1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (129 page)

No visitor should bypass the Icefields Parkway (see p. 1027), one of the world’s most spectacular mountain roads, linking Lake Louise and Jasper Townsite, 142 miles to the north. The park also offers more than 80 maintained hiking trails, including a trail up Johnston Canyon that passes between 100-foot cliffs and climbs through the mists of seven waterfalls on its way to a series of emerald pools known as the Inkpots. In winter, Banff is renowned for skiing, with three ski areas within half an hour of Banff Townsite, and Nakiska Resort—site of the downhill ski events for the 1988 Winter Olympics—just outside the park near Kananaskis.

Ringed by massive mountain blocks carved into craggy, finlike peaks, few towns in the world can boast a more primordial and stunning setting than Banff Townsite. Banff is both cosmopolitan and stylish—surprising, considering its wilderness location. Exclusive shops along Banff’s bustling streets vie for the attention of international shoppers, while excellent restaurants address the needs of hungry hikers and consumers alike.

The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel stands in princely splendor along the Bow River, a testament to the expansive vision of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. This amazing structure—built in 1888 to resemble a fortified Scottish castle—is one of Canada’s most famous hotels, with remarkable views, beautifully furnished rooms, and indulgent service (a staff of 1,200 will fulfill your every wish). Its Stanley Thompson golf course is one of Canada’s best, and the recently renovated Willow Stream Spa is regularly ranked as Canada’s top spa.

From Moraine Lake you can see Mount Temple, the third highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies.

W
HERE
: 80 miles/129 km west of Calgary. Tel 403-762-1550;
www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/ab/banff
.
S
KI
B
ANFF
L
AKE
L
OUISE
S
UNSHINE
: Tel 877-754-7080 or 403-762-4754;
www.skibig3.com
.
Cost:
lift tickets from US$58/C$65.
When:
ski season late Dec–early Apr.
N
AKISKA
R
ESORT
: Tel 800-258-7669 or 403-256-8473;
www.skinakiska.com
.
Cost:
lift tickets from US$48/C$55.
F
AIRMONT
B
ANFF
S
PRINGS
H
OTEL
: Tel 800-441-1414 or 403-762-5755;
www.fairmont.com/banffsprings
.
Cost:
from US$177/C$199 (off-peak), from US$381/C$429 (peak).
B
EST TIMES
: Jan–Mar for best skiing; late Jan–early Feb for Winterfest; mid-July–mid-Aug for the Banff Summer Arts Festival (
www.banffcentre.ca/bsaf
); Sept–Oct for foliage; late Oct–early Nov for the Banff Mountain Film Festival (
www.banffmountainfestivals.ca
).

A Jade Green Lake and a Fairy-Tale Castle

Banff National Park, Alberta

Their fame and gorgeousness are inextricable—Lake Louise, a jade green lake surrounded by towering, glacier-hung peaks, and the Fairmont Château Lake Louise, the legendary luxury-hotel-cum-storybook-castle
that sits by its side, keeping a watchful eye on this scene of primordial beauty. The lake and the hotel are equally stunning, and in their juxtaposition of wilderness and sophistication, they come close to epitomizing Canada itself. Located within Banff National Park (see previous page), renowned for its untouchable beauty, they are its exclamation point.

The lake sits at the base of the Continental Divide, in a basin trenched by Ice Age glaciers. A vestige of that ancient frozen bulldozer remains as Victoria Glacier, hanging just above the lake’s western shore. From here, glacial stream water tumbles into the lake, carrying with it finely ground minerals, which refract in sunlight to create the lake’s brilliant and almost eerie blue-green hue.

One of Canada’s most beloved hotels and possibly the greatest of the Rocky Mountain hotels, the Fairmont Château Lake Louise stands like a palace on the edge of the lake, its Edwardian profile punctuated by turrets rising into the crisp mountain air. The vast, high-ceilinged lobby is filled with carved chandeliers, liveried attendants, and a cosmopolitan crowd of travelers from around the world. With more than 550 handsomely furnished rooms, Château Lake Louise doesn’t pretend to be a cozy lakeside cottage: It’s a vibrant and happily contained community, replete with seven restaurants and dining areas (head to the Edelweis Room for formal dining or to the Walliser Stube Wine Bar for the best cheese fondue in the Rockies).

Created by ancient glaciers, Lake Louise is as gloriously beautiful in winter as it is in summer.

In winter the hotel is more tranquil, as horse-drawn sleighs deliver guests up to the hotel steps, and ice-skating parties gather on the lake. The extravagantly photogenic Lake
Louise Ski Area—with the deserved reputation as the most scenic ski resort in North America—offers a mix of novice, intermediate, and advanced terrain and a range of activities for the whole family, from dogsledding to ice-skating and “Kinderski.”

