Download - Audley Travel
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<strong>Audley</strong> in Canada and Alaska<br />
6<br />
Almost unimaginably large, Canada<br />
stretches from the Pacific Ocean in the<br />
west to the Atlantic Ocean in the east and<br />
borders the Arctic Circle. It is a land of rugged<br />
mountains and giant lakes, dense forests and<br />
rolling prairies; home to bears, wolves and<br />
herds of caribou that roam the great swathes<br />
of northern wilderness tundra. Impossible to<br />
see all in one trip, the following pages include<br />
brief guides to the provinces and territories<br />
that are designed to give you a flavour of<br />
what there is to see and do in each.<br />
Wild flowers in the Rockies<br />
British Columbia<br />
Gateway to the Pacific and Asia, British Columbia<br />
is perhaps best known for its coast. A chain of<br />
islands protects the Inside Passage where the<br />
Coastal Mountains rear 2,000 metres above<br />
spectacular fjords, calving icebergs into the sea<br />
from countless glaciers in a dramatic and wild<br />
landscape. These are some of the world’s greatest<br />
whale-watching waters, rich in marine life of all<br />
kinds. The city of Vancouver is beautifully set<br />
amongst these mountains and is consistently<br />
judged one of the world’s most liveable cities:<br />
with an average age of 38 it is dynamic, exciting<br />
and cosmopolitan. Head inland and BC shelters<br />
some of Canada’s most beautiful and untouched<br />
wilderness regions: it is one of North America’s<br />
most mountainous areas and the interior is a<br />
paradise for grizzly and black bears, moose, elk<br />
and wolves. BC is rich in First Nations history;<br />
along the temperate coastal regions totem poles<br />
still attest to ancient civilisations.<br />
Alberta<br />
Banff National Park, Lake Louise and the Rocky<br />
Mountains form the strongest images of Alberta, a<br />
huge and thinly-populated province that stretches<br />
from southern mountains and foothills and fades,<br />
to the north, into vast forested plains. Once<br />
home to Blackfoot, Cree, Gros Ventre and<br />
Kootenay Indians, change came slowly to this<br />
unspoiled region. It still has some of Canada’s<br />
most important UNESCO Heritage Sites of First<br />
Nations culture, including Head Smashed-in<br />
Buffalo Jump and Writing-on-Stone Provincial<br />
Park. The largest city is Calgary, an oil-rich highrise<br />
settlement whose veneer of sophistication<br />
falls away, each year, with the Calgary Stampede.<br />
At this time it plays host to the year’s largest<br />
rodeo and the cowboy culture rules supreme.<br />
Saskatchewan & Manitoba<br />
Canada’s prairie heartlands extend across<br />
Saskatchewan and Manitoba, rolling wheat<br />
landscapes, dotted with grain elevators, that<br />
stretch endlessly into the distance. Few tour<br />
operators feature this region but there are plenty<br />
of reasons to visit. Its remote wilderness regions<br />
were home to some of the great conflicts<br />
between native peoples and settlers: the Big<br />
Muddy Badlands were the resting place to which<br />
Sitting Bull retreated after his battle with General