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.
