Canada Day 4 - Heartland
Day 4 in Alberta was all about Heartland. And if we are honest, Heartland is the reason we started looking into visiting Alberta years ago. I fell in love with the TV show Heartland many years ago and DJ started watching with me. We’ve since gone back and rewatched it a couple of times since he didn’t see the beginning. It is definitely one of our all time favorite shows so we made a whole day out of visiting the filming locations. First up was High River, the setting for the town of Hudson. We started the day at the Museum of the High Country where we saw several costumes and lots of memorabilia from the show. The museum is also where they film the library scenes in season 18.
The museum gave us a map of all the filming locations in town and the areas around town. We walked down the street and as we turned the corner we saw the sign for Maggie’s Diner. It was so cool to feel like we were in Hudson! Maggie’s isn’t an operating diner so we couldn’t go inside but we got lots of pictures through the windows of the set. We also saw Jess’s art gallery, the street where they did a cattle drive through town, the gazebo where Amy graduated, the motel where Ty’s dad stayed and what I think is the bar where Ty and Caleb hang out. It was so fun to be in Hudson and see all the sights in person.
While in High River, we also saw the Wales Theater, which was named after HRH Edward, the Prince of Wales, and used in many movies. We also had lunch at Evelyn’s Memory Lane Diner, which is the inspiration for Maggie’s.
Next we drove to Diamond Valley to go to Marshall’s Country Store, which is owned by Amber Marshall (aka Amy Fleming)!
Our next stop was the Hudson Rodeo Grounds.
From the rodeo grounds, we headed to the super cute church where Lou and Peter got married.
The actual Heartland ranch location is not given on the map. However, with some digging on Google maps satellite, we found what we thought was the ranch. So, we decided to be adventurous and find it. It was worth the scrolling on google maps because we found it! And not only did we find the ranch, but we saw Caleb’s truck with a Heartland trailer, Lou’s Expedition and Ty’s blue truck, which might as well be a character in and of itself.
The final stop on our Heartland tour was Spruce Meadows on the way back to Calgary. This is where they film the show jumping scenes. There were events going on so we just drove by it but it looked really awesome. We had so much fun scouting out all the Heartland film locations and it was even more fun watching the newest season after being there in person! And it all truly is as beautiful in person as it is on the screen.
After dinner in Calgary, we took a little walk from our hotel to see the skyline. It is so cool to see the city skyline and mountains together.
