ALBERTA: URBAN ESCAPES, ALPINE ADVENTURES AND PRAIRIE SUNSHINE
Backdropped by the Rocky Mountains to the west and great swaths of prairie to the east, Alberta is first and foremost an outdoor lover’s paradise. Five of Canada’s national parks are found in Alberta, beckoning travellers year-round with a myriad of recre
Urban escape artists flock to Alberta’s two largest cities, Edmonton and Calgary, for retail therapy, gourmet dining, rustic spas and shopping at North America’s largest shopping and entertainment complex, West Edmonton Mall.
Alberta is blessed with a diverse heritage that encompasses First Nations history, pioneer spirit and a rich immigrant culture that draws New Canadians from all parts of the globe. The annual 10-day whoop-up called the Calgary Stampede celebrates all things cowboy and rodeo early each July. Edmonton’s K-Days follows up with a tribute to northern Alberta’s Klondike heritage, while dozens of other festivals across the province celebrate its unique pockets of regional pride—think perogies in Vegreville, or beef jerky in Longview.
From the granite spires of Waterton Lakes in Alberta’s south to Wood Buffalo National Park in the rugged north, the Wild Rose province delivers hall-of-fame experiences at nearly 300 provincial recreational areas such as Kananaskis Country, Cypress Hills, Dinosaur Provincial Park and Willmore Wilderness Park, a rugged 4,600 sq. km (1,774 sq. mi.) area east of Jasper near the remote northern town of Grande Cache.
The biggest urban centres, Edmonton and Calgary, are cosmopolitan cities, while smaller cities including Red Deer, Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray, Medicine Hat, Lethbridge and Airdrie serve as important regional hubs for shopping, government, tourism and agriculture/industry.
Alberta’s dining scene is innovative and fiercely local, emphasizing Rocky Mountain Cuisine such as game, fish and world-famous grain-fed beef. From upscale hotel dining rooms in the big city to eclectic alpine bistros in Banff, Jasper and Lake Louise, the restaurants consistently win international awards. So, too, do Alberta’s major attractions—like Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, which is older than Stonehenge, or the modern steel and glass-encased Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton.
NATURE’S WONDERLAND
Provincial recreational areas help keep Albertans and their visitors outdoors. Spread across 661,848 sq. km (255,541 sq. mi.) of pristine terrain, the five major snow resorts and sprawling backcountry lure powder-hounds from November to May.
Try dogsledding through the untouched Spray Lakes valley, or take a guided ice walk in frozen Maligne Canyon near Jasper. The lakes of Kananaskis Country are a delight for ice fishing in winter, and boating, hiking and cycling in the summer. Elk Island National Park east of Edmonton offers a great opportunity to photograph wildlife, including its resident buffalo and, of course, elk.
Rent a mountain bike in West Bragg Creek, or enjoy a more sedate bike ride on the paved path between the towns of Canmore and Lake Louise. Alberta’s glacier-fed waterways—particularly the Bow and Red Deer rivers—lure anglers with the promise of top-notch trout fishing. In the same day, visitors can play the back nine of a world-class golf course, hopscotch past cactus patches in search of ancient rock carvings in the desert, and then retire to the hotel hot tub to watch the sunset.
VENTURING OUT
Float your boat down a river or head for calmer waters along Lake Minnewanka or Moraine Lake in Banff National Park. Bonus: hear the crack of avalanches overhead, well out of your path but still powerful. Chase champagne powder from the top of first-rate resorts such as Sunshine Village, Lake Louise or Marmot Basin, or explore them in summer to unveil abundant wildlife and colourful carpets of wildflowers. Canada Olympic Park in northwest Calgary has a national athlete training centre, a snow park and Olympic museum, while Peter Lougheed Provincial Park boasts unparalleled opportunities for adventure all year-round.
Bar U Ranch National Historic Site, south of Calgary, chronicles pioneer life from 1882 to 1950; this pristine setting in the shadow of the southern Rockies is featured on many postcards. Travellers with time on their hands head north to Wood Buffalo National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site with 44,807 sq. km (17,300 sq. mi.) of protected wilderness where the endangered whooping crane and the world’s largest herd of free-roaming wood bison can be found.
WHAT’S NEW?
The Royal Alberta Museum is scheduled to reopen sometime this year in its new location in Edmonton’s downtown Arts District after nearly three years. The new facility, the largest in Western Canada, includes double the exhibit space. There is a human history gallery with an Alberta focus, a children’s gallery, the Bug Room and the Manitou Stone Gallery, housing the meteorite held sacred by the First Nations of Alberta, which will be available for various Indigenous ceremonies (www.royalalbertamuseum.ca).
