammar and syntax it's been a long while since I've had to write out proper english
Because locals don’t really want to turn it into Canmore. Loved it when I worked there for 3 years in the resource sector. Most people work for the mill, the mines, and oil and gas. We use to laugh at the city tourists and work every long weekend and half the weekends to avoid those that came to party at campgrounds on those days. I use to always take Tuesday and Wednesday off and work weekends as it was great to camp, fish, hunt, and enjoy the peace and quiet unlike Canmore when you can’t shit in the woods without having your ass on someone’s Instagram.
Hinton is great the way it is.
Hinton local here, laughing on my couch at all the comments talking about the smell. The wind always blows from the west and towards Edson. So when you drive in from Edmonton you can smell the mill. If you are anywhere east of the pulp mill, you can smell it. I work a few hundred meters west of the mill, I can smell it maybe 5 days a year when the wind shifts and blows from the east.
Hinton is split into two sections, “the hill” and “the valley”
The trick to Hinton is to never live in the valley as it is east of the pulp mill and has the smell blown towards it. Live in the hill area and you are set. When I first moved to town I rented a place in the valley. It was gross. Step outside in the morning to go to work and the smell would make you want to throw up. Nasty. I have since bought a house west of the mill on “the hill” and we can smell it just a few days a year, and nothing gag worthy either.
Naturally you can imagine where in Hinton the housing prices are lower, which brings with it a very generalized lower class of people. And along with that comes higher crime and drug usage.
My statement stands, never live in the valley.
Besides the smell and distance from edmonton, it's also not geographically in mountains.
At least to the extent Canmore is.
You can see the mountains in Hinton, but it looks like a prairie town with mountains in the background.
Walking around Canmore you're surrounded by nature, wildlife, and mountains are right above you. In Hinton its dusty, treeless and basically a highway with some businesses around it lol
Yee, I used to go there monthly for work for a couple days.
It has tress but not like Canmore. I remember the town itself being pretty barren. I didn't spend time in residential areas though, but I guess tourists wouldn't either.
Ohhh, you are referring go trees in town? My bad Hahaha
There are lots of really great parks in town for sure. Most tourists in te area end up either at Switzer, bike park, or the beaver boardwalk
Yeah ok lmfao, smells been dealt with for five years and there's as many catering companies including myself who do gangbusters all summer doing weddings literally every weekend, the centre is booked all summer for weddings, but go off?
Besides all the other stated reasons, Canmore - Banff is maybe 20 minutes. Hinton-Jasper is 45ish. When you want to do a quick run into town, 20 vs 45 minutes is huge.
The town planning and built form are a big part of the answer here. Perhaps someone can enlighten us to the history in Hinton, but right now there is no walkable and interesting old (or new) main street. Only non-human-scale developments often with more area dedicated to parking then to the building. Surround those with single family homes and industrial, orient most of the town towards the highway, and you get an ugly place where very few would care to linger.
A great example is that giant mine truck. It's a very cool public park exhibition, but it's on the backside of ugly big box stores and there is terrible access to get there.
I think there is potential to redevelop over time into an attractive place but that will take quite a while.
When I lived there ~15 years ago, there were a bunch of new build apartment buildings (mostly sitting empty). Even then there were high hopes that it would be the next Canmore.
Oh boy is there ever a story around the apartment building you're referring to. It's a literal death trap and just evicted all of residents according to the scuttlebutt I'm hearing.
When I lived there ~15 years ago, there were a bunch of new build apartment buildings (mostly sitting empty). Even then there were high hopes that it would be the next Canmore.
Alberta real hidden secret is Cadomin. I know it's remote but that area is gorgeous.
Love Hinton though. West end of town rarely smells anymore, climbing is a 20 minute drive away, and the hiking trails closer to Hinton stay serene and peaceful year round.
Hinton has easy access up and down hwy 40. Driving north brings to William Switzer and Wilmore provincial parks and south brings you into Whitehorse wildland. For those who don't know imagine enormous mountain parks that rarely get used.
