Experience The Mountain Parks Blog

Who Else Wants to Win a Set of Companion Guides?

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.

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Kananaskis Country — 4 Easy Hikes 4 U

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

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 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 19^th 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 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

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

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."

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2011 Explore Alberta Parks Magazine is out!!

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: 

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