It's early morning and the sun has just crested the horizon, casting a trail of sparkling rays across the still water. The shimmering lake ripples as a brook trout breaks the surface momentarily, before plunging back down into the depths. High in the sky, a bald eagle soars, gliding gracefully, while 100-foot-tall fir trees sway in the soft summer breeze. In the distance, a kayak quietly slices through the water like a hot knife through butter.

It's a typical day at Lake Sundance.

"I love it here," said longtime Sundance resident Anne Radic. "I wouldn't live anywhere else."

She's lived in the community for almost 40 years and watched it evolve from raw land into a mature and established neighbourhood with stately homes, excellent schools and mature trees that create a pretty canopy along the quiet streets. "We moved here in 1986 and basically bought a plot of earth," she said, laughing.

It's early afternoon on a chilly Saturday in January, and in Calgary's southeast community of Sundance, groups of teenagers gather to play a friendly game of shinny on the frozen, manmade lake that serves as a hub for the community. There is camaraderie here – an old-fashioned feeling of belonging. A fire pit takes centre stage at the upper skating rink, and an oversized sculpture of Santa Claus and his sleigh – remnants from holiday festivities – graces the promenade level of the park.

Mix of young and old call Calgary's established lake communities home

When D'Arcy Duquette and his family moved to Calgary from Montreal, a lake in their new community was a must-have for his son and daughter.

"I moved them from a home where we had a big in-ground pool in the backyard and were surrounded by lakes," said the 60-year-old transportation industry retiree. "They were spoiled."

After moving into McKenzie Lake, with its 17.5-hectare man-made lake, Duquette's children happily spent summers "in their bathing suits."

McKenzie Lake is one of the older lake communities in Calgary, established in the late 1980s. Like the other more mature lake communities in Calgary, including Lake Bonavista (the first man-made lake in Canada, completed in 1968), Midnapore, Chaparral, Sundance, McKenzie Lake, Arbour Lake and Coral Springs, the majority of homes in McKenzie Lake are single-family and the resale market is the only option for prospective buyers.