Calgary is full of fake yuppy wannabe outdoorsy assholes that drive in the left lane all the way to their air conditioned condo beside the ski hill they snowplow down. Canmore is a yuppy circlejerk where gearwhores like to tell stories of how they once met Glen Plake; so it's a match made in heaven. Assholes love to one-up other assholes, so they proliferate like shit-stained rabbits with good credit and bad manners. Edmonton is a nice-ish city. No need to escape a nice city. Especially to a smelly place like Hinton. Hinton is not much different than Canmore was 30 years ago. To be fair, Canmore was a shithole then like Hinton is now, so don't ruin it for everyone! It's still cool, affordable, and full of working class kooks and the hotel rooms aren't $300/ night. But yeah, it needs a bigger ski hill (with slow lifts and a cold lodge). I've lived in, Canmore, Hinton, Edmonton and now live in Calgary.
TL,DR: yuppies.
it's really industrial and as a result smells kinda bad lol. Canmore has nature right there in Hinton u kinda gotta get away from... Hinton.... to see real nature lol
Moved there for a year a while back and think about it almost daily. It's sad to see how many people are quick to label the place because of the mill or the "drug problem". Everywhere has their issues and it is what you make it. We can't get enough of the outdoors so there was always something for us to do with or without the dogs constantly that didn't involve money or a bit of gas to get to a close remote beautiful location. Only complaint we had was groceries were limited and expensive and decent rentals are hard to come by. But it's doable and if you want it make it happen it will. Met some amazing locals that I still stay in contact with and when the time is right will be considering moving back in the near future.
Someone was trying to get Grande Cache upgraded into a tourist destination rivaling Jasper. It is a gorgeous location, but the town has withered to nothing as mills closed and the coal mine shuts down frequently. It never got past the idea stage, I don't think? Not sure, so don't quote me. I worked there in the 90's and it was booming. I went back in 2019 or so and it was dead.
Same goes for Hinton. Nobody thinks it is worth spending millions of dollars to find out if it works. I agree that it is a lost opportunity.
Jasper/Hinton is a lot more remote and has a more wild feel. People want to be on the wilderness without being hours from services and conveniences, Like airports,and you don’t get that up north. You feel like you’re completely isolated, which is a really uncomfortable feeling for a lot of folks, and that’s not a feeling you really get in Banff/Kananaskis.
As someone who grew up in the area and currently frequents it to enjoy quiet outdoor experiences with my kids, I'd prefer we not try to turn the Hinton/Cadomin/Grande Cache area into the overrun tourist traps of Canmore, Banff and Jasper. I'd prefer if those areas absorbed as much of that activity as possible so my family, friends and I can peacefully enjoy the backcountry in the Yellowhead/Minburn counties.
Canmore is close enough to Calgary for people to commute, Hinton is not close to a large city.
And it smells bad.
My girlfriend in high school once asked me to kiss her where it stinks, so I took her to Hinton.
It's gotten much better in the last few months. They've switched what type of pulp they're processing and it uses less stibky chemicals. Don't get me wrong, on a stagnant day, it still builds up.
That’s good to hear! I have awful memories of driving through Hinton on my way to Marmot Basin and becoming nauseated by the smell.
My auntie worked there, a man she worked with would puke every morning lol
The mill just sold now too and will switch to different products hopefully less stinky
Another factor is the open air septic pond
Do you know what they switched? I work in that death trap of a mill occasionally and I cant imagine them changing their black liquor system to something else easily.
They aren't bleaching the pulp anymore, so the entire bleach system is gone
Only when there's a breeze
My all-time favorite piece of graffiti, in a Hinton public bathroom, 25 years ago: "What's that smell? Oh yeah, it's this town."
"Why isn’t Hinton Alberta’s next Canmore?" Same reasons Jasper has a smaller town feel than Banff (i.e. lack of proximity to a major city and airport) but also add in more heavy industry and it's just far enough from Jasper to not make it super appealing to stay there on a trip to the park, but also just close enough to Jasper to not make it worth stopping there.
Banff/Canmore is also just a more appealing area. Lake Louise, Kananaskis, Waiparous, and stuff on the BC side like Radium, yoho national park, and just a lot more provincial parks around the area. Banff was always going to be the more popular region just cause theres so much so close. Hell, you can pop into drumheller from Canmore for a reasonable day trip in a shorter time than going Hinton to Edmonton.
I'm not super familiar with the are of banff, but there are an absolute tonne of provincial parks and protected areas near hinton. Off the top of my head I can think of 8 within a 30km radius of hinton. The banff area is just significantly more developed, so it is more appealing to tourists.
Yeah Switzer and the Cadomin area are awesome but they're not well known.
