Alberta is a prairie province of Canada with a population of 3,645,257 in 2011. Alberta is located in western Canada, British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east. Edmonton is the capital city of Alberta acting as a service hub for Canada’s oilsands and other northern resource industries. Calgary is another largest city in the south. The tourist destinations include Jasper, Banff, Canmore, Drumheller, Sylvan Lake.
Banff National Park is Canada’s oldest national park, established in 1885 in the Rocky Mountains. The mountainous terrain has numerous glaciers and ice fields. The Icefields Parkway extends from Lake Louise connecting to Jasper National Park. Millions of tourists have passed through the park on the Trans-Canada Highway. The park has a subarctic climate with cold, snowy winters, and mild summers. Back country activities in Banff include hiking, camping, climbing, and skiing, hot springs, golf course, horseback riding.
Jasper National Park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies. The park includes the glaciers of Columbia Icefield, hot springs, lakes, canyons, waterfalls, and mountains, limestone caves and fossils. Wildlife includes elk, caribou, moose, mule deer, white-tailed deer, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, grizzly bears, black bears, coyotes, beavers, Rocky Mountain pikas, hoary marmots, grey wolves, mountain lions and wolverines. - Florence Yeung