Alberta
is Canada at its best. For many people the beauty of the
Canadian Rockies, which rise with overwhelming majesty from
the rippling prairies, is one of the main reasons for coming to
the country. Most visitors confine themselves to the four
contiguous national parks – Banff, Jasper, Yoho and
Kootenay – enclaves that straddle the southern portion of the
range, a vast area whose boundaries spill over into British
Columbia. Two smaller parks, Glacier and Mount
Revelstoke, lie firmly in BC and not, technically, in the
Rockies, but scenically and logistically they form part of the
same region. Managed with remarkable efficiency and integrity, all
the parks are easily accessible segments of a much wider
wilderness of peaks and forests that extend north from the
Canada–US border, before merging into the ranges of the Yukon and
Alaska.
If you're approaching the
Rockies from the east or the US, you have little choice but to
spend time in either Edmonton or Calgary, the transport hubs for
northern and southern Alberta respectively. Poles apart in feel
and appearance, the two cities are locked in an intense rivalry,
in which Calgary comes out top in almost every respect.
Situated on the Trans-Canada Highway, less than ninety
minutes from Banff National Park, it is more convenient whether
you plan to take in Yoho, Kootenay, Glacier or Revelstoke, or push
on to southern British Columbia and the west coast. It also has
far more going for it in its own right: the weather is kinder, the
Calgary Stampede is one of the country's rowdiest festivals, and
the vast revenues from oil and natural gas have been spent to good
effect on its downtown skyscrapers and civic infrastructure.
Edmonton
is a bleaker city, on the edge of an immense expanse of boreal
forest and low hills that stretches to the border of the Northwest
Territories and beyond. Bypasses by the Canadian Pacific Railway,
which brought Calgary its early boom, Edmonton's main importance
to travellers is as a gateway to the Alaska Highway and the Arctic
extremities of the Yukon, as well as to the more popular
landscapes of northern British Columbia. The Yellowhead Highway
and Canada's last transcontinental railway link Edmonton to
the town of Jasper and its national park in about four hours.
Click here
to go to Alberta Web site. |
