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Alberta

Outdoor Adventure in the Canadian Rockies With Your Grandchild

Program No. 21822RJ
On this active adventure with your grandchild, discover the Canadian Rockies by raft and on horseback and watch for grizzly bears, eagles and mountain goats in the wild!

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Protecting the Environment

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Prefer to enroll or inquire by phone? 800-454-5768
Age 9 - 12
ROOMING OPTION PRICING
The figures below indicate the rooming options available.
DATES
Jul 7 - Jul 13, 2024
Per Adult
3,299
Per Child
2,299
Select
Jul 7 - Jul 13, 2024
3,299
/ Adult
2,299
/ Child
3,299
/ Adult
2,299
/ Child
4,299
/ Adult
2,299
/ Child
Select Date
Jul 21 - Jul 27, 2024
Per Adult
3,299
Per Child
2,299
Select
Jul 21 - Jul 27, 2024
3,299
/ Adult
2,299
/ Child
3,299
/ Adult
2,299
/ Child
4,299
/ Adult
2,299
/ Child
Select Date
Aug 4 - Aug 10, 2024
Per Adult
3,299
Per Child
2,299
Select
Aug 4 - Aug 10, 2024
3,299
/ Adult
2,299
/ Child
3,299
/ Adult
2,299
/ Child
4,299
/ Adult
2,299
/ Child
Select Date

At a Glance

Take a deep breath and take in a huge gulp of some of the freshest air you’ll ever breathe as you visit the Canadian Rockies with your grandchild. Together you’ll experience the beauty of the majestic mountains along the Bow River trail from the saddle of a friendly horse. Explore the glittering waters of Lake Louise, and observe grizzlies from a gondola in one of the best places on earth to see these magnificent creatures in real life. The Rockies are just waiting for your curious, enthusiastic discovery.
Activity Level
Outdoor: Spirited
Walking two miles daily, stairs, river float on Class II to III rapids. Elevations up to 5,700 feet.
Small Group
Small Group
Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.

Best of all, you’ll…

  • Float along the gentle natural roller coaster of Kicking Horse River by white water raft.
  • Explore Yoho National Park, home to timber wolf, lynx, cougars, black bears, moose and more, and learn about Burgess Shale fossils.
  • See a train looping over and under itself as it figure-eights through snowcapped mountains via the amazing Spiral Tunnels.

