The best walks and hikes around East St. Paul

Kilcona Park is one of Winnipeg’s most popular urban parks, with plenty of open space, wetland ponds surrounded by benches, and a network of multi-use trails in the city’s northeast. There are walking and cycling paths, sports fields, and the Harbour View Recreation Complex with mini golf, tennis, and pickleball courts. The park is a local favourite with dog owners thanks to its large off-leash area, making the park a hub for year round recreation and relaxation.

Kilcona Park’s trail network winds through open fields, wetlands, and tree-lined corridors, offering relatively easy walking, running, and cycling routes, perfect for a leisurely hike or family outing. The wide gravel and paved paths loop around several ponds and connect to the Harbour View Recreation Complex and the off-leash dog area. With gentle grades and beautiful open views across the park, the trails are an excellent way to enjoy spending time outdoors in nature.

This is a great, large sandy beach that sits along the shore of Birds Hill Lake and is known for its clear, shallow water, which is ideal for swimming. There are grassy picnic areas, change facilities, and easy access to nearby trails. It’s a popular spot on warm days, so you’ll see plenty of families, sunbathers, and paddlers enjoying the park’s picturesque lakeside setting while you’re here.

The Lakeview Trail is a relatively easy loop that circles the shoreline of Kingfisher Lake, with beautiful views of the water and the surrounding mixed forest. Its flat, well-maintained path is suitable for walking and casual cycling, with several great spots to stop and watch birds along the lake’s edge. The trail connects to nearby picnic areas and the beach, making it the perfect route for a leisurely nature walk within the park.

Birds Hill Provincial Park is a beautiful year-round recreation area that includes a mix of prairie, forest, and wetlands, and is home to plenty of wildlife, including deer, waterfowl, and over 200 bird species. Kingfisher Lake is at the park’s centre, surrounded by a 7.2-kilometre paved loop trail that’s a popular route for walking and cycling. While you’re here, you can explore nearly 30 kilometres of hiking trails, including the Chickadee Trail to Griffiths Hill, the highest point in the park. There is a day-use picnic area, campground, and plenty of other amenities, making this the perfect place to spend the day or a weekend enjoying the outdoors.

Once the site of an industrial plant, the Transcona Community Bio Reserve has been transformed into a lovely park with over 1.6 kilometres of crushed limestone trails and a thriving patch of Big Bluestem grass. In spring, frogs are active and vocal, and in summer, you’ll see plenty of wildflowers blooming along the trail, with butterflies and songbirds common throughout the park.

The Transcona Trail is a paved multi-use path popular with walkers, runners, and cyclists that follows alongside hydro corridors and the Central Manitoba rail line, bordered by chain-link fencing. The route winds through quiet residential neighbourhoods and open fields, with plenty of birdlife to spot along the way. Whether you're continuing your journey or pausing to explore, this junction offers a smooth transition into one of Winnipeg’s most accessible green corridors.

The Red River flows north from the United States into Manitoba, winding through Winnipeg before emptying into Lake Winnipeg. Its slow, meandering course has long shaped the region’s landscape and history, serving as a vital route for Indigenous peoples, fur traders, and early settlers. Today, its banks are lined with parks, trails, and neighbourhoods that celebrate the river’s enduring role in the heart of the prairie city.