Alberta is a
nature-lover’s paradise, enriched by wide open spaces and stunning sunsets. In terms of nature, the province is most renowned for the glorious peaks of the
Rocky Mountains and the beauty of its parks, epitomised by Canada’s fist national park,
Banff.
Alberta also has vast plains, but it is the mountainous Rockies where travelers will find their jaw continually dropping. Whether driving along the
Icefields Parkway or hiking through a forested park, you will be constantly amazed by this awesome alpine wilderness of
woodland,
mountains and
lakes. If anything exemplifies
’picture-postcard’, it is this.
Even in Alberta’s cities there is plenty of
green space, including Canada’s largest historical park,
Fort Edmonton Park. Also in Edmonton and other towns is the lingering of traditional prairie attitudes. This may be because Alberta folk love to hark back to the
Klondike Gold Rush of 1897. The discovery of oil in the Edmonton area in 1947 assured the city of its future, making it one of Canada’s fastest-growing metropolitan areas. This love affair with the past reaches its apogee in the annual ‘
Klondike Days’ extravaganza each July, when Edmontonians relive the Gold Rush days.
Most people consider Alberta’s true ’gold’ to be its
stunning scenery, however. And that makes Alberta one very rich province indeed.
GeographyAlberta is the most westerly of the ‘prairie and plains’ provinces, bordered to the west by British Columbia and the Rockies, to the southeast by the badlands and prairie, while in the north, along the border with the Northwest Territories, there is a wilderness of forests, lakes and rivers. Mount Columbia on the western Rocky Mountains border is the highest point, rising to 3,747m (12,293ft). Alberta also has permanent icefields, covering 340 sq km (122 sq miles). They release meltwaters which supply the Mackenzie River flowing into the Arctic Ocean, and the Saskatchewan River flowing into Hudson Bay.
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