W
HERE
: 35 miles/56 km northwest of Banff Township.
F
AIRMONT
C
HÂTEAU
L
AKE
L
OUISE
: Tel 800-441-1414 or 403-522-3511;
www.fairmont.com/lakelouise
.
Cost:
from US$257/C$289 (off-peak), from US$488/C$549 (peak).
S
KI
L
AKE
L
OUISE
: Tel 800-258-7669 or 403-256-8473;
www.skilouise.com
.
Cost:
lift tickets US$61/C$69.
When:
Dec–Apr.
B
EST TIMES
: Jan–Mar for skiing; late Jan for International Ice Sculpture Competition; July–Sept for nice summer weather but largest crowds.

A Truly Spectacular Mountain Road

Banff and Jasper National Parks, Alberta

The two unofficial capitals of the Canadian Rockies, the towns of Banff and Jasper, bookend the Icefields Parkway, one of the world’s most scenic roadways. This broad, well-maintained highway links together one
extravagantly beautiful vista after another—craggy peaks topped with glaciers, massive waterfalls, turquoise green lakes flanked by deep spruce and fir forests. Though most visitors to Banff and Jasper National Parks (see pp. 1025 and 1034) drive the 142-mile Icefields Parkway, the best way to truly experience this dramatic top-of-the-world landscape is on two wheels. Considering that this is a mountain highway, the gradients are mostly gentle, and in-shape cyclists should experience no problems as they pedal this once-in-a-lifetime route.

Though it’s possible to plan your own tour between Banff and Jasper, signing on with a local cycling outfitter offers lots of advantages. Longtime operators Canusa Cycle Tours offers six-day tour packages that include guides, a support vehicle and trailer, and all meals and accommodations en route. Average mileage is a gentle 30 miles per day, a leisurely pace that allows plenty of time to stop for photographs, explore the landscape, and watch for wildlife, such as elk, mountain sheep, and bears, commonly seen along the parkway. Best of all, your gear is transported ahead to the next overnight stop, so all you need to carry with you is a jacket, water bottle, and camera.

The parkway, one of Canada’s most scenic, was completed in 1940 and is primarily a two-lane highway.

Leaving Banff, the tour explores back-roads up to Lake Louise, then continues through deep forests up to glittering Bow Lake, below Crowfoot and Bow Glaciers, and then over Bow Summit. Descending into the drainage of the Mistaya and North Saskatchewan Rivers, the parkway passes more eerily green lakes (the color is the result of glacier-ground minerals suspended in the water) and alpine landscapes before beginning the route’s one big climb, up to 6,676-foot Sunwapta Pass. Here, at the very crest of
the continent, the icy tendrils of the Columbia Icefield come into view. Covering more than 200 square miles, the Columbia Icefield—the largest nonpolar ice cap in the world—is the source of rivers flowing to the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic oceans. Cyclists here can trade steeds to explore the face of a glacier that measures 2,500 feet thick; all-terrain Ice Explorers with special balloon tires travel onto the ice fields, a frozen world of centuries-old ice cleft with deep crevasses. From Sunwapta Pass, cyclists can relax—it’s all downhill along the Sunwapta and Athabasca rivers to Jasper, past two spectacular waterfalls and wildlife-rich meadowlands. After a night in Jasper, exhilarated cyclists hop a ride in the support van as it retraces the route back to Banff.

W
HERE
: between Banff and Jasper National Parks.
Visitor info:
www.icefieldsparkway.ca
.
When:
open year-round but all services closed Oct–May.
C
ANUSA
C
YCLE
T
OURING
: Tel 800-938-7986 or 403-703-5566;
www.canusacycletours.com
.
Cost:
6-day fully supported tour from US$777/C$875.
When:
July–early Sept.
B
REWSTER
I
CE
E
XPLORERS
: Tel 877-423-7433 or 403-762-6700;
www.sightseeingtourscanada.com
.
Cost:
US$28/C$32.
When:
mid-Apr–mid-Oct.
B
EST TIME
: Aug–Sept for best chances of dry and sunny weather.

The Wild West, Canada-Style

Calgary, Alberta

Calgary gets wild during its world-famous stampede, with lots of whooping, hollering, good-natured yellin’, beer drinking, and Wild West cavorting. Rodeos have been a part of Calgary summers since 1886, a few short years
after the city was founded as a western outpost for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The Calgary Stampede is now the world’s largest, richest, and most prestigious rodeo, with more than 400 of the world’s elite rodeo contestants entered in six major events, competing for a total prize topping C$1 million. For ten days in July, more than 1.3 million visitors attend Stampede events, which include lots more than traditional rodeo roping and riding. Music performances, parades, a Western art showcase, a carnival and midway, and native powwow dance competitions are a few of the back-to-back spectacles that take over the city.

But the heart of the Stampede is the rodeo. North America’s top cowboys and cowgirls gather in Calgary for competition in bareback, saddle bronc, and bull riding; tie-down roping; steer wrestling; and barrel racing, all woven through with traditional rodeo clown acts and music. One of the Stampede’s most unique competitions is the Chuckwagon Race, in which old-time Western cook wagons—not exactly built for speed or grace—contend for the fastest time around the track in a fury of dust and pounding hooves.