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Posts tagged Alberta
Wood Buffalo National Park – Alberta
Jan 7th
outdoorsica.com
Spilling across Alberta’s northern border into the Northwest Territories, Wood Buffalo encompasses a large area of the subarctic plain. It is a huge national park, certainly the largest in Canada and one of the largest in the world. The park extends 176 miles at its greatest length and averages about 100 miles in width, taking in more than 17,000 square miles—an area five times that of Yellowstone. More >
Banff National Park – Canada
Jan 7th
wildlifearchives.com
First and most famous of Lil the national parks of Canada, Banff is filled with glittering snowcapped peaks, valleys draped in evergreen forests, turquoise lakes, flowered alpine meadows, glaciers, hot springs, waterfalls, and abundant wildlife. Four mountain parks — Banff and its neighbors Jasper, Yoho, and Kootenay — contain such a large and representative segment of the Canadian Rockies that they have been collectively designated a UNESCO world heritage site.
Banff topography is characterized by sweeping, U-shaped valleys that separate the parallel Front and Main Ranges of the Rockies, mountains made of sedimentary rocks that were uplifted and folded, then shaped by glaciers. Banff’s highest peaks are in the Main Range, which forms the Continental Divide. At Valley of the Ten Peaks, this soaring watershed forms a rampart about 8 miles long and more than 3,000 feet high from base to ridgeline. More >
Jasper National Park – Alberta, Canada
Aug 14th
Established in 1907, Jasper National Park is as staggeringly beautiful as anywhere in the Rockies, but it is distinguished by having more remote wilderness than the other national parks. These areas can be reached only on foot, horseback, or by canoe, and backpackers need passes from the Park Trail Office for hikes that last more than one day. Jasper also has a reputation for more sightings of flora and fauna such as bear, moose, and elk than any of the other parks in Rockies’. More >
Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel – Alberta
Jul 28th
Everything in Canada is vast, and the string of super-size hotels built by the Canadian Pacific Railways to boost tourism along its Rocky Mountain railway fits in with that enormous scale. The railway was completed in 1885, and a mere three years later on June 1, 1888, the grandest of the grandiose faux Scottish baronial castle-style hotels opened its doors. With 250 rooms and a rotunda it was the largest hotel at the time.
Today, the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel and spas trebled the number of its rooms; it can accommodate up to 1,700 guests, who can often hear the strains of live bagpipe music. If you balk at the C$900 room fee, you can take a guided tour instead. The hotel, which is massive, can feel like a giant terminus. It is a touch old-fashioned today, but the edifice still stands proud like an alpha-male stag amid the aspen, beneath the shadows of spectacular massifs at the convergence of the Bow and Spray Rivers. More >
