Alberta-Canada

Alberta is a nature-lover's paradise, enriched by wide open spaces and stunning sunsets. In terms of nature, the province is most renowned for the glorious peaks of the Rocky Mountains and the beauty of its parks, epitomised by Canada's fist national park, Banff.Alberta also has vast plains, but it is the mountainous Rockies where travellers will find their jaw continually dropping. Whether driving along the Icefields Parkway or hiking through a forested park, you will be constantly amazed by this awesome alpine wilderness of woodland, mountains and lakes. If anything exemplifies 'picture-postcard', it is this.Even in Alberta's cities there is plenty of green space, including Canada's largest historical park, Fort Edmonton Park. Also in Edmonton and other towns is the lingering of traditional prairie attitudes. This may be because Alberta folk love to hark back to the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897. The discovery of oil in the Edmonton area in 1947 assured the city of its future, making it one of Canada's fastest-growing metropolitan areas. This love affair with the past reaches its apogee in the annual ‘Klondike Days' extravaganza each July, when Edmontonians relive the Gold Rush days.Most people consider Alberta's true 'gold' to be its stunning scenery, however. And that makes Alberta one very rich province indeed