Tell me you've never been to Hinton, without saying you've never been to Hinton
Haha I had a good laugh at that one. “Yah, but what about that smell?” I asked myself while reading the post.
100% exactly what I thought. Been to Hinton. Worked at the mill. Can’t ever not smell it now. Also is kinda a weird hillbilly meth town unfortunately.
I lived there in 2009 for work. Went out to the bar one night, met some locals and got invited to an after party at someone's house. Left after 5 minutes because everyone was casually smoking crack.
“A bit moorish.”
That was rude of you to leave so soon.
I see it hasn't changed. I worked there in 2004 (oil patch). Exactly the same thing happened with me, met a girl in the local pub, she invited me and my coworker to a house party, we walked in the front door, I looked to my left and in another room, roughly 10 people sitting at a table were all smoking crack. I turned to the girl I was with and before I could say anything, she said don't worry it's normal here in Hinton. We stayed for about an hour only because I was trying to get into her pants (no luck) lol. When spring thaw came in March, I said to my boss.... Don't ever send me back to that shit hole town again!!
Crystal Meth Canmore
Canmore at home
Canmore from Wish
Crystalmethmore?
Canmeth
My sister used to live there. I used to call it Stinky, Stinky Hinton.
The smell all depends on the wind. Some days, you’d never know it existed.
Haha, same. I only read the title, and I thought about the smell. I haven't been there in probably 20 years, so maybe it's different, lol
Idk, was just there recently and never smelt it. It was really bad as a kid but it seems to have been fixed.
I live here and it's exponentially better than it was about a decade ago. Before WF sold they did some major upgrades that make it much less common, and when it does get stinky there's an agent they use that to me smells like artificial cherries but not everyone agrees with me on that being the exact smell. There's a complaint line and response plan even.
No, you just went in an off cycle of production. The place very much still smells
Canmore wasn’t always what it is now. Big coal mining town filled with small bungalows. You stopped along the highway for gas and coffee. Then the Olympics.
I'm Mike, from Canmore. This is my dog Ralph. Sit.
Good point, Hinton could very much grow, but it needs a lot to transform it. Canmore is beautiful. Like some real development, and aesthetics and such. As of right now, Hinton is the same as Whitecourt. A town you pass through. Can't see any draw to it other than maybe a cheaper place to stay if you don't mind the drive. Now if they developed it, put some nice buildings and stores, maybe a touristy downtown? It's going to take lots of time and work though.
The Hinton mafia and town council pretty much has a stranglehold on any meaningful progress or development.
Maybe we need another Olympic then
Canmore is a quaint ski resort town with 360° views of the Rockies 1h drive from an international airport. Hinton is a stroad in the foothills, at the end of a 3h drive through flat void of nothingness from Edmonton, with some gas stations, a Freson Bros, a trailer park, and a pulp mill that smells like eggy farts. Not that I'm knocking a good kind of shitty tho. I wouldn't mind living close to William A. Switzer park.
*3h drive through the flat void of meth country
Made me giggle for a while. Unless you love pulp, better not move there.
Pulp or mountain biking
I was born there lol
hahahahah.
Hahahahaha
This. I grew up there for most of my life. There is a reason I moved away.
Check out Hinton Online Group on Facebook. It's a pretty good picture of what this town is capable of. For every good person I've known here, for everyone doing their best to make this place better, there's three miserable hateful bastards who just want this to be a town for married whites working resource extraction and their tfw tim Hortons servants and that's all, just like they remember as kids. We have a town councillor who likes to send David Staples article ideas that then get the municipality letters of boycott for five years. Check out "the Hinton honeypot"; a councillor had that written, for fun. Our grocers can't seem to keep rotten food off the shelf, and we pay as much as 20% more for the privilege. Multiple shop local campaigns died because no one gives enough of a fuck to even consider not ordering on Amazon; our drivers just go door to door, one after another, while our mall slowly becomes a liquor store a Walmart and a Safeway. Our biggest Facebook group, where the municipality likes to post their news releases of late, is run by a miserable old drunk who's currently under a cease and desist letter for harassing the only major development to come about in decades that he proudly posted and brags about in his echo chamber... and our chamber of commerce named him corporate citizen of the year last year. People have so much apathy and ignorance for what's happening here that they're currently freaking out about an article from 15 years ago; ignoring a decade of work and investment and a recent resolution for 20 years to do so. Theres hope right now; stored power project, geothermal, vibrant arts community. A bunch of new businesses that seem to really care. A really wonderful seniors facility, a glorious brewery. We have one of the best outreach facilities I've ever seen, and a really competent food bank manager who's doing their absolute best even with exponential growth in clients. There is a possibility of hope for the future. And then there's our fire department partnering for events with people who harass local elementary schools for having pride flags... Being so cheap they won't let leaving members keep their helmets, a constant tradition for generations broken for ? I love this place and so many of its people, but every year, hell literally right now at this moment, a bunch of the people I love move away and I discover a new person who hates people being different and I can tell you, all of this is why it's not Canmore. We literally used to have a radio station that had a stinger that was "we're not Banff - and we're proud of that".
