Origin:   Edmonton, Alberta
Day 1  Arrive EDMONTON, the most dynamic city in Alberta.  We greet you at the airport and transfer you to your hotel.  Depending on arrival times we include a downtown city tour including one of the most impressive City Halls in any city, Winpsear Center and the Alberta Parliament Buildings.   From here, and time permitting, we head across the North Saskatchewan River to Whyte Avenue where we stop into one of the many pubs or restaurants.  Overnight West Edmonton Mall Hotel (Fantasyland Hotel) or the majestic Hotel MacDonald downtown.

Day 2  We have the full day to visit spectacular WEST EDMONTON MALL.  We are dazzled by the 800 stores and restaurants in the World's largest shopping mall.  The multi-acre water park is fun, there is an NHL size hockey arena, submarine rides and dolphin shows.  For those not interested in shopping we can introduce you to life on the prairies in the largest park of its kind in Canada.  FORT EDMONTON park is a great step back in time to the days of fur trading and outposts of the Hudson's Bay trading company.  You can even step into the modern day Hudson's Bay store (a large department store) which is the oldest corporation in North America!  Enjoy our dinner theater this evening!!

Day 4  A highlight of the trip is hiking and exploring the trails that have made Jasper world famous.  We tour MALIGNE LAKE, one of the jewels of the Rocky mountains. Later we hike Pyramid Lake and we can arrange bicycling and hiking through the nature trails in the area. See hidden lakes and wildlife while riding through primary forest. We’ll also see the lake where top-secret experiments were carried out in WWII. The allies need a way to safely get men and equipment across the Atlantic Ocean and an ingenious idea was hatched and tested in a lake right here. We’ll soak in the hottest hotsprings (53 degrees C) in Canada at MIETTE, in the Fiddle Valley. There is no better way to "get in touch" with Alberta. Of course there is time for souvenir shopping this evening.  What a great day!  Overnight Jasper Park Lodge.

Day 6  After breakfast we are introduced to Kootenay National Park. KOOTENAY is a great park with uncrowded, spectacular trails. We hike Fireweed Trail for a vivid lesson in forest ecology. Our path meanders through the area that was swept by a forest fire in 1968. Rather than being a desolate walk it is fascinating to see life bountifully springing forth. See Magenta Fireweed, flowers. Trembling Aspen and Lodgepole Pine. Some Lodgepole cones are only opened by the extreme heat of a forest fire and are thus the beginning of reforestation. We’ll see this close up! Near Storm Mountain we could see moose, Blue Grouse, northern Hawkowls and various other animals. Our next adventure finds us in Marble Canyon with its scalloped limestone walls, carved out by Tokumm Creek. Cross First Bridge in Prospectors Valley and then Second Bridge where the canyon narrows. See the Salad Bowl below which has been hewn by eons of rushing water. Cross 5 more bridges (two high bridges) to marvel at a 69 foot waterfall and continue to the eerie Paint Pots. Hike past ochre beds, which are colored red-brown by mineral deposits and used for decades as pigment for paint. See the "choked cone" (dried up heap of iron oxide) before standing before the circular green pools of water. Return to the motor coach for the 65-minute journey south to Forte Steele, an authentically restored fur trading post. We end the day in the RADIUM HOTSPRINGS pools. Situated at the base of a mountain sheep can often be seen grazing the slopes.  Overnight comfortable hotel/lodge nearby.

Day 7  Back into Alberta we stand in awe before world famous LAKE LOUISE.  It shines with an incredible aquamarine blue found only in the Canadian Rockies. Learn about rock flour and the cause of this amazing phenomenon. Overnight in a comfortable lodge with fireplace in BANFF or Canmore.  Groups touring in April and early May can choose to ski for a day at Sunshine Ski resort. Depart to the southeast to visit our next UNESCO world heritage sight "Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump" near Fort Macleod . See the spot where thundering herds of Buffalo were stampeded to their deaths. An ingenious start to the world’s original slaughter house! Natives then carved meat, hides and bone into the essentials of life. Today the bones of thousands of years of buffalo bones are piled 10 meters high!! Near the Crowsnest pass is the town of FRANK. It is here that a human catastrophe occurred in 1903 involving 92 million tons of rock.  Continue to Cardston, home of the Remington Alberta Carriage Center to see how Albertans transported themselves a century or more ago. The Fay Wray fountain is dedicated to Cardston’s most famous citizen-actress. Continue to another of Alberta’s World heritage sights and the sight of the world’s first international peace park. We visit Waterton Park and return late in the day to our hotel/lodge.

Day 8  We have the day for hiking. WATERTON park harbors 1,200 species of plant and animal life, and deep glacial lakes. Rolling prairies collide with jagged mountains in a breathtaking menage of color and form. We have time to partake of a waterline shore cruise (May through October) and will hike Red Rock Canyon where photo opportunities abound. We have a good chance to see deer and sheep on the hike to lovely Blakiston Falls. Time permitting we will see the "oldest exposed rock in the Canadian Rockies" on Cameron Falls Drive.
 

Day 9  After breakfast our motor coach takes us east to "Writing on Stone Provincial Park" to visit to see the continent’s largest collection of petroglyphs. The latter part of the day will find us hiking the HOODOO trails. Step into one of North America’s greatest dinosaur museums and learn of the geology and topography of our great province.  ROYAL TYRRELL Museum is fascinating.  Dinosaurs roamed this area millions of years ago and then vanished forever from the face of the earth. Why? See the equivalent of Tyranosaurus Rex (Albertosaurus) and the gigantic fossil of a fish that had just swallowed another fish. This museum has the largest collection of large full dinosaur skeletons in the world. Time permitting we visit the Reptile World where we can wave at a real Alberta Rattlesnake? Can rattlesnakes really live in Alberta? Transfer to EDMONTON (or Calgary) for the flight home or spend an additional night before departing the next day.