Live in Maple Ridge
A 1966 southeast community on the escarpment above the Bow River valley, its own municipal golf course wrapped around it, immediately north of Lake Bonavista across Anderson Road.
Maple Ridge was annexed to Calgary in 1956 and established a decade later, in 1966, on the high ground above the Bow River valley. The Maple Ridge Golf Course lines the community along the south and east, down in the valley itself. It shares a community association with its western neighbour Willow Park, and at the last federal census every occupied dwelling recorded was a single-detached house. It sits directly across Anderson Road from Lake Bonavista, close enough to share a name pattern in casual conversation, but with no rights to that community's private lake.
Built on the valley's edge, with its own golf course below it
Bounded east by Deerfoot Trail, north by Southland Drive, west by the community of Willow Park, and south by Anderson Road. Directly across the road from Lake Bonavista, outside its homeowners association. Ward 11.
Maple Ridge was annexed to Calgary in 1956 and established a decade later, in 1966: land held for a while before it was built out, on the high ground above the Bow River valley. The Maple Ridge Golf Course, a City of Calgary public course, lines the community along the south and east, down in the valley itself.
Boundaries. Deerfoot Trail forms the eastern edge, Southland Drive the northern one, the community of Willow Park the western one, and Anderson Road the southern one. The two communities share a single association, the Willow Ridge Community Association of Calgary, registered on 23 February 1967 and running a hall, tennis courts and outdoor rinks at 680 Acadia Drive SE. Maple Ridge sits directly across Anderson Road from Lake Bonavista.
The lake question. Being across the road from Lake Bonavista invites the obvious assumption, and it is wrong: Maple Ridge has no rights to Lake Bonavista's private lake. The Lake Bonavista Homeowners Association ties membership to an LBHA encumbrance registered on the land title, and a Maple Ridge title does not carry one. What Maple Ridge has instead is its own public golf course, open to anyone who books a tee time.
Housing mix. This is about as uniform as Calgary gets: all 765 occupied dwellings counted at the 2021 census were single-detached houses, 94% of the stock was built between 1961 and 1980, and none of it after 1980. Median household income was $117,000 in 2020, against $98,000 across Calgary, and 94% of households own. The count is falling rather than growing: 1,916 residents at the City's 2019 civic census, 1,830 at the federal census two years later.
- 94% of the occupied stock dates from 1961 to 1980 and 6% from 1960 or before. Original roofs, windows, furnaces and electrical panels are at or past design life
- Nothing in the occupied stock was built after 1980, so a renovated house is the only new interior on offer
- There is no lake membership here despite the neighbour and the proximity. The LBHA encumbrance sits on Lake Bonavista titles, not on these
- The golf course backs a real slice of the community; confirm errant-ball exposure for a specific lot
- Junior high is inside the boundaries at R. T. Alderman. Senior high is Lord Beaverbrook on Fairmount Drive, which names Maple Ridge among the communities it serves
How Maple Ridge got here
- 1956The land is annexed to the City of Calgary.
- 1966Maple Ridge is established on the high ground above the Bow River valley, ten years after annexation.
- 1967The Willow Ridge Community Association of Calgary registers on 23 February, serving Maple Ridge and Willow Park from a hall at 680 Acadia Drive SE.
- 1961–1980Nearly the whole community is built in this window: 94% of the occupied dwellings recorded at the 2021 census date from these two decades, and none at all from after 1980.
- 2019The City's last civic census counts 1,916 residents in 819 dwellings, 785 of them occupied and 728 owner-occupied.
- 2021The federal census records 1,830 residents in 770 private households, a median household income of $117,000 for 2020, 94% owner households, and 765 occupied dwellings that are single-detached without exception.
A golf course at the back gate, Fish Creek a short drive south
The community's defining green space is its own: the Maple Ridge Golf Course at 1240 Mapleglade Drive SE occupies the Bow River valley along the south and east edge, 18 holes over 6,494 yards at par 71, one of five courses the City runs rather than a private amenity. Fish Creek Provincial Park, Canada's second-largest urban park at 13.48 km² with more than 100 km of trails, is a short drive south past Lake Bonavista.
What the map does not show: a municipal golf course as a neighbour is unusual among Calgary communities: it is quieter than a private club, open to the public, and closed to traffic and noise for roughly half the year. The trade-off is a course, not a park: there is no lake, and no equivalent to the trail network Fish Creek offers a few minutes south.
Elsewhere in Calgary, not Maple Ridge
22 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 22 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. Anderson Road and Macleod Trail at peak hours will push the longer trips higher.
Every gym within reach
The nearest anchor facility is Trico Centre at 11150 Bonaventure Drive SE, across Anderson Road, with a private golf club and a chain-gym cluster both within a few minutes. Confirm hours before you count on any of them.