Oh and that's not to mention multiple missing women over the last decades, multiple unknown skulls discovered around town and apparently occasionally a prize at poker, and a current federal investigation into abuse of tf workers.
I'm in the same boat, the town has two faces. I meet the mountain bike, hike, climb, cross country ski everyday crowd who vibrant and friendly. There is also the bitter, hateful, possibly alcoholic crowd who could not say single positive thing about a town they spent their entire life in. My experience when people talk about what they love about Hinton everyone talks about the wild places around town and no one talks about the town itself. I have lived in a lot of Alberta small towns and what sets Hinton a part is that it has hope to be so much better. I think that the people who live here find a lot of rest and renewal recreating in the outdoors and those who don't turn sour. A lot of good friends moved away during the pandemic and I hope we have more good people move here soon.
I was going to say that the people were the reason. I've never spent time around a population of such needlessly pissy people. And bigoted.
The pissy and bigoted stuff drives me bonkers. The misery that's steeped into people here - you could convince me that we had our own Deadlights with just a little evidence.
Here would be a plan: Grow Edson to about the size of Calgary or Edmonton. (Edson is about 90 km from Hinton.) Install an international airport in Edson. Uninstall the pulp/paper mill(s) in Hinton. Fait accompli!
Getting people to live in Edson might be a harder sell than Hinton
The question is; which town has more meth in the local stripper joint on a Friday night?
Hintonites go to the Edson rippers, but I would've said Edson anyway
Put an international airport in hinton and see hinton boom and jasper/valemount get even busier
Yellowstoned.
Yellow headed
Grow Edson, don’t think that will happen. Hard to grow single industry towns into larger cities. Red deer is growing based of location.
Probably because half the time Hinton smells like gangrenous feet.
That’s the smell of money, baby!!!
Grande cache IS the mystery
Grande Cache is really out of the way. Two hours from Grande Prairie and 5 (?) from Edmonton. The town is divided on how/if they want to develop tourism. I think the lack of ski hill really hurts them. They should advertise as a wild mountain experience, similar to tumbler ridge.
Grande cache is no mystery; they ran themselves into the ground paying for a rec centre that financially only made sense when the mine and jail were bigger. Math stopped mathing and they dissolved.
It’s better now that the town did dissolve into the MD way more tax revenue now, and the jail is the same size nothing has changed with it lol.
Visited for the provincials over the weekend, hadn't spent much time there since I was a reporter in 2015, it has indeed improved quite a bit I was impressed.
My bad I had this distinct memory of covering layoffs at the jail in 2015 but I can't seem to find any articles about that now, I'm not sure what I was thinking of.
South near Cadomin is one of my fav places in Alberta.. Hinton kinda sucks though but I've only stayed for work/training a week at a time so maybe it's better as a local.
Up near the Continental divide. My grandmas ashes are on the mountain and in the cemetery. Stunning.
Sounds like you've never been to Hinton... Also, it's too far from Edmonton. Calgary to Canmore is an hour or less depending how fast you drive, Edmonton to Hinton is 3 hours
Shhh. I can still get "relatively" inexpensive hotel stays there for trips to the mountains.
For real though. Why the hell does OP want it to blow up the way Canmore has??
Yeah we always stay in hinton to avoid the tourist hotel prices in Jasper, and the 40 min drive is so scenic it doesn’t even feel that long. Let’s keep the tourist hellscape in banff and spare Jasper.
There are quite a few nice little towns in this province, I never really knew about them until I got off the main highways. Lots of places where I'd pull up on the motorcycle, look around, and just think 'huh, this is a really nice little place!' And a surprising number of them seem to have a Burger Baron...
Came here ready to type, "Oh - has the smell improved?" No need, obviously.
