About Us
Learn more about our history, goals, and everything else behind the Wild Rose Motocross Association
All levels and styles of riders welcome
Volunteer run
As many as 30,000 riders per year
The only off road riding area near Calgary
Who we Are
We’re the Wild Rose Motocross Association (WRMA) and this is what we’re about.
At WRMA (Wild Rose Motocross Association), we are trying to provide an environment for all levels and styles of riders.
Blackfoot Park is the only off road riding area near the City of Calgary. The park is built on City of Calgary land and managed by the Wild Rose Motocross Association, a registered non-for-profit organization.
Our moto community always welcomes non-members and out of town riders. Come join us!
See you at the park!
Our Goal
Our goad is to provide an environment for all levels of riders and all style of riders. From beginners (both young and older) and up and coming racers, to the fast semi-pro and pro riders and casual riders (bush riders).
Our Focus
The focus of the park is to provide off road and motocross riding opportunities in a safe, organized, and environmentally friendly way. We also conduct a events every year which range from fun club races to serious Provincial and Pro National level competitions.
our history, by dave pinkman
Wild Rose Motocross: Special MX People and a Special MX Place

our history, by dave pinkman
The Place: Wild Rose Motocross park
In the 60’s and 70’s, Blackfoot Park was open and accessible to all who entered to ride motorcycles, and under the auspices of the Calgary Motorcycle Club, was the site of numerous trials, T.T. and scrambles/ motocross events. The Calgary Club was a CMA affiliate and routinely hosted two-day events, sometimes holding a T.T. on the Saturday followed by motocross on Sunday, and took pride in ensuring that the track layout for each new race was unique. No set tracks existed, but by the same token no manicuring, watering or obstacle building existed either, and the early format for MX’s included a three-moto per day format. Imagine three 30 minute motos and no dust control: better make it to the first corner before the rest of the gang!
Early on, Blackfoot Park developed a national reputation as a facility with near perfect hills, valleys, flats and soil for the sport of motocross, and was a popular location for the 1973 National Amateur Championship race. Prodded by keen promoters, the Park was also the site of the 1972 Calgary International Motocross, complete with a couple international stars – or at least, guys whose name made them sound like Euro stars – and lots of TV advertising. While this event seemed to put motocross and the park on the local map, it also did something very important for the current crop of moto-enthusiasts: it created the famed International Jump, an obstacle still in use today, and one which forms the backbone of the track used for Calgary’s leg of the CMRC National series.
While it’s location is obviously it’s most unique feature, the facility has a number of other elements which make it special and permit us to keep riding off-road bikes: the hills and dales of the glacially-formed coulees, in addition to being attractive to racers, offered thick top soil with hardy indigenous plant growth on leeward hillsides. This allowed limited erosion, allowed track routing to reduce dust problems, and contributed indirectly to noise reduction, important features in a facility located near the heart of a major urban centre.
Calgary’s phenomenal growth during the 70’s lead to a re-evaluation of the worth of Blackfoot Park by City officials as a variety of projects were seen as potential beneficiaries of the land. The proverbial “wrecking ball” was put to the park at the end of the decade, many of the hills were flattened and much of the topsoil was removed as the motorcyclists made way for “progress”. While the City agreed to allow motocrossers to access a new chunk of land on the east side of town, no one was happy that the famed Blackfoot Park was being closed down. However, in a strange twist of fate, the dismantling of the Park was stopped when Calgary’s seemingly endless oil boom ran out of gas, as it were. Motorcycle historians have routinely argued about the causes of the oil boom collapse, but the consensus of opinion in our quarter is that the then Prime Minister of Canada, the Honourable P.E. Trudeau, heard the desperate pleas of Calgary motocross racers as they saw their beloved Blackfoot Park being flattened, and responded by introducing the National Energy Program.