The Calgary Public Library will be the city’s newest architectural marvel when it opens in November, a few blocks from the National Music Centre. The high-tech library will feature a 350-seat performance hall along with more than 30 community meeting spaces, a reading room and special kids play spaces (www.calgarylibrary.ca/ new-central-library).
The much-loved Kananaskis Country Golf Course reopens this spring, five years after it was forced to close by massive flooding. Situated in Kananaskis Valley, the golf course is just 80 km (50 mi.) from Calgary, making it popular with locals and tourists alike for the sport, the wildlife (occasional
bear, elk or deer) and the stunning views (www.kananaskisgolf.com).
Travellers wanting to explore the famous alpine towns of Banff and Lake Louise and places in-between have a new transportation option. A service called Hop On Banff will travel a scheduled route between local hot spots in Banff National Park. One ticket will get you from the Banff townsite to Johnston Canyon, Lake Louise Village, the ski hill gondola, Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and the stunning Moraine Lake. The service should be booked in advance and operates from late May to early October (www.hoponbanff.com).
CITY LIGHTS
Alberta’s two major cities offer quite different insights into the province, though they share a love of green space, sprawling river pathways and tidy, bustling downtowns.
The provincial capital of Edmonton is a government city with a grand legislature building, a thriving arts community and numerous galleries, craft stores and art shops. Most can be found along trendy Whyte Avenue or in the downtown arts district, the location of the modern Art Gallery of Alberta, the Winspear Centre and the Citadel Theatre. The meandering North Saskatchewan River cuts a steep swath through the city north of downtown, and can be explored by canoe or raft (www.edmonton.ca).
The “Festival City” boasts more than 60 events a year. Its long winters are cause for several events including the Ice on Whyte winter festival in January/February. Summer offerings include the Fringe Theatre Festival, the Folk Music Festival, K-Days and Heritage Festival. North America’s largest indoor shopping complex is like a self-contained mini-city. West Edmonton Mall spans the equivalent of 48 city blocks, has 800+ retail/ food outlets and the year-round World Waterpark. Fort Edmonton Park along the North Saskatchewan River showcases the fur trade and Gold Rush eras.
Calgary’s office towers, which contain the majority of Canada’s oil and gas company headquarters, were built to capture the Rockies on the western horizon. An innercity energy hub called the Bow Tower is a modern architectural skyscraper that covers two city blocks. Nearby Chinatown segues to the Bow River pathway and the ongoing redevelopment of the East Village has revitalized this historic section of downtown.
The city has preserved much of the sandstone buildings along Stephen Avenue Walk, where many great restaurants and shops are found, along with the Glenbow Museum, Olympic Plaza and the Calgary Tower. Numerous retail stores and eateries are also part of The CORE complex (www. visitcalgary.com).
Residents are devout nature lovers, flocking to the city’s network of river pathways as well as the inner city Prince’s Island Park, Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, and Bowness Park and its pretty lagoon, where families can skate in winter and canoe and paddleboat in summer. Just west of City Hall, Olympic Plaza is a busy festival and performance venue that hosted the 1988 Winter Olympic ceremonies. The Calgary Zoo is renowned for its conservation initiatives while, south of the city, Spruce Meadows attracts equestrians to several international showjumping competitions each summer.
THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Head for the hills from summer to fall for a guided multi-day backcountry pack trip on horseback. Sleep under the stars and listen to coyotes howl in a riverside tent camp in Dinosaur Provincial Park, home to some of the planet’s largest fossil beds and fantastic interpretive programs. Or scramble up the Via Ferrata (Italian for iron path), a rope and cable-assisted mountain journey at Mt. Norquay near Banff. Should winter be your season, abundant ice-climbing, skiing, fishing, snowshoeing and ATV journeys can be found across the province.
Explore the snow-caked Spray Lakes valley on dogsled. Drive the winter ice road to Fort Chipewyan, Alberta’s oldest First Nations community north of Fort McMurray, or photograph wildflowers among the alpine lakes at Sunshine Village resort west of Banff or the Plain of Six Glaciers trail near Lake Louise.
HERITAGE AND CULTURE
The province’s history is just over a century old, but the First Nations heritage dates to prehistoric times. Métis Crossing, northeast of Edmonton, offers a taste of the musical culture created by the melding of First Nations Peoples with European settlers in the 19th century. Fort Edmonton tells of the city’s Gold Rush era, when these