Straddling the Continental Divide for 14,300 square miles, the seven contiguous Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks are richly adorned with mountain peaks, glaciers, waterfalls, limestone caves and fossils. Explore in depth three of these UNESCO World Heritage Sites to see how they each bear distinct ecological, geological and historical characters while sharing a common rugged beauty renowned worldwide.

Highlights

• With naturalist guides, explore Banff, Jasper and Mount Robson parks. • While travelling the spectacular Icefields Parkway learn about the glacier-clad peaks along the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies. • View the Athabasca Falls, one of the most powerful and breathtaking sights in the Rocky Mountains.

Program Particulars

The final day of this program includes a lengthy transfer from Banff to Calgary. Before making any travel arrangements, please contact the program provider to confirm approximate arrival time at airport. Program cost excludes two dinners to enjoy on your own.

Activity Particulars

Walking up to three miles per day on uneven terrain; altitudes of more than 3,000 feet in Jasper, 4,500 feet in Banff. Good walking shoes recommended.

Day 1

Days 1–2:

Explore Fort Calgary, a historic former Mounted Police site that today tells the story of the people and settlement of this area. In Canmore, learn how hosting the Olympics breathed new economic life into the former coal-mining town as you lunch at an Olympic cross-country ski site.

Lodging: Three-star hotel and a mountain inn.

Days 3- 4:

An accredited interpreter in Banff takes you through the 150-million-year-old tectonic drama that buckled western North America and gave us the majestic Rockies. Ride the gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain for a bird’s-eye view of the valleys surrounding Banff. Spend time exploring and hiking at spectacular emerald Lake Louise.

Lodging: Centrally located hotel.

Days 5–7:

En route to Jasper, lectures address the creation of the glaciers and icefields in the Canadian Rockies, complementing a stop at the Columbia Icefields Interpretive Center to learn about this 125-square-mile accumulation of ice and snow, the biggest in the Canadian Rockies. Visit Jasper National Park’s Maligne Canyon and Pyramid Lake.

Lodging: Comfortable lodge and motel.

Days 8-9:

En route back to Banff, learn about mountain goats, the golden age of mountaineering and recreation in the mountain parks. Back in Banff, located within Canada’s first national park, consider the Rocky Mountain parks through a modern lens in a discussion about what the future holds for these natural treasures.

Lodging: Family-owned mountain inn.

Canada

Participation in World War I solidified Canada’s sense of identity, cementing with popular sentiment the groundwork laid by confederation in 1866. A mixed English, French and First Nations ancestry was no longer a source of cultural ambiguity but rather constituted a new, distinctly Canadian heritage showing decreased deference to British authority. Today’s Canada is a G-8 country with a progressive government favoring policies of social welfare.