Thanks to the success of the NEP in turning Calgary into an economic ghost town by the early 80’s, off road enthusiasts were gradually able to move back into the remaining hills at Blackfoot Park. Unfortunately, they did so without control or order, and soon motocrossers found themselves riding beside 4×4’s and other off road vehicles. Anarchy reigned, and something had to be done. Enter Wild Rose Motocross Association.
our history, by dave pinkman
The People: Wild Rose Motocross Association
Despite this kick in the gut, the club knew that any riding area as attractive as Blackfoot Park could not be ignored. Common sense and the new lease with the City meant that the volunteer-based club would now be in the motocross business, as controlled access required that riders paid to ride or joined the club. Money is what makes the world go round, and now Wild Rose was paying for security personnel, fencing and the other elements of a recreational park which required regular attention. On top of that, even though managing Blackfoot Park absorbed the majority of the club’s attention, a central objective of the group was hosting motocross races. To fill in that blank, the club secured access to a second facility on the edge of the Badlands northeast of Calgary. The Carbon Valley track had many attractive features, but its distance more than 45 minutes from the City wasn’t one of them. Nevertheless, the intrepid club members decided that the inconvenience and expense of maintaining two separate facilities was worth the effort. As is so often the case, and as is likely demonstrated in the backrooms of every motocross club in the country, it was the promethean efforts of a few dedicated members which kept things moving. Carbon Valley hosted amateur Nationals, and was always a big draw on both the CMA and CMC schedules.
Despite the grief experienced in Canadian motocross politics in the late 80’s and early 90’s, Wild Rose was able to thrive. Carbon Valley was a decent track, but few could deny that the exceptional location and geography of the Blackfoot Park made it a very special motocross place. Bound together by all those acres of central urban land, motocrossers would regularly join the club as kids, then move through the ranks of the sport, all the while calling Blackfoot Park their motocross home. Of course, there is nothing quite like having a close-to-home track to learn and hone one’s riding skills, and this large chunk of land dedicated to nothing but motocross has been for many years the glue holding many lifelong friendships together. Open most days of the week, the park was the training facility that bred some of Canada’s most successful and famous racers. From the great Ross Pederson to the soon-to-be great Dean Wilson, the course of Canadian motocross history may not have been the same but for this unique piece of dirt and hills.
Good times aside, there was always a thorn nestled in the side of the club’s directors and members alike, and that was the inability of the Park to host real races. This pain became particularly acute when the Carbon Valley property was sold in the mid-90’s, and the new buyers decided that the track represented a less desirable use of the land than as pasture for a couple cows. Probably the lowest point in the club’s history, Wild Rose became a motocross club with no ability to host motocross races.
our history, by dave pinkman
Wild Rose Motocross Park: The Rebirth of MX
No one would credit the irony, but it was the police who ultimately caused the transformation of Blackfoot Park back to a motocross-hosting track. The club had been stoically searching for a replacement to the Carbon track, but as Calgary grew, the prospects of establishing a new track in someone’s back yard became more remote with each passing year. Then word of broke that Calgary was to host the World Police and Fire Games, a kind of Olympics for police and fire service personnel from around the world. Normally not a big deal to the MX crowd – until it was learned that one of the popular sports at the Games was motocross. A few of the club’s best people agreed to work with the organizers to promote the activity, but, like the club, they had trouble finding a suitable location for a track. When the organizers suggested to the City that Blackfoot represented the best place in the area for a motocross race, Wild Rose’s fortunes improved immediately. On the basis that Wild Rose could hold limited races in the future, the club agreed to host the MX portion of the Games at Blackfoot Park, and a new era in Alberta motocross was born. The 1997 World Police and Fire Games was a huge success, but more importantly it opened a door for motocross in Calgary that the club has been building on with great relish ever since.
Re-energized by the prospect of hosting sanctioned events in the heart of the City, and with the new and vibrant CMRC reshaping the organizational map for motocross in Canada, Wild Rose moved ahead aggressively with new track designs, new maintenance programs and new facilities aimed at making the motocross racer and spectator even more at home in the Calgary dirt. Impressed with the ability of the Calgary club to fashion a safe yet exciting track out of the Park’s hills and dales, Mark Stallybrass soon offered Wild Rose a stop on the new National tour. Few would argue that the cityscape backdrop made for good TV, and few would argue that the central location made the Wild Rose track a perfect spot for riding or watching.

our history, by dave pinkman
Wild Rose Inc.
But don’t worry, the only mandate of this operation is to turn all profits back into dirt. With as many as 30,000 rider visits a year, Wild Rose Motocross Park is seeding itself as a piece of the cultural fabric of Calgary. And no one enjoys the cultural activity of churning that dirt more than yours truly.