Banff National Park

Jill Hayward and her husband Bob have a number of items on their 'Bucket List'; like seeing the Salmon Glacier, British Columbia, on July 23, 2011 | Submitted by Bob Hayward | Submit yours!
Grizzly Bear. Photo taken near Kananaskis Lakes, Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, Kananaskis Country, Alberta | Submitted by Trevor Ward | Submit yours!
First summits! Photo taken at Mount Fairview, in 2010, Banff National Park, Alberta | Submitted by Tanya Koob | Submit yours!
Time to play! Photo taken at Deception Pass, in March 2011, Banff National Park, Alberta | Submitted by Michael Southward | Submit yours!
Binocular, photo taken at Lake Louise, in September 2011, Banff National Park, Alberta | Submitted by Yu Liu | Submit yours!
Wood Buffalo National Park, Alberta | Submitted by Gary Clennan, Calgary, Alberta | July 17, 2010 | Submit yours!
En route for Lake McArthur, British Columbia, July 2010 | Submitted by John Drew, Toronto, Ontario | August 10, 2010 | Submit yours!
Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta | Submitted by Debbie Sheridan, Kamloops, British Columbia | July 27, 2010 | Submit yours!
On the Bow River, Bow Valley, Alberta | Submitted by David Hudson, Taunton, United Kingdom | March 30, 2010 | Submit yours!
On the way to Miette Hot Springs, Jasper National Park, Alberta | Submitted by Damien Bottolier-Curtet, Haute-Savoie, France | February 21, 2011 | Submit yours!
Pyramid Lake, Jasper National Park, Alberta | Submitted by Dale Doram, Edmonton, Alberta | July 23, 2010 | Submit yours!
Self portrait on top of Panorama Ridge viewpoint overlooking Garibaldi Lake, British Columbia, July 2007 | Submitted by Claude Robidoux, Penticton, British Columbia | March 21, 2011 | Submit yours!
Submitted by Alexander Babos,
Fort Collins, Colorado, U.S.A. | October 8, 2010 | Submit yours!
Discovering Athabasca, Icefields Parkway, Alberta |
Submitted by Anders Rempel, Steinbach, Manitoba | September 23, 2010 | Submit yours!
Looking over Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta, in the morning. |
Submitted by Andrej Zlatos, Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A. | September 26, 2010 | Submit yours!
"True Canadian Splendor". Shot at Wilcox Pass in Jasper National Park, Alberta in July, 2010 | Submitted by Benjamin Barlow, Eaton Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A. | October 17, 2010 | Submit yours!
Submitted by Brian MacDonald, Grande Prairie, Alberta | August 29, 2010 | Submit yours!
Bow Valley, May 17th, 2010, taken off the Bow Valley road in between Banff and Lake Louise. | Submitted by Caroline Freebairn, Calgary, Alberta | August 1, 2010 | Submit yours!
Iceland poppies, Lake Louise, Alberta, August 2010 | Submitted by Cesar Bueno, Vallejo, California, U.S.A. | August 22, 2010 | Submit yours!
Sun rising on Victoria Glacier with the Death Trap below, Banff National Park, Alberta. | Submitted by Cindy Walker, Calgary, Alberta | August 31, 2010 | Submit yours!
Submitted by Claire Stanhope, Coldstream, British Columbia | October 30, 2010 | Submit yours!
"The 3 Amigos", Bighorn Sheep in Radium Hot Springs | Submitted by Dale Genest, Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia | September 3, 2010 | Submit yours!
Hiking along a Jasper trail, Jasper National Park, Alberta, August 2010 | Submitted by Dale Nally, Saint-Albert, Alberta | November 17, 2010 | Submit yours!
"A moment to remember", Edith Lake | Submitted by Darlene Nguyen, Edmonton, Alberta | August 12, 2010 | Submit yours!
Fly-fishing in the Kootenays, British Columbia, on August 2, 2010 | Submitted by Debbie Sheridan, Kamloops, British Columbia | September 8, 2010 | Submit yours!
My daughter enjoying the view from Whistler Mountain summit, British Columbia | Submitted by Fernando Ortiz, Naucalpan, Mexico | October 17, 2010 | Submit yours!
"Stop", Medicine Lake, Jasper National Park, 2009. | Submitted by Ganna Melekh, Edmonton, Alberta | August 1, 2010 | Submit yours!
Chipmunk on a stone barrier, Lake Louise, Banff, Alberta, August, 2010 on a hiking trail just next to the lake itself. | Submitted by Grace Mah, Edmonton, Alberta | August 28, 2010 | Submit yours!
Storm on Mount Vimy, Waterton Lakes National Park, October 5, 2009 | Submitted by Greg Abt, Ponoka, Alberta | August 8, 2010 | Submit yours!
A mother grizzly with her two cubs in Jasper National Park, Alberta, May 2010. | Submitted by Guy d'Anjou, Prevost, Québec | November 30, 2010 | Submit yours!
Elk | Submitted by Jaliya Rasaputra, Nepean, Ontario | October 14, 2010 | Submit yours!
Blue heron, Bowser, Vancouver Island, British Columbia | Submitted by Jennie Holt, Wabasca, Alberta | August 26, 2010 | Submit yours!
Canmore, Alberta, my first helicopter ride, and a view from the top, back in May 2009! | Submitted by Maria Roxas-Enriquez, Banff, Alberta | August 5, 2010 | Submit yours!
"Mountain Spectrum" From the end of Maligne Lake, Cornet Creek, Jasper National Park, Alberta. | Submitted by Laura Barlow, Eaton Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A. | October 17, 2010 | Submit yours!
Submitted by Marietta Pangan-Dutkoski, Calgary, Alberta | December 10, 2010 | Submit yours!
Submitted by Mark Brooker, Calgary, Alberta | October 7, 2010 | Submit yours!
Nothing more to ask for...Glacier Lake, Icefields Parkway, Banff National Park, October 2, 2010 | Submitted by Mylene Poulin, Calgary, Alberta | October 4, 2010 | Submit yours!
"Taking it all in", canoeing at Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park, British Columbia | Submitted by Owen Yuen, Calgary, Alberta | September 4, 2010 | Submit yours!
Mineral spring, Wells Gray Provincial Park, British Columbia | Submitted by Petra Wildschuetz, Fuerstenwalde, Brandenburg, Germany | August 15, 2010 | Submit yours!
Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park, British Columbia, my favourite lake of the Canadian Rockies | Submitted by Priscilla Turocy, Parma Heights, Ohio, U.S.A. | October 4, 2010 | Submit yours!
On our way to Vancouver, the girls by the river seemed to be comforting each other. July 10, 2010 | Submitted by Ray Chiang, Calgary, Alberta | September 7, 2010 | Submit yours!
One of the many wonderful landscapes in Glacier National Park, Montana, U.S.A. | Submitted by Tatiana Ciolacu, Moscow, Idaho, U.S.A. | August 8, 2010 | Submit yours!
Lake Louise, a few minutes after a rain squall had caused a wedding ceremony to finish up quickly. | Submitted by Stanley G. Munn, Calgary, Alberta | August 9, 2010 | Submit yours!
Baby loves hiking, Kananaskis Country | Submitted by Tanya Koob, Calgary, Alberta | August 9, 2010 | Submit yours!