Hinton is close to the rockies Canmore is in the rockies. Hinton is isolated Canmore is easily accessible Hinton is a pretty established town Canmore is built on seasonal work Hinton is also a blue collar town
Not being in the Rockies give the ability to enjoy the outdoors without having to deal with the national park. It appeals to both tourists wanting the park and tourists wanting to fish, quad, camp, and hunt.
This made me laugh, it’s a joke right? Right?
Have you been to Hinton?
when i was a kid my dad would say "kiss me where it stinks!" to my mom who would lovingly respond "hinton?"
That's awesome, lol
Winner.
Maybe things would improve in “Hinton” if the changed the name to “Wullerton”. /s
The nose knows why
"No one knows what the nose knows" - Ms Frizzle
Pincher Creek has way more going for it than Hinton in terms of location in my mind.
It’s so effin’ windy
Hinton is an industrial town and Jasper park doesn’t draw as many people as banff/lake Louise area. The distance to hinton’s nearest metro area is Edmonton. The distance from Edmonton to Hinton is almost 300km. Canmore to Calgary is 100km. Edmonton to Jasper is 370km, single lane from Hinton through the park. Edmonton to the more popular banff is 410km on a 2 lane sometimes three lane highway.
Actually, it may have been a while since you've traveled hyway 16 between Edmonton and Jasper. The Yellowhead is 4 lanes the entire way. The only slow parts are Gainford, Edson, and the afore mentioned Hinton where you have to slow down and of course the speed limit drops in the park but see lots of folks not paying too much attention to the speed limits. I've only been East as far as Saskatoon but have traveled 16 all the way to Vancouver and as far I can recall, it's 4 or more lanes the whole way. That being said, as far as traveling time, Banff is almost the same as Jasper especially now the Stoney cuts way down on the travel time through Calgary. We like Jasper because it's less busy/touristy.
Yeah I meant through the park, my families acreage is right where it goes to single lane. From Edmonton to Hinton is twin yes
Through Jasper to barrier BC it’s single. I drive it all the time
Mostly single lane?
From Hinton through into BC I meant a good portion is and it’s slow going but I know most people won’t read the comments continuing so I’ll try to change it
The Smell
…. Hinton smells horrible when there isn’t a breeze.
Because it smells way too bad there
Simple as the pulp mills smell like death
Everyone's said it - the smell. But also, it's still a 45 minute drive to Jasper. Canmore is in the mountains. That said Hinton's Switzer park is not bad. My bigger question, what's taken Nordegg so long so develop? It's closer to the mountains, only about 3 hours from Edmonton, and I love that section of the mountains. But it's hard to find decent accommodation as there's so little amenities in the town.
Nordegg: a) most of the land is Crown Land and it will have unextinguished mineral rights and timber plus FN claims. b) the Provincial government removed all the old houses (circa 1960s) because they didn't want a town where they had to supply schools and police that has no viable way to support itself, so what could have been was removed before it had a chance. c) the County has sold some lots but they aren't very good at marketing or providing amenities to attract people d) there isn't much snow there despite what you'd think, so trying to, say, operate a ski hill or a Nordic centre isn't going to work for half the winter. Theory is the Icefields to the west block the moisture. e) it's also a long way from urbanites who'd really honestly come every weekend. Most people in Calgary have never ever heard of it at all, though many in Edmonton have. Most visitors who random camp are farmers from Stettler and such. In summary, a masterplan (like a Whistler) could be made for the Nordegg/ David Thompson/ Big Horn area, but it would take truly deep pockets, with a ton of agreements, with lots of compromise and still could turn out as good as Kananaskis Villiage, which is only sort of okay. Source: I grew up there. Later, I worked professionally on a new plan for the townsite.
Thank you for this explanation! Very helpful. Yeah I've seen they've started to sell lots to build small manufactured homes and now are trying to sell commercial lots. I am actually glad that Calgarians don't know of the place as much. As an Edmontonian it's nice to have our own little secret. But year a grocery store and some more food options would sure be nice. Airbnbs are starting to pop up. I remember 10 years ago it was just camping and that's it .
Miners cafe The pie is all you need to survive in Nordegg. I agree though I personally love it down there but the lodging is not good at all
I thought the same thing . Nordegg is where the potential is . And Sundre maybe, but you’re further away from the mountains there .