General Notes

Program is for grandchildren ages 9-12. For a comparable family adventure for all generations, check out "Outdoor Adventure in the Canadian Rockies With Your Family" (#23439)!
Featured Expert
All Experts
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Sonya Pollock
Sonya Pollock grew up in Calgary, Alberta and loved taking trips out to the Rocky Mountains as a child. These trips with her family solidified her love of nature and wildlife. Her passion for helping animals resulted in her pursuit of an MSc in animal behavior and welfare where she studied thermoregulation in the Indian rhinoceros. She’s currently a Ph.D. candidate in wildlife ecology at the University of Alberta where she studies grizzly bear habitat selection in Banff National Park.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Profile Image of Brenda Blair
Brenda Blair View biography
A summer job as a general studies student changed Brenda Blair’s life forever. She spent eight years living in Cold Lake before moving to Sydney, Australia for a few more. For the past twenty years Brenda has lived in Calgary, being involved in adult education as well as having a particular interest in vintage and historic aircraft. That had her working for a number of years at the Aero Space Museum of Calgary, bringing her passion to life for visitors.
Profile Image of Sonya Pollock
Sonya Pollock View biography
Sonya Pollock grew up in Calgary, Alberta and loved taking trips out to the Rocky Mountains as a child. These trips with her family solidified her love of nature and wildlife. Her passion for helping animals resulted in her pursuit of an MSc in animal behavior and welfare where she studied thermoregulation in the Indian rhinoceros. She’s currently a Ph.D. candidate in wildlife ecology at the University of Alberta where she studies grizzly bear habitat selection in Banff National Park.
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
A Prairie as Wide as the Sea: The Immigrant Diary of Ivy Weatherall
by Sarah Ellis
Ivy Weatherall and her family leave a comfortable life in London for the promised riches of Canada's expanding West. Expecting to make their fortunes on Uncle Alf's ranch, the Weatheralls are shocked to find themselves living in a sod hut on a rented farm. Ivy is determined to taste life to the fullest, whatever hardships she may encounter. Writing in her diary, she recounts learning the new skills expected of a young farm girl. She struggles to help the family survive, but ultimately learns that responsibility brings its rewards.
As Long As the River Flows
by Larry Loyie
In the 1800s, the education of First Nations children was taken on by various churches, in government-sponsored residential schools. Children were forcibly taken from their families in order to erase their traditional languages and cultures. As Long as the Rivers Flow is the story of Larry Loyie's last summer before entering residential school. It is a time of learning and adventure. He cares for an abandoned baby owl and watches his grandmother make winter moccasins. He helps the family prepare for a hunting and gathering trip
The Great Rocky Mountain Nature Factbook
by Susan Ewing
Ewing's family-friendly guide, with black-and-white drawings throughout, answers the curiosity of engaged visitors about the plants, animals and natural features of the Rockies.
Lost in the Barrens
by Farley Mowat
Two brothers face the wilderness with no food and little hope of rescue when their canoe is destroyed by the rapids in this tale of adventure for ages ages 9-12. To survive, they build an igloo, battle a towering grizzly bear, track several wolves, slaughter caribou for food and clothing. They tame two lost huskies for companionship -- and maybe a way home.
This Wild Spirit: Women in the Rocky Mountains of Canada
by Colleen Skidmore
In 1912, Mary Vaux, a botanist, glaciologist, painter, and photographer, wrote about her mountain adventures: “A day on the trail, or a scramble over the glacier, or even with a quiet day in camp to get things in order for the morrow's conquests? Some how when once this wild spirit enters the blood…I can hardly wait to be off again." Vaux's compulsion was shared by many women whose intellects, imaginations, and spirits rose to the challenge of the mountains between the late-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. This Wild Spirit explores a sampling of women's creative responses—in fiction and travel writing, photographs and paintings, embroidery and beadwork, letters and diaries, poetry and posters—to their experiences in the Rocky Mountains of Canada.
Reading The Rocks, A Biography of Ancient Alberta
by Monique Keiran
Scientists at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology and natural history writer Keiran worked together to bring about this vividly detailed account of Alberta’s rich geological history, beginning with the Big Bang and traveling into the modern era. Includes over 200 full-color photographs and 45 maps, timelines and line drawings.
Raven's End
by Ben Gadd
A young raven, with no memory of his past, arrives to the beautiful and dangerous landscape of Yamnuska, Banff. A book that looks at the complex world of ravens.
Switchbacks, True Stories from the Canadian Rockies
by Sid Marty
A native Albertan and park warden in the Canadian Rockies, Marty relates colorful anecdotes from friends, colleagues and his own youth in this collection of tales, which includes A Horse Named Candy.
Rocky Mountain Nature Guide
by Andy Bezener
This guide includes information on mammals, fish, birds, trees, shrubs, wildflowers, insects and reptiles from the entire span of the Rockies - Alaska to New Mexico. Featuring over 300 exact full-color illustrations.
Rocky Mountains
by Jonathan Grupper
This National Geographic "Destinations" book, featuring breathtaking color photographs, introduces the wildlife and terrain of the Rocky Mountains. Geared for kids ages 6 to 12.
Mark of the Grizzly
by Scott McMillion
McMillion gives readers a thorough understanding of the behavior of these magnificent, yet deadly creatures through examples of encounters gone very wrong.
After the Ice Age: The Return of Life to Glaciated North America
by E.C. Pielou
Eighteen thousand years ago, an immense sheet of ice covered all of present day Canada and northernmost U.S. This story tells of how a harsh terrain was transformed into the environment we know today.
Scats and Tracks of the Rocky Mountains
by James Halfpenny, Todd Telander (Illustrator)
An essential pocket guide to tracks, scats and signs of not just the mammals of the region, but also of the reptiles, amphibians and birds. Each of 70 species gets a double-page spread, with line drawings of the animal, scat and track, range map and description.
Stories from Where We Live, The Great North American Prairie
by Sara St. Antoine, Paul Mirocha (Illustrator), Trudy Nicholson (Illustrator)
An anthology of writings about this North American ecoregion, from Alberta and Saskatchewan south to Texas -- wonderfully useful as a young person's guide to people, nature and place.
All Fall Down: The Landslide Diary of Abby Roberts
by Jean Little
After her father dies, Abby and her family move west to live with relatives who run a hotel in the mining town of Frank, Alberta. Abby keeps busy helping out at the hotel, being chief caregiver to her little brother with Down Syndrome, and learning Morse code at the telegraph office. When the devastating Frank Slide buries much of the town, Abby must do all she can to help. But a long-buried family secret emerged just before the disaster — and now she will have to wait for the dust to settle before getting the answers she so desperately wants. Inspired by two of her own relatives, one who helped run a telegraph office in the late 1800s and another who shares Abby's story (and her family secret), Jean Little crafts a compelling story rich with emotion and historical detail.
The Amazing Death of Calf Shirt and Other Blackfoot Stories, Three Hundred Years of Blackfoot History
by Hugh A. Dempsey
A wonderful collection of stories, illuminating the history of the Blackfoot people of the prairies of southern Alberta and northern Montana.
Handbook of the Canadian Rockies
by Ben Gadd
Geology, plants, animals, history and recreation from Waterton/Glacier to the Yukon.
The Rocky Mountain Berry Book
by Bob Krumm
In an inspired move, Bob Krumm included recipes in this family oriented field guide to 15 berry species of the Rockies. Now children may pick and parents may cook, and everyone will be pleased.





Important registration tip:
If you want to attend the live lecture, please do not wait until the last minute to enroll.
If you enroll after a lecture is complete, we’ll send you a recording of the event.