PrintSee us on FacebookFollow Bob Harris on Twitter RSS


Experience The Mountain Parks Blog

...all about the Alberta-to-British Columbia mountain parks, including life in and around the parks. Not all our news and stories are here, though, so you might want to check our news section and Bob's "tweets" —conveniently placed in the upper right of each page.

Who Else Wants to Win a Set of Companion Guides?

Sunday, June 03, 2012

The second round of our monthly giveaways is starting tomorrow June 4, 2012 with our Trivia Quiz #2. Each quiz is running for a full month and only one answer per person will be considered. The winner will be randomly drawn from the submissions with the correct answers.

Thanks to Graeme Pole for providing 10 sets of 3 companion guides, as shown below!

About Graeme Pole, an excerpt from his website, "Graeme Pole has been trooping around the Canadian Rockies for 30 years, and has been writing about the human history and the natural history of western Canada since 1989. His catalogue includes eleven published books with cumulative sales of more than 300,000 copies. Graeme lives with his family near Hazelton in northwestern BC, where he serves as a paramedic...".

Lastly, make sure to read Graeme's exclusive story to Experience The Mountain Parks called "Kananaskis Country — 4 Easy Hikes 4 U"

Have fun trying to find the right answers and good luck!

The Trivia Quiz #1 winner, run from May 3, 2012 to June 3, 2012 inclusive, will be announced in a few days.

Kananaskis Country — 4 Easy Hikes 4 U

Thursday, May 31, 2012



Chester Lake, 4.0 km
Trailhead: East side of the Smith-Dorrien Trail (Road 742), 44 km south of Canmore
Chester Lake
Lakes abound in the limestone high country of Kananaskis. Many are set in remote valleys. This well-beaten path through forest and meadows leads to a beautiful tarn in a more open setting. It’s a great hike for birding and for botany. The wild flower displays of early summer can be superb, especially the blooms of glacier lilies near the lake.