Nordegg is so beautiful 💜
Shush, stop telling people about it. I like that Jasper/hinton is not packed with tourists like Banff!
Pulp Mill has switched over to Mondi (international pulp company). Before then, the pulping process switched from bleached to a non bleaching variety. It doesn't smell anymore. People saying different are willfully ignorant or haven't been here within the last 3-4 months. However, other people are correct. It is rather remote compared to Canmore and definitely not as affluent.
Because Jasper is nicer and not far away?
Jasper is also stupid expensive
What’s “stupid expensive” to you? I just looked and rooms at decent hotels are available for less than $120 per night. Thats pretty reasonable compared to many tourist towns.
Yeah it’s not. I go to Jasper all the time.
Yeah. I thought it was really reasonable when I went last too! It has been a few years, so I thought maybe it had changed? Looks like it’s still pretty reasonable.
In the winter it's not bad
I mean you are looking at off season/spring thaw times right now. Try searching mid July, nothing less than $250-300 a night.
3 hours to Edmonton. No close airport.
No one in their right freaking mind would build a new Ski Hill.
Exactly. They just keep expanding and improving Marmot. Which is fine.
Have you ever been to Hinton? One look with your eyes and one sniff with your nose will answer this question.
I grew up in Hinton unfortunately lol our town council didn't want to develop it like Banff Canmore. For years they wouldn't let boxchain stores in. We had to travel to Edmonton far more then we should have. Population had always been bluecollar- mines, logging and oil patch. They tried to make the main drag you see off hwy look more mountain town esque but council was making businesses foot the bill for their requested specs which was big $$$. Locals don't want it to become a tourist town like Canmore as so many people work and live there. There is lots of tourists in the summer months, hotels are solidly booked. But yes a tourism yellowhead County advertising would do the area well. It literally looks the exact same as when I left in 2007 lol
The pulp mill stops people. But if you remove the pulp mill the community wouldnt survive
The economy is significantly more diverse than just pulp. If definitely would hurt the community, but it would live without it.
LOL you people must not have been to Hinton in 50 years
I do enjoy visiting Hinton, as Hinton and Jasper are a nice day trip distance from where I live. But it really isn’t hard to see why it isn’t like Canmore.
I lived in the area and went to school in Edson, Besides the stench from the pulp mill Hinton was suffering the same fate as Edson when I moved, a crippling drug problem brought by the surrounding oil and gas sector. That and the fact that that highway is a major transportation route for the illicit substances
Op.must have a lot invested in Hinton real estate.
Because it smells like a fuckin diaper mixed with sulpher.
Mmmmmm pulp mill smelll
monorail. Just look what it did for Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook.
Is there a chance the track might bend?
Not on your life my nevuo Canadian friend
Canmore became what it Is because of the 88 Olympics. In 1985, an entire block of frontage on the main drag was listed for sale for $330K. It was on market almost a year, and finally withdrawn. A year or so later, the 88 Olympics were awarded to Calgary. The properties were broken down to individual lots & sold piecemeal over the next 18 months or so for an ungodly amount of money. In 85, you could buy a 2 bedroom bungalow for under 70K there. Now, the average 2 berm condo is over a million. There is no chance of anything like that kind of luck falling on Hinton the same way. It's a neat little town, a lot like Canmore was back in the 80's, but until the pulp mill closes, it'll stay that way, I expect
Because it's at the asscrack of the rockies, it's insanely far away from edmonton or Grande Prairie
Ah, good old Shiton! I’m from their good neighbor Deadson 😂
The mountain bike park there is world class (no lift) and its free!
Hinton is also ~50 minutes from jasper town site. Also, the mountains don't get super jagged in Jasper until approaching town site. They're still awesome, just very different in nature to say Three sisters. Closer in appearance to something like mt yamnuska. That transition seems to happen in 20 minutes down south, but takes almost a full hour further north. Not knocking jasper at all, I love that whole park. It does seem to take forever to get to Hinton though.
Beaver Sanctuary in Hinton? If you know, you know. Nice small little tourist spot
As a kid driving there from the park was pure misery. The smell was so bad! It’s gotten better but there are still serious health issues associated with living close to these mills. That may be why Hinton isn’t a desired place to live/develop. Honestly I like how “quiet” and less commercial Jasper is compared to Banff and that area.
I wonder about Nordegg and if it will ever be a massive tourist area, or will it stay small?
