Alberta
Outdoor Adventure in the Canadian Rockies With Your Family
Program No. 23439RJ
On this active adventure with your family, learn about the geology, wildlife and history of the Canadian Rockies and watch for grizzly bears, eagles, mountain goats and more!
Enroll with Confidence
We want your Road Scholar learning adventure to be something to look forward to—not worry about. Learn more
Protecting the Environment
We offset a portion of the emissions created by your travel. Learn more
Prefer to enroll or inquire by phone?
800-454-5768
Age 9 - 17
ROOMING OPTION PRICING
The figures below indicate the rooming options available.
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DATES | ||||
Filling Fast! Jul 14 - Jul 20, 20243,299 2,299 | ||||
Jul 14 - Jul 20, 2024
| 3,299 / Adult
2,299 / Child
| 3,299 / Adult
2,299 / Child
| 4,299 / Adult
2,299 / Child
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Jul 21 - Jul 27, 2024
3,299 2,299 | ||||
Jul 21 - Jul 27, 2024
| 3,299 / Adult
2,299 / Child
| 3,299 / Adult
2,299 / Child
| 4,299 / Adult
2,299 / Child
| |
Filling Fast! Aug 11 - Aug 17, 20243,299 2,299 | ||||
Aug 11 - Aug 17, 2024
| 3,299 / Adult
2,299 / Child
| 3,299 / Adult
2,299 / Child
| 4,299 / Adult
2,299 / Child
| |
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7 days
6 nights
15 meals
6B 4L 5D
1
Check-in, Registration, Welcome Dinner, Orientation
Calgary, Alberta
2
Calgary Zoo, Heritage Park, Transfer to Banff
Banff, Alberta
3
Banff National Park: Johnston Canyon, Cave and Basin Site
Banff, Alberta
4
Horseback Riding, Ranching, Free Time
Banff, Alberta
5
Grizzly Bears, Lake Louise Gondola, Moraine Lake
Banff, Alberta
6
Whitewater Rafting, Yoho National Park, Field Centre
Banff, Alberta
7
Program Concludes
Banff, Alberta
At a Glance
Experience the beauty of the majestic mountains as you ride on horseback along the Bow River trail with your family. Search for massive grizzly bears from up above on gondolas in one of the best places on earth to see them in the wild. An exploration of the Canadian Rockies is a dive deep into the great outdoors. Experience the incredible opportunity to explore the Rockies on hikes over iron catwalks above rushing rivers and on a white water raft as you glide over rapids. Together, you and your family will discover a region so abundant in wildlife, colorful nature and geology that you’ll think you’ve stepped into another world.
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
Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.
What You'll Learn
- Float the upper waters of the Kicking Horse River on a gentle but exhilarating white water rafting trip as your rafting instructor reveals the secrets of the mighty river.
- Explore Yoho National Park, home to timber wolf, lynx, cougars, black bears, moose and more, and learn about Burgess Shale fossils, one of the most significant fossil sites in the world.
- Witness a true feat of engineering — the Spiral Tunnels — two vast tunnels running figure-eight loops through the snowcapped mountains, and watch a train looping over and under itself, deep into the mountains and up the valley to the Kicking Horse Pass.
Featured Expert
All trip experts
Colleen Campbell
Colleen is a Victoria, British Columbia native who has lived all over Canada and in many parts of the world. She holds three degrees in visual arts, has studied in the sciences and has worked as a wildlife field researcher, concentrating on coyotes and grizzly bears. She believes that studying wildlife means learning about all their interactions — plants and other animals — and about how and where they travel. Colleen was also full-time faculty at Mount Royal in Calgary for more than 30 years.
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.
Brent MacDonald
View biography
Brent Macdonald has been a resident of the Canadian Rockies for almost 30 years. As a geology expert, he provides a wealth of knowledge about geography and geomorphology. Brent has had a diverse career as a freelance natural history interpreter, also working as a consultant for a geotechnical engineering company. He has shared his knowledge of geology and natural history as an interpreter and guest lecturer. Brent is also a certified mountain leader and ski instructor.
Colleen Campbell
View biography
Colleen is a Victoria, British Columbia native who has lived all over Canada and in many parts of the world. She holds three degrees in visual arts, has studied in the sciences and has worked as a wildlife field researcher, concentrating on coyotes and grizzly bears. She believes that studying wildlife means learning about all their interactions — plants and other animals — and about how and where they travel. Colleen was also full-time faculty at Mount Royal in Calgary for more than 30 years.
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.
Routes Adventures Mobile Phone
View biography
Please call the toll free line at 1-866-745-1690 during regular business hours or for non-urgent matters (Mon - Fri 8:30 - 4:30 EST). The mobile phone #1-613-331-5777 is for after hours and weekends for emergency use only. The phone is carried by a staff member.
Suggested Reading List
(19 books)
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.
Outdoor Adventure in the Canadian Rockies With Your Family
Program Number: 23439
Lost in the Barrens
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.
After the Ice Age: The Return of Life to Glaciated North America
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.
This Wild Spirit: Women in the Rocky Mountains of Canada
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.
Mark of the Grizzly
McMillion gives readers a thorough understanding of the behavior of these magnificent, yet deadly creatures through examples of encounters gone very wrong.
All Fall Down: The Landslide Diary of Abby Roberts
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.
As Long As the River Flows
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
Raven's End
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.
Train Beyond the Mountains: Journeys on the Rocky Mountaineer
As the former vice-president of Rocky Mountaineer, former president and CEO of Tourism Vancouver, previous chair of the board for Destinations International (Washington, D.C.), and vice chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (Bangkok, Thailand), Rick Antonson knows travel. Often a solo explorer, he has spent much of his life circumnavigating the globe. Many of those journeys can be found in Antonson’s accomplished collection of memoirs, detailing adventures that took him to places like West Africa, Papua New Guinea, and Turkey. He has also contributed to books outlining the search for lost gold and rugged travel across Canada. It is a train trip on the Rocky Mountaineer, from Banff to Vancouver, then to Whistler and ending in Jasper, with his ten-year-old grandson, that guides Antonson’s newest memoir.
Rocky Mountains
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.
Scats and Tracks of the Rocky Mountains
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.
Handbook of the Canadian Rockies
Geology, plants, animals, history and recreation from Waterton/Glacier to the Yukon.
The Amazing Death of Calf Shirt and Other Blackfoot Stories, Three Hundred Years of Blackfoot History
A wonderful collection of stories, illuminating the history of the Blackfoot people of the prairies of southern Alberta and northern Montana.
Stories from Where We Live, The Great North American Prairie
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.
A Prairie as Wide as the Sea: The Immigrant Diary of Ivy Weatherall
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.
Rocky Mountain Nature Guide
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.
The Great Rocky Mountain Nature Factbook
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.
The Rocky Mountain Berry Book
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.
Reading The Rocks, A Biography of Ancient Alberta
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.
Switchbacks, True Stories from the Canadian Rockies
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.