Jasper National Park, in Alberta, Canada, is the largest national park within Alberta's Rocky Mountains, spanning 11,000 km2 (4,200 sq mi). It was established as Jasper Forest Park in 1907, renamed as a national park in 1930, and declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1984. Its location is north of Banff National Park and west of Edmonton. The park contains the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield, springs, lakes, waterfalls and mountains.
Banff National Park is Canada's oldest national park, established in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park. Located in Alberta's Rocky Mountains, 110–180 kilometres (68–112 mi) west of Calgary, Banff encompasses 6,641 square kilometres (2,564 sq mi) of mountainous terrain, with many glaciers and ice fields, dense coniferous forest, and alpine landscapes. Provincial forests and Yoho National Park are neighbours to the west, while Kootenay National Park is located to the south and Kananaskis Country to the southeast. The main commercial centre of the park is the town of Banff, in the Bow River valley.
The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site consists of seven contiguous parks including four national parks and three British Columbia provincial parks.
Banff is a resort town in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, in Alberta's Rockies along the Trans-Canada Highway, 126 km (78 mi) west of Calgary, 58 km (36 mi) east of Lake Louise, and 1,400 to 1,630 m above sea level.
Kootenay National Park is a national park of Canada in southeastern British Columbia. The park consists of 1,406 km2 (543 sq mi) of the Canadian Rockies, including parts of the Kootenay and Park mountain ranges, the Kootenay River and the entirety of the Vermilion River. While the Vermilion River is completely contained within the park, the Kootenay River has its headwaters just outside the park boundary, flowing through the park into the Rocky Mountain Trench and eventually joining the Columbia River. The park ranges in elevation from 918 m (3,012 ft) at the southwestern park entrance to 3,424 m (11,234 ft) at Deltaform Mountain.
The Fairmont Banff Springs, formerly and commonly known as the Banff Springs Hotel, is a historic hotel in western Canada, located in Banff, Alberta. The entire town, including the hotel, is situated in Banff National Park, a national park managed by Parks Canada. At an elevation of 1,414 metres (4,640 ft) above sea level, the hotel overlooks a valley towards Mount Rundle, both of which are situated within the Rocky Mountain mountain range.
Sulphur Mountain is a mountain in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains overlooking the town of Banff, Alberta, Canada.
Castle Mountain is a mountain located within Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, approximately halfway between Banff and Lake Louise. It is the easternmost mountain of the Main Ranges in the Bow Valley and sits astride the Castle Mountain Fault which has thrust older sedimentary and metamorphic rocks forming the upper part of the mountain over the younger rocks forming its base. The mountain's castellated, or castle-like, appearance is a result of erosive processes acting at different rates on the peak's alternating layers of softer shale and harder limestone, dolomite and quartzite.
Bow Valley Provincial Park is a provincial park in Alberta, Canada. Established in 1959 in the arch of the Bow River at its confluence with the Kananaskis River, the park is one park of many within the Kananaskis Country park system.
The Banff longnose dace was a diminutive version of the eastern longnose dace, its range restricted to a small marsh fed by two hot springs on Sulphur Mountain in Banff National Park in Banff, Alberta, Canada.
Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, located around Mount Assiniboine.
Alberta has been a tourist destination since the early days of the 20th Century, with attractions including national parks, National Historic Sites of Canada, urban arts and cultural facilities, outdoor locales for skiing, hiking and camping, shopping locales such as West Edmonton Mall, outdoor festivals, professional athletic events, international sporting competitions such as the Commonwealth Games and Olympic Winter Games, as well as more eclectic attractions.
The Vermilion Lakes are a series of lakes located immediately west of Banff, Alberta, in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
Banff Upper Hot Springs are commercially developed hot springs located in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, near the Banff townsite. Europeans first became aware of the springs in 1883. As it has been developed since, the hot pool is outdoors and while in the pool, visitors can look across the valley to Mount Rundle. It is located at 1,585 metres (5,200 ft) of elevation, which makes it the highest hot spring in Canada.
Tunnel Mountain, also known as Sleeping Buffalo, is a mountain located in the Bow River Valley of Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada at the junction of the Spray River with the Bow and overlooking the Hot Springs on Sulphur Mountain. The mountain is nearly completely encircled by the town of Banff and the Banff Springs Hotel grounds. For many Indigenous people, the Buffalo is not sleeping anymore since Banff National Park reintroduced wild bison in 2017.
The Banff Springs snail is a species of small air-breathing freshwater snail in the family Physidae.
The Castle Mountain Internment Camp, located in Banff National Park, Alberta, was the largest internment facility in the Canadian Rockies, housing several hundred prisoners at any one time. Established on July 13, 1915, a total of 660 enemy aliens were interned at the facility during its entire operation.
Norman Bethune Sanson (1862–1949) was the curator of the Banff Park Museum in Banff, Alberta from 1896 to 1932. Sanson traveled extensively through Banff, Yoho and Kootenay National Parks to collect specimens for the museum, and continued to volunteer for the museum for fifteen years after his retirement.
Walter S. Painter (1877-1957) was an American architect who is chiefly noted for his work with the Canadian Pacific Railway as its chief architect. Painter's most significant works include the redesigned Banff Springs Hotel, the Cave and Basin Hot Springs bathhouse in Banff, Alberta and a series of railroad stations and hotels for the Canadian Pacific. In later life Painter worked with school designs in Chile, and promoted a system of prefabricated concrete houses.
