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The Best Scenic Drives
The Columbia Icefields Parkway: Predictable, sure, but with good reason. You couldn't do this drive often enough to be anything but awed by it. As you drift past the silent majesty of millennia-old glaciers, millions of tons of age-old ice draped over the looming, ancient peaks, you may as well leave your jaw on the dashboard, because around the next bend it'll just land there again. Easily and without a doubt the most dramatic stretch of highway in the province, if not the entire country.
The Bow Valley Parkway: On the short stretch of Trans-Canada that links Banff to Lake Louise, there's a little-traveled side route called the Bow Valley Parkway (or Highway 1A). It's little-traveled with good reason, perhaps: Its two lanes wind through rock and forest and probably double the travel time between the two points. But getting there, in this case, is half the fun. Little 1A wends off along the base of Castle Mountain, one of the true massives of the local peaks, and getting underneath it offers the truest sense of its majesty. It's also along 1A where you're most likely to see wildlife -- a giant elk grazing by the roadside, or maybe even a black bear (don't even mention the bighorn sheep, which are as plentiful as squirrels). Sometimes the road less traveled does, in fact, make all the difference.
The Dinosaur Trail: It's a short loop from the town of Drumheller around the Dinosaur Trail, but inside it is some of the most spectacularly barren scenery to be found anywhere. As you circle the route around Horse Thief and Horseshoe canyons, carved by the Red Deer River, picture yourself sailing through a massive, shallow inland sea, swarming with marine dinosaurs twice the size of your car. Then look down into the dark, desiccated canyons, and think how long it took the river to carve deep and wide enough to reveal this ancient history. It can make you feel tiny, indeed.
Highway 40 through Kananaskis: It's only open less than half the year, from June 15 to December 1, and with good reason: This is among the more rugged drives along the fringe of a major mountain range you'll ever take. The turn-off at Longview from Highway 22 warns you that the road is fraught with hazards, but on a beautiful summer day with the sunroof open, none of this seems to even be possible. As it transports you from bald prairie expanses to the towering peaks of the Rocky Mountains on the way to Highwood Pass, you'll have reached an elevation of 2,228m (7,310 ft.) -- the highest elevation of any highway in the country. As you cruise close to the tree line you'll find mounds of snow, even in high summer. But save your gawking for the wildlife, as elk, moose, mountain goats, and the occasional bear pause to watch you rumble by.
The David Thompson Parkway: Connecting Rocky Mountain House to the east with the Icefields Parkway, the David Thompson Highway is a direct route into the heart of the Rockies' high scenic drama. The foothills west of Rocky give way quickly to the hard-rock mountains, which rise quickly in the west. The road is swallowed along the way, until you realize there are mountains ahead, behind, and all around you. The sense is of a massive, natural fortress that you've slipped inside.
The Cowboy Trail between Cardston and Rocky Mountain House: Alberta's famed Cowboy Trail skirts the eastern edge of the Rockies, through rolling foothills and nothing much more at all, and that's its charm: hills upon hills, rolling gently toward mountains that seem close enough to touch. Passing through the occasional small towns along the way offers a clue to the road's name: These are true west places, with pickup trucks and honky-tonk spirit to spare. North of Rocky Mountain House, the trail spills out into high plains, which are less picturesque than the mountain vistas to be found south.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without
notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before
planning your trip.
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