Live in Hawkwood
A 1981 community on the ridge above Crowfoot, named for a dairy-farming family, where 92% of households own and 91% of homes are single-detached.
Hawkwood was established in 1981 on the high ground between John Laurie and Country Hills Boulevard, named for a dairy-farming family who came to Alberta from England in 1913. The City's boundary polygon covers 3.18 km², and the 2021 census counted 9,115 residents in 3,305 private households, 92% of them owners. Ninety-one per cent of the occupied stock is single-detached and 63% of it went up between 1981 and 1990. Median household income was $123,000 in 2020 against $98,000 across Calgary, and 21% of residents are 65 or over against 13% citywide. Crowfoot's shopping and station sit below the ridge.
The ridge above Crowfoot
Bounded north by Country Hills Boulevard, east by Sarcee Trail, south by John Laurie Boulevard and west by Nose Hill Drive. Ward 2, in the City's Northwest sector, classed Established with a 1980s and 1990s community structure.
Hawkwood was established in 1981 and named for a dairy-farming family who came to Alberta from England in 1913. It filled quickly: 63% of the occupied stock dates from 1981 to 1990 and a further 29% from the 1990s, with essentially nothing since. At the 2021 census it held 9,115 residents in 3,305 private households on a boundary polygon of 3.18 km².
It is the classic high-northwest formula: $123,000 median household income in 2020 against the city's $98,000, 92% owner households, 91% single-detached, and family lots at 1,236 m with the mountain view built into the price. Only 13% of households spend 30% or more of income on shelter, against 23% citywide, and the median owner shelter cost is $1,000 a month against $1,720 across Calgary. Forty-six per cent of owners still carry a mortgage, against 65% citywide. This community has largely paid for itself.
The age profile follows. 21% of residents are 65 or over, against 13% citywide, in a place built for young families forty years ago. The people who bought here in the 1980s are still here.
Crowfoot below does the work. The retail district, Crowfoot station at 141 Crowfoot Way NW with 1,345 park and ride spaces, and the Melcor YMCA at 8100 John Laurie Blvd NW all sit under the ridge. Crowfoot Library, at 8665 Nose Hill Drive NW, is a separate address rather than part of the Y.
- 63% of the stock is from 1981 to 1990, squarely poly-B era: verify plumbing
- Ridge exposure at 1,236 m: wind and drifting are the winter reality
- Sarcee and Country Hills Boulevard border two edges: listen from specific streets
- Only 8% of households rent, and those that do pay a median $2,000 a month against $1,350 citywide
- Crowfoot station is a drive-and-park: Wikipedia names Scenic Acres and Arbour Lake, not Hawkwood, as the communities it serves
How Hawkwood got here
- 1913The dairy-farming family the community is named for comes to Alberta from England.
- 1981Hawkwood is established.
- 1981–1990The bulk of the community is built: 63% of its occupied dwellings date from this decade, with a further 29% from the 1990s.
- 2009Crowfoot station opens on 15 June, at 141 Crowfoot Way NW below the ridge, with 1,345 park and ride spaces, about 13 km northwest of downtown.
- 2013Robert Thirsk High School joins Sir Winston Churchill as a public senior high option for the area.
- 2019The City's last civic census counts 9,248 residents in 3,334 dwellings, 3,278 of them occupied and 2,962 owner-occupied.
- 2021The federal census counts 9,115 residents in 3,305 private households, with a median household income of $123,000 in 2020 against $98,000 across Calgary, and 92% of households owning.
The ridge, with Nose Hill across the trail
Internal ridge pathways carry the everyday. Nose Hill Park, over 11 km² of native rough fescue grassland created in 1980, with more than 300 km of informal trails, is east across Sarcee Trail, and Edgemont's ravine network is next door. No publisher this audit opened describes a park inside the community itself.
What the map does not show: the view streets face west into the weather. The same exposure that sells the sunset brings the wind, and the reference point here reads 1,236 m. Visit on a January afternoon.
Elsewhere in Calgary, not Hawkwood
12 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 12 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are estimated from the centre of the community to each destination using Calgary's road grid, and are rounded to honest ranges rather than presented as precise figures. Everything essential sits below the ridge at Crowfoot; the rest of the city is a Red Line ride or the long way around.
Every gym within reach
The Crowfoot Y below, the Rocky Ridge Y beyond. YMCA Calgary publishes addresses and hours but no facility list, so confirm what is inside before you count on it.
