Draft:Alberta Highway 532

Alberta Highway 532

View above highway 532 looking east shows the highway making its way down from the high-mountain areas towards the prairies below.

Alberta Provincial Highway No. 532, commonly referred to as Highway 532 or the Chain Lakes Highway, is a 25.7 kilometer-long winding, mountainous road, all of it unpaved, located in the province of Alberta, Canada. The road connects the Forestry Trunk Road (a.k.a highway 40/940), a similarly-unpaved highway, at its western point, to its eastern terminus at Alberta Highway 22, a major north-south route within south-western Alberta. Whilst the road is outside of major tourist areas, it offers its own unique mountain scenery and lookouts. Reaching an elevation of 2041 meters at its highest point, it is the third highest road that is signed as a highway in Canada, only behind Alberta highways and 93 and 40. It is closed to vehicle traffic yearly between December 1 and April 30. The highway has a posted speed limit of 80 km/h, however it is not feasible to maintain due to the curves in the road.

Route description

Looking east, highway 532 winds from its highest point down to the Canadian Prairies, over 1000 meters in elevation below. The road has a steep drop-off on its south side without any guardrails.

Looking northeast, highway 532 makes its way through a meadow just west of its highest point.

At its western point, Highway 532 begins along the Forestry Trunk Road at a T-intersection, approximately 32 kilometers south of the Highwood Junction in Kananaskis. It immediately starts off with a steep section up a small hill, followed immediately by signs advising vehicles towing trailers to not travel along the route (due to its steep grade). In the same location is a sign informing travellers that they have entered the Willow Creek Public Land Use Zone. The road, which has large rocks present on the road surface along this particular section, slowly climbs uphill for the next 4.3km, eventually making its way into a meadow region close to its highest point. It then proceeds over a pass at an elevation of 2041 meters, providing travelers with a view stretching all the way to the Canadian Prairies down below. At the top just west of the pass resides a small pond, the Hailstone Butte Trailhead, and parking spots along the road. East of the pass, the road begins to travel down at a fairly steep grade, with the shoulder of the road steeply dropping off on the south side of the road without any guardrails. As the road continues down, it passes by Johnson Creek Designated Camping Area, a flat open area where people are allowed to camp. As the road continues down in elevation, deciduous trees start to grow along the roadside. The road continues northeast, passing by more campsites, until it eventually terminates at a T-intersection with Highway 22, just north of the Chain Lakes Reservoir.