- The community's own public golf course is the closest paid recreation of any kind, a minute or two from most addresses
- Willow Park Golf & Country Club adds a private club membership immediately west
- GoodLife and Anytime Fitness sit within ten minutes at Southcentre and Willow Park Village
- Fish Creek Provincial Park's trail network is the free option, a short drive south past Lake Bonavista
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Trico Centre for Family Wellness open | Recreation centre at 11150 Bonaventure Drive SE: pool, arena, fitness centre and gym programmes. | 3–5 min |
| Maple Ridge Golf Course open | The City's own 18-hole course, par 71 over 6,494 yards, seasonal: the closest paid recreation to the boundary. | 2–3 min |
| Willow Park Golf & Country Club open | Private club course immediately west, a separate membership from the City's public one. | 5–8 min |
| GoodLife Fitness, Southcentre open | National chain club at Southcentre Mall. | 6–9 min |
| Anytime Fitness, Willow Park open | 24-hour access chain gym in the Willow Park retail area. | 4–6 min |
| Fish Creek Provincial Park trails open | 100+ km of free trails, past Lake Bonavista to the south. | 7–10 min |
No lake membership to fall back on. Unlike Lake Bonavista next door, there is no annual fee here that buys beaches, boating or a private toboggan hill: recreation here means the golf course, Trico Centre, or driving to it.
Two schools inside the community, and a high school that names it
Maple Ridge School serves the community for public elementary and R. T. Alderman, a science alternative program school, covers junior high, both inside the boundaries. St. William Elementary serves the Catholic side, and Willow Park School's arts-centred learning program sits just west in the neighbouring community, with courses in art, drama, dance, media arts and music. Lord Beaverbrook High School on Fairmount Drive lists Maple Ridge among the communities it serves for grades 10 to 12.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Maple Ridge School | Calgary Board of Education | Public elementary inside the community, kindergarten to grade 4 by Wikipedia's listing. Its own site names kindergarten, a science program and learning technologies. |
| R. T. Alderman School | Calgary Board of Education | Public junior high inside the community, grades 5 to 9 by Wikipedia's listing. Its own site calls it a science alternative program school. |
| St. William Elementary School | Calgary Catholic | Catholic elementary, kindergarten to grade 6 by Wikipedia's listing. The district's own site refuses automated clients, so nothing here was read from it. |
| Willow Park School | Calgary Board of Education | Arts-centred learning programme immediately west in Willow Park: art, drama, dance, media arts and music, grades 5 to 9 by Wikipedia's listing. |
| Lord Beaverbrook High School | Calgary Board of Education | Public senior high at 9019 Fairmount Drive, grades 10 to 12, founded 1967, enrolment 1,552 in 2022. Its own article lists Maple Ridge among the communities it serves. It sits outside the community boundaries. |
Alberta funds Catholic education the same way it funds public education, so there is no tuition for a resident student at either board. Confirm the current designation for a specific address with the board before you buy. Neither CBE school page prints a grade range or an attendance area, and the Calgary Catholic School District's site refuses automated clients, so the grades given here come from Wikipedia.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- The golf course is closed and used for informal tobogganing on the valley slopes
- Deerfoot and Macleod Trail are priority-plowed routes, so access holds up
- Trico Centre's arena carries the organised hockey season, along with the association's outdoor rink on Acadia Drive
- The Bow River valley cools the community more than communities further from it
- Family Day long weekend fills Southcentre and Trico Centre
- Chinooks can clear the roads for a few days at a time
- Coldest stretches of the year, typically
- Indoor recreation at its busiest
- Melt and refreeze on side streets and the golf course slopes
- Spring break traffic at Southcentre and Willow Park Village
- First bare pavement on the Fish Creek pathways to the south
- Golf course maintenance begins ahead of the season
- Maple Ridge Golf Course typically opens for the season
- Last hard frosts: planting waits until the long weekend
- Migratory birds return along the Bow River valley
- Street sweeping clears the winter gravel
- Long evenings: sunset past 9pm by month end
- School year sports leagues start at Maple Ridge School and R. T. Alderman
- Hail season begins across the southeast
- Fish Creek in full leaf, a short drive south
- Peak daylight at the solstice: over 16 hours
- Golf course at its busiest on weekday evenings
- School year ends
- Thunderstorm season is fully under way
- Calgary Stampede: ten days, about 20 minutes north on Macleod Trail
- Evening thunderstorms roll in off the foothills
- Willow Park Village patios fill on warm evenings
- Hottest month, with the Bow valley offering the only real shade nearby
- Warmest weeks for a round at the community's own course
- Quietest weeks before school returns
- Saskatoon and chokecherry picking along the Bow River valley
- Spruce Meadows runs the Masters in September, not August: the quiet weeks here are the golf course's warmest
- School year restarts at Maple Ridge, R.T. Alderman and St. William
- First frost typically arrives late in the month
- Golf course colour turns in the valley below the community
- Spruce Meadows Masters, 9 to 13 September in 2026, about 20 minutes southwest
- First snow is normal, and normally melts
- Snow tires go on
- Golf course closes for the season by month end
- Shorter evenings noticeable by mid-month
- Dark by 5pm
- Indoor recreation season restarts at Trico Centre
- Holiday retail season begins at Southcentre and Chinook Centre
- First reliable snow cover on the valley slopes
- Zoolights and holiday lighting downtown, a short LRT ride north
- Holiday quiet across the community
- The golf course reverts to a toboggan hill for the neighbourhood
- Chinooks, when they come, can strip and replace the snow within a day
6 more photographs of the community and its surroundings
All freely licensed, via Wikimedia Commons. Filter by category.
Showing 1–6 of 6 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near Maple Ridge, 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.