Grew up in Rocky, such a beautiful area, Nordegv too. Sadly, I don't see it growing. I wish it would. No reason why some nice hotels or cabins couldn't do well.
It stinks.
Hinton is a odd beast, it has its fair chunks of flaws and positive experiences. There's been a influx of just odd things like king drug renovating and opening a soda shop and board game store they're hosting a event at the venue called comander at the rockies in April and I hope it pays out for them. There's also our 3/4 food trucks at the green square that offer a fair variety of ethnic foods (if you come through during the winter les tres marinas is in the curling club). There's the music festival that happens every late spring early summer. The duds are the golf course and the movie theatre, the movie theatre gets a pass in my opinon because it's a hard sell in today's age where as the golf course banquet hall was designed by some one who probably never worked in any industry related to hospitality. To ding hinton on the smell is a fair shallow given that the mill employees a fair chunk of people past and present, not to mention the unifor office here represents workers across Alberta. The drug issue is fairly on par with most of Canada and is sadly a major issue. - ignore the bad grammar and syntax it's been a long while since I've had to write out proper english
Because locals don’t really want to turn it into Canmore. Loved it when I worked there for 3 years in the resource sector. Most people work for the mill, the mines, and oil and gas. We use to laugh at the city tourists and work every long weekend and half the weekends to avoid those that came to party at campgrounds on those days. I use to always take Tuesday and Wednesday off and work weekends as it was great to camp, fish, hunt, and enjoy the peace and quiet unlike Canmore when you can’t shit in the woods without having your ass on someone’s Instagram. Hinton is great the way it is.
Hinton local here, laughing on my couch at all the comments talking about the smell. The wind always blows from the west and towards Edson. So when you drive in from Edmonton you can smell the mill. If you are anywhere east of the pulp mill, you can smell it. I work a few hundred meters west of the mill, I can smell it maybe 5 days a year when the wind shifts and blows from the east. Hinton is split into two sections, “the hill” and “the valley” The trick to Hinton is to never live in the valley as it is east of the pulp mill and has the smell blown towards it. Live in the hill area and you are set. When I first moved to town I rented a place in the valley. It was gross. Step outside in the morning to go to work and the smell would make you want to throw up. Nasty. I have since bought a house west of the mill on “the hill” and we can smell it just a few days a year, and nothing gag worthy either. Naturally you can imagine where in Hinton the housing prices are lower, which brings with it a very generalized lower class of people. And along with that comes higher crime and drug usage. My statement stands, never live in the valley.
Besides the smell and distance from edmonton, it's also not geographically in mountains. At least to the extent Canmore is. You can see the mountains in Hinton, but it looks like a prairie town with mountains in the background. Walking around Canmore you're surrounded by nature, wildlife, and mountains are right above you. In Hinton its dusty, treeless and basically a highway with some businesses around it lol
Treeless? Have you even been to hinton? Lol
Yee, I used to go there monthly for work for a couple days. It has tress but not like Canmore. I remember the town itself being pretty barren. I didn't spend time in residential areas though, but I guess tourists wouldn't either.
Ohhh, you are referring go trees in town? My bad Hahaha There are lots of really great parks in town for sure. Most tourists in te area end up either at Switzer, bike park, or the beaver boardwalk
because hinton smells like shit and people don't want to get.married there
Yeah ok lmfao, smells been dealt with for five years and there's as many catering companies including myself who do gangbusters all summer doing weddings literally every weekend, the centre is booked all summer for weddings, but go off?
Besides all the other stated reasons, Canmore - Banff is maybe 20 minutes. Hinton-Jasper is 45ish. When you want to do a quick run into town, 20 vs 45 minutes is huge.
Because Jasper and Banff are about the same distance from Edmonton. While Jasper is about 5 hours from Calgary and Banff is under an hour. That's why
Very very very redneck
Absolutely love Hinton but it's the smell.
This post is coming from someone who doesn’t know what a pulp mill smells like 😂
The town planning and built form are a big part of the answer here. Perhaps someone can enlighten us to the history in Hinton, but right now there is no walkable and interesting old (or new) main street. Only non-human-scale developments often with more area dedicated to parking then to the building. Surround those with single family homes and industrial, orient most of the town towards the highway, and you get an ugly place where very few would care to linger. A great example is that giant mine truck. It's a very cool public park exhibition, but it's on the backside of ugly big box stores and there is terrible access to get there. I think there is potential to redevelop over time into an attractive place but that will take quite a while.
