A Spanish travel companion once asked for my personal recommendation of Canada's best destinations.
Niagara Falls? Oh please ... it's not even the best of Ontario in my opinion. The old towns of Quebec City and Lunenberg? Now that's world class ... but my European friend would feel just like vacationing at home. The northern lights, walruses and Inuit people of Nunuvut would make the ultimate Canadian adventure ... but the cost of CAD$4000+ per person isn't affordable for most. So I came up with my definitive answer ... the Canadian Rockies, pristine, majestic and easily accessible.
To me, touring the Rockies is a very Canadiana thing that every self-respecting Canadian should do at least once in his/her lifetime. But it was painfully embarrassing that although I lived only a day's drive from Banff and Jasper, I had never spent more than a half-day in the Rockies. That, of course, doesn't fit anyone's definition of "touring" -- this is a world-class destination that deserves more than a week's time.
Not anymore! Finally I've put together a proper vacation in my own Canadian backyard, to slowly savour the worthiest destination of my own country on a 15-day slow-trip. This would be a long, long road trip, covering 4,500 km through the interior of British Columbia and southern Alberta, through immaculate river valleys, chilling mountain passes, and boundless prairies under the scorching summer sun.
The Rocky Mountain national parks of Banff, Jasper, and Yoho are of course this trip's star attractions, but southern Alberta is jam-packed with three more lesser-known UNESCO World Heritage Sites, separated by only a day's drive. Dinosaur Provincial Park and Waterton Lakes National Park are highly underrated and unknown to most Canadians, but that's where some of my favorite photos were taken.
After much planning, our final itinerary evolved to something like this:
Day 01: Vancouver - Yellowhead Highway - Jasper National Park
Day 02: Maligne Lake - Maligne Canyon
Day 03: Columbia Icefield
Day 04: Icefield Parkway - Banff National Park
Day 05: Sunshine Meadows
Day 06: Lake Louise - Bow Valley Parkway
Day 07: Calgary
Day 08: Drumheller - Dinosaur Provincial Park
Day 09: Southern Alberta's Prairies - Fort MacLeod - Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
Day 10: Waterton Lakes National Park (Canada) - Glacier National Park (USA)
Day 11: Waterton Lakes National Park
Day 12: Bar U Ranch - Banff - Yoho National Park
Day 13: Yoho National Park
Day 14: Yoho National Park - Mount Stephen Hike
Day 15: Golden - Vancouver
I'm currently planning about 10 posts over the next few months, with a couple hundred photos in the works. Many readers and friends have prodded me for new materials after more than a year's hibernation ... so it is. Stay tuned!