- Open 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. at weekends
- Shane Homes YMCA at Rocky Ridge, 11300 Rocky Ridge Rd NW, keeps longer hours
- YMCA Calgary lists no facilities per branch. Ask before you assume a pool
- The community's own ridge pathways are the free option
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Melcor YMCA at Crowfoot open | YMCA Calgary health and fitness branch at 8100 John Laurie Blvd NW, open 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. at weekends. YMCA Calgary publishes no per-branch facility list. | 4–6 min |
| Shane Homes YMCA at Rocky Ridge open | YMCA Calgary health and fitness branch at 11300 Rocky Ridge Rd NW, open 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at weekends. | 9–14 min |
| Crowfoot commercial clubs open | Commercial gyms in the district below the ridge. No publisher this audit opened lists them. | 4–7 min |
| Hawkwood community pathways open | Free option: the community's own pathways along the ridge. | 1–3 min |
Crowfoot solves recreation for this community, but nothing published says what is inside either Y. The only question is which membership, and that is a phone call.
Elementary inside, the ladder below
Hawkwood School sits inside the community, and Wikipedia calls it an elementary although the board's own page states no grade range. Wikipedia names F.E. Osborne as the junior high and both Sir Winston Churchill and Robert Thirsk, the latter from 2013, as the public senior highs. On the Catholic side it names St. Maria Goretti, St. Jean Brebeuf and St. Francis.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Hawkwood School | Calgary Board of Education | Inside the community. Wikipedia calls it Hawkwood Elementary; the board's own page states no grade range and no attendance area. |
| F. E. Osborne School | Calgary Board of Education | Wikipedia names it as the public junior high for Hawkwood. Its own page carries Early French Immersion but no grade range and no list of communities. |
| Sir Winston Churchill and Robert Thirsk high schools | Calgary Board of Education | Wikipedia names both as the public senior highs for Hawkwood, Robert Thirsk from 2013. Neither publishes an attendance area, so confirm the designation for a specific address. |
| St. Maria Goretti, St. Jean Brebeuf and St. Francis | Calgary Catholic School District | The elementary, junior high and senior high Wikipedia names on the Catholic side. The district's site refuses automated clients, so nothing here was read from it. |
Alberta funds Catholic education the same way it funds public education, so there is no tuition for a resident student at either board. No board page names an attendance area, and the Catholic district's site refuses automated clients. Confirm the designation for a specific address. Churchill versus Robert Thirsk is exactly the kind of split that moves.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Ridge wind is the winter's defining feature at 1,236 m
- Priority snow routes keep the main roads clear
- Indoor recreation carries the season
- Long dark evenings, but rarely for weeks at a stretch
- Ski traffic west on the Trans-Canada peaks on Friday and Sunday
- Coldest snaps usually break with a chinook
- Noticeably longer light by month end
- The Crowfoot and Rocky Ridge YMCAs are at their busiest
- Melt and refreeze on the side streets: ice cleats weather
- Pathways reopen as the snow goes
- First patio afternoons on the warm chinook days
- Street sweeping begins late in the month
- Last hard frosts: planting waits for the May long weekend
- Pathway and park season opens properly
- Garden centres open across the quadrant
- Migratory birds return to the parks
- Long evenings: sunset past 9pm by month end
- Lilacs and crabapples through the streets built in the 1980s
- Field sport seasons start on the community greens
- First genuinely warm stretches
- Peak daylight at the solstice: over 16 hours
- School year ends and the parks fill
- Evening thunderstorms begin building over the foothills
- Farmers' markets open for the season
- Calgary Stampede: ten days across the city
- Hottest month, with cool nights at 1,236 m
- Evening thunderstorms roll off the foothills
- Canada Day events in the parks
- Folk Festival on Prince's Island mid-month
- Kananaskis and Banff at their best, straight west
- Quietest weeks before school returns
- Smoke from western wildfires is possible
- School year restarts and morning traffic thickens
- First frost typically arrives late in the month
- Poplar and aspen colour begins
- Evenings shorten fast
- First snow lands here days before the valley below
- First snow is normal, and normally melts
- Snow tires go on across the quadrant
- Nose Hill's rough fescue grasses turn gold, east across Sarcee Trail
- Ski season opens west on the Trans-Canada
- Dark by 5pm
- Freeze sets in for good
- Holiday retail season begins
- Chinook arches over the western skyline on clear days
- Holiday lights through the community streets
- Outdoor rinks open when the freeze holds
- Quiet, short days between the holidays
1 more photograph of the community and its surroundings
All freely licensed, via Wikimedia Commons. Filter by category.
Showing 1–1 of 1 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near Hawkwood, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared Calgary library.