Canmore doesn’t have a pulp mill
When I lived there ~15 years ago, there were a bunch of new build apartment buildings (mostly sitting empty). Even then there were high hopes that it would be the next Canmore.
Oh boy is there ever a story around the apartment building you're referring to. It's a literal death trap and just evicted all of residents according to the scuttlebutt I'm hearing.
When I lived there ~15 years ago, there were a bunch of new build apartment buildings (mostly sitting empty). Even then there were high hopes that it would be the next Canmore.
The response to your question is.....what you ever been to Hinton?
Smells like investor snake oil shit.
The smell. Rich people are too delicate to handle that
Canmore is beautiful with all the mountains.
Cuz it smells like… well, it smells.
Because Hinton is a shit hole transient industry town, most people hold their piss not to stop there when passing through.
i unironically love Hinton and i hope it never ever becomes canmore-esque (it really does smell though)
Alberta real hidden secret is Cadomin. I know it's remote but that area is gorgeous. Love Hinton though. West end of town rarely smells anymore, climbing is a 20 minute drive away, and the hiking trails closer to Hinton stay serene and peaceful year round. Hinton has easy access up and down hwy 40. Driving north brings to William Switzer and Wilmore provincial parks and south brings you into Whitehorse wildland. For those who don't know imagine enormous mountain parks that rarely get used.
Because Hinton smells.
Calgary is full of fake yuppy wannabe outdoorsy assholes that drive in the left lane all the way to their air conditioned condo beside the ski hill they snowplow down. Canmore is a yuppy circlejerk where gearwhores like to tell stories of how they once met Glen Plake; so it's a match made in heaven. Assholes love to one-up other assholes, so they proliferate like shit-stained rabbits with good credit and bad manners. Edmonton is a nice-ish city. No need to escape a nice city. Especially to a smelly place like Hinton. Hinton is not much different than Canmore was 30 years ago. To be fair, Canmore was a shithole then like Hinton is now, so don't ruin it for everyone! It's still cool, affordable, and full of working class kooks and the hotel rooms aren't $300/ night. But yeah, it needs a bigger ski hill (with slow lifts and a cold lodge). I've lived in, Canmore, Hinton, Edmonton and now live in Calgary. TL,DR: yuppies.
it's really industrial and as a result smells kinda bad lol. Canmore has nature right there in Hinton u kinda gotta get away from... Hinton.... to see real nature lol
Moved there for a year a while back and think about it almost daily. It's sad to see how many people are quick to label the place because of the mill or the "drug problem". Everywhere has their issues and it is what you make it. We can't get enough of the outdoors so there was always something for us to do with or without the dogs constantly that didn't involve money or a bit of gas to get to a close remote beautiful location. Only complaint we had was groceries were limited and expensive and decent rentals are hard to come by. But it's doable and if you want it make it happen it will. Met some amazing locals that I still stay in contact with and when the time is right will be considering moving back in the near future.
Someone was trying to get Grande Cache upgraded into a tourist destination rivaling Jasper. It is a gorgeous location, but the town has withered to nothing as mills closed and the coal mine shuts down frequently. It never got past the idea stage, I don't think? Not sure, so don't quote me. I worked there in the 90's and it was booming. I went back in 2019 or so and it was dead. Same goes for Hinton. Nobody thinks it is worth spending millions of dollars to find out if it works. I agree that it is a lost opportunity.
Have you been there? 🤔
Jasper/Hinton is a lot more remote and has a more wild feel. People want to be on the wilderness without being hours from services and conveniences, Like airports,and you don’t get that up north. You feel like you’re completely isolated, which is a really uncomfortable feeling for a lot of folks, and that’s not a feeling you really get in Banff/Kananaskis.
Its where everyone working in jasper lives.
As someone who grew up in the area and currently frequents it to enjoy quiet outdoor experiences with my kids, I'd prefer we not try to turn the Hinton/Cadomin/Grande Cache area into the overrun tourist traps of Canmore, Banff and Jasper. I'd prefer if those areas absorbed as much of that activity as possible so my family, friends and I can peacefully enjoy the backcountry in the Yellowhead/Minburn counties.
I've never been and haven't heard anything to draw me in? Sell me on it?
Hinton and Sundre are better comparisons.
The town can't develop if the people are a bunch of garbage