Kananaskis Country is a multi-use area west of Calgary, Alberta, Canada in the foothills and front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. The area is named for the Kananaskis River, which was named by John Palliser in 1858 after a Cree acquaintance. Covering an area of approximately 4,000 km2 (1,500 sq mi), Kananaskis Country was formed by the Alberta Government in 1978 to provide an assortment of land uses and designations. Land uses include resource extraction activities, recreation, power generation, and residential communities. Land designations include public land and protected areas.
Willmore Wilderness Park, located in Alberta, Canada, is a 4,600-square-kilometre (1,800 sq mi) wilderness area adjacent to Jasper National Park. It is lesser known and less visited than Jasper National Park. There are no public roads, bridges or buildings. There are, however, several ranger cabins in the park that are available as a courtesy to visitors.
Waterton Lakes National Park is a national park located in the southwest corner of Alberta, Canada. It borders Glacier National Park in Montana, United States. Waterton was the fourth Canadian national park, formed in 1895 and named after Waterton Lake, in turn after the Victorian naturalist and conservationist Charles Waterton. Its range is between the Rocky Mountains and prairies. This park contains 505 km2 (195 sq mi) of rugged mountains and wilderness.
Rangelands are grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts that are grazed by domestic livestock or wild animals. Types of rangelands include tallgrass and shortgrass prairies, desert grasslands and shrublands, woodlands, savannas, chaparrals, steppes, and tundras. Rangelands do not include forests lacking grazable understory vegetation, barren desert, farmland, or land covered by solid rock, concrete and/or glaciers.
The Oldman River is a river in southern Alberta, Canada. It flows roughly west to east from the Rocky Mountains, through the communities of Fort Macleod, Lethbridge, and on to Grassy Lake, where it joins the Bow River to form the South Saskatchewan River, which eventually drains into the Hudson Bay.
Height of the Rockies Provincial Park is a provincial park in the Canadian Rockies of south eastern British Columbia, Canada. It is located west of the Continental Divide, adjacent to Elk Lakes Provincial Park.
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 Great Divide Trail (GDT) is a wilderness hiking trail in the Canadian Rockies. The trail closely follows the Great Divide between Alberta and British Columbia, crossing the divide more than 30 times. Its southern terminus is in Waterton Lakes National Park at the Canada–US border and its northern terminus is at Kakwa Lake in Kakwa Provincial Park, north of Jasper National Park. The trail is 1,130 km (700 mi) long and ranges in elevation from 1,055 m (3,461 ft) at Old Fort Point trailhead near Jasper to 2,590 m (8,500 ft) at an unnamed pass above Michele Lakes just south of the White Goat Wilderness Area.
Chinchaga Wildland Park is a protected 800 km2 (310 sq mi) tract of land in the 5,000 km2 (1,900 sq mi) of the greater Chinchaga wilderness area in a disjunct outlier of the Foothills Natural Region of Alberta, in a remote area of northwest Alberta, Canada, about 140 kilometres (87 mi) west of Manning. It was designated as a Wildlife Park in December 1999. The greater Chinchaga area was identified in 1995 as an Environmentally Significant Area. It was designated by the Alberta Government as a protected area in 2000, under the "Special Places" program. "Elevations in the Park range from 650 m adjacent to the Chinchaga River to 915 m at the height of land atop Halverson Ridge."
Caribou Mountains Wildland Park is a large wilderness area in northern Alberta, Canada. It is located in the Caribou Mountains, immediately west of Wood Buffalo National Park in a remote backcountry area. The closest community in Alberta is Fort Vermilion.
The Ghost River Wilderness Area is a provincially designated wilderness area in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta protecting the headwaters of the Ghost River. It was established in 1967 and it, as one of the three Wilderness Areas of Alberta, has the strictest form of government protection available in Canada. All development is forbidden and only travel by foot is permitted. Hunting and fishing are not allowed. The other two Wilderness Areas are White Goat Wilderness Area and Siffleur Wilderness Area and together the three areas total 249,548.80 acres (100,988.82 ha).
The Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve is a tract of land owned by the government of Canadian province of Alberta along the eastern slopes and foothills of the Albertan section of the Canadian Rockies. It is a long strip of land just east of the more famous Canadian Rocky Mountain parks, which is managed for industrial and economic goals, rather than aesthetic and conservation goals as in the parks.
Waterton Biosphere Reserve is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve encompassing Waterton Lakes National Park in the extreme south-west of the Province of Alberta, Canada. The reserve includes a section of the east slopes of the Rocky Mountains extending from the Continental Divide to the edge of the Canadian Great Plains to the east. The Glacier Biosphere Reserve and National Park in Montana, USA is located to the south of the area. The reserve is administered by Waterton Lakes National Park and the Waterton Biosphere Association.
Castle Provincial Park is a provincial park in southern Alberta, Canada. It is located within the Municipal District of Pincher Creek No. 9 south of the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass, northwest of Waterton Lakes National Park and west of the Town of Pincher Creek. It shares a boundary with Castle Wildland Provincial Park to the west and south.
Bluerock Wildland Provincial Park is a wildland provincial park located in Kananaskis Improvement District, Alberta, Canada. It was established on 24 July 2001 and has an area of 12,719.59 hectares. The park was named for the Bluerock Creek that flows through and forms part of the western boundary of the park and Bluerock Mountain which is the creek's source. The park is included in the South Saskatchewan Region land use framework and administered by the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan. Sheep River Provincial Park and Bluerock Wildland Provincial Park are managed under the same Management Plan.
Bighorn Wildland Provincial Park is a proposed provincial park that would be situated near Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Canada. It would be part of the Alberta Provincial Parks system and governed by Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation under Alberta Environment and Parks. After the 2019 Alberta election, the new United Conservative government announced the plan would not go ahead.
Bob Creek Wildland Provincial Park is a wildland provincial park located in the Municipal District of Ranchland, in southern Alberta, Canada. It was established on 12 May 1999, modified slightly on 24 June 2003, and is 20,777.69 hectares in area. The park is included in the South Saskatchewan Region Land Use Framework and administered by the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan. Because they are so intertwined, Bob Creek Wildland and Black Creek Heritage Rangeland are managed through the same Management Plan. The park gets its name from the Bob Creek that runs through the center of the park and drains the surrounding hills.
Kitaskino Nuwenëné Wildland Provincial Park is a wildland provincial park in Wood Buffalo, northern Alberta, Canada. Kitaskino, means “our land” in Cree and Nuwenëné means “our land” in Dene; the two languages are spoken by the First Nation communities in the area. The park as created on 8 March 2019 had an area of 161,880 hectares. It was expanded on 26 January 2022 to 314,510 hectares. The park is a successful collaboration between the Mikisew Cree First Nation, the governments of Alberta and Canada, and petroleum industry partners in the area. Teck Resources, Imperial Oil, and Cenovus Energy returned oil leases to the Athabasca oil sands which underlay the area. This enabled the land to be turned into a park. After the initial creation of the park in 2019, the Milisew First Nation worked with Burgess Canadian Resources to relinquished their oilsands leases which led to the addition of 152,000 hectares to the park.