Rawson Lake, 3.9 km
Trailhead: In Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, at the Upper Kananaskis Lake Day Use Area

Rawson Lake
Two lakes bookend this outing; one a massive reservoir, the other a jade gem nestled in a deep limestone pocket. Between them you climb through a tract of dense subalpine forest. Split log boardwalks span wet areas as you near the lake shore. Snow sometimes lingers until mid-July - which makes this a great place for wildflowers that prefer the cool and damp: white globeflower, alpine but-tercup, and evergreen violet. Mt. Sarrail (3174 m) is the backdrop at the lake.


Elbow Lake, 4.0 km loop
Trailhead: East side of Kananaskis Trail (Highway 40), 61.7 km south of Highway #1
Elbow Lake
Elbow Pass is a gentle break in the ragged limestone wall on the east side of the Kananaskis Valley. The road-width trail makes a quick ascent, crossing the pass to where you make the circuit of Elbow Lake. Mt. Rae (3225 m), named for a 19th century Arctic explorer, rises to the southwest. Listen for the calls of all three of the Rockies’ thrush species: Swainson’s thrush, hermit thrush, and varied thrush. You may also hear white-crowned sparrows and yellow-rumped warblers.


Ptarmigan Cirque, 4.4 km loop
Trailhead: West side of Kananaskis Trail (Highway 40), in Highwood Pass,
66.9 km south of Highway #1
Ptarmigan Cirque
Ptarmigan Cirque is a miniature version of hundreds of other glacial valleys in the Rockies. Plants and animals cling tenaciously to life; the hallmark of ice is every-where. The bedrock reveals the fossilized remains of lifeforms that lived in ancient seas. Walk north from the parking area on a wide, gravelled path through Highwood Meadows. Look for bighorn sheep. Cross Highway 40 and climb through an up-per subalpine forest of spruce, fir, and larch. Snowcover, wind, and temperature, limit and sculpt the vegetation at treeline. Areas of permafrost underlie some of the meadows. A cirque is a bowl-shaped valley eroded by a glacier. The white tailed ptarmigan ('TAR-mih-gan') is a ground-dwelling grouse-like bird. Its feathers change colour from mottled brown, gray, and black in summer; to white in winter.

~ By Graeme Pole
Graeme Pole is a local avid hiker and author of excellent guide books, as well as a contributor to this website and Experience The Mountain Parks printed guide.


Photo credit: Rawson Lake, courtesy of John Den Hoed


Kanada, Albertas Schönste Nationalparks | Canada - Alberta's most beautiful "national" parks

Saturday, January 28, 2012

The video we're showing you here is the one Bob "tweeted" about on January 25, 2012.This is a 27 min. on Alberta Parks (not all nationals though, as they are highlighting Alberta Provincial Parks as well) from south to north. It was aired on ARD a premium German TV Channel on January 15, 2012.

Sorry, we don't have the English translation, but the storyline says: "When you hear the name Banff and Jasper you think imposing mountains, turquoise lakes and on gigantic glaciers. Every year it attracts thousands of people in the finest National Parks of Canada. They come to hike, to rafting, cruising with their bikes or just to enjoy the incredible vastness and silence of the Rocky Mountains."

Enjoy!!



2011 Explore Alberta Parks Magazine is out!!

Saturday, April 02, 2011



200 000 of the premiere edition of Explore Alberta Parks just got printed!
(Originally only 150 000 copies were planned to be printed)

It highlights some Alberta Parks like Dinosaur Provincial Park, Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, Kananaskis Country, Willmore Wildland Provincial Park, Winagami Provincial Park, Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, and more.
This magazine is published by Parks Division, Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation Ministry. CMI Publishing is proud to be part of this project, being in charge of its distribution, and advertising sales.

You'll find 80 pages of maps, photos, and information about wildlife, or camping in Alberta. 
34 000 Globe & Mail subscribers in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba will receive a complimentary copy in April 2011.
We know that already at least 30 000 copies have made their way throughout the province...
You'll find copies of Explore Alberta Parks in all Alberta Parks Visitor Information Centres around the province, as well as 500+ selected distribution points, including MEC (Mountain Equipement Co-op), or AMA (Alberta Motor Association), or Calgary Airport.

We took a few photos of this magazine: 



Recent Posts


Tags


Archive




2013/2014 Tourism Golden
Like us, support this neat project!
Permaculture Cuba