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Alberta Highway 93
Highway 93 is a north–south highway in Alberta, Canada. It is also known as the Banff-Windermere Parkway south of the Trans-Canada Highway ( Highway 1) and the Icefields Parkway north of the Trans-Canada Highway. It travels through Banff National Park and Jasper National Park and is maintained by Parks Canada for its entire length. It runs from the British Columbia border at Vermilion Pass in the south, where it becomes British Columbia Highway 93, to its terminus at the junction with the Yellowhead Highway ( Highway 16) at Jasper. The route takes its number from U.S. Route 93, which runs uninterrupted south to central Arizona, and was initially designated as '93' in 1959. Route description Banff-Windermere Highway The southern portion of the route is part of the Banff-Windermere Highway, a highway that travels from British Columbia Highway 95 at Radium Hot Springs, through Kootenay National Park and Vermilion Pass across the Continental Divide, to the junction of ...
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Parker Ridge
Parker Ridge is a mountain ridge located in the upper North Saskatchewan River valley in Banff National Park, in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Canada. Its nearest higher peak is Mount Athabasca, to the west. Parker Ridge is situated along the west side of the Icefields Parkway and southeast of Sunwapta Pass. Parker Ridge is a ski-touring destination in the winter and popular hiking destination in the summer because it is situated beside the Icefields Parkway allowing easy access, and is nearly entirely above treeline allowing good views of the surrounding mountain landscape. A trail gains of elevation from the highway to the top of the ridge. Wandering east or west along the ridge provides views of Cirrus Mountain, the north face of Mount Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan Glacier, Mount Athabasca, Hilda Peak, and Nigel Peak among others. History Parker Ridge was named for Elizabeth Parker (1856–1944), co-founder of the Alpine Club of Canada in 1906 along with Arthur Olive ...
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Castle Rock Banff
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private fortified house, fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a mansion, palace, and villa, whose main purpose was exclusively for ''pleasance'' and are not primarily fortresses but may be fortified. Use of the term has varied over time and, sometimes, has also been applied to structures such as hill forts and 19th- and 20th-century homes built to resemble castles. Over the Middle Ages, when genuine castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain wall (fortification), curtain walls, arrowslits, and portcullises, were commonplace. European-style castles originated in the 9th and 10th centuries after the fall of the Carolingian Empire, which resulted ...
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Columbia Icefield
The Columbia Icefield is the largest ice field in North America's Rocky Mountains. Located within the Canadian Rocky Mountains astride the Continental Divide along the border of British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, the ice field lies partly in the northwestern tip of Banff National Park and partly in the southern end of Jasper National Park. It is about in area, in depth and receives up to of snowfall per year. Geology The Columbia Icefield sits on a large area of relatively horizontal layers of rock. Because flat-lying layers erode more slowly than the surrounding tilted areas, the surface remains higher-altitude and therefore colder. The icefield was formed during the Great Glaciation, or Illinoisan period (238,000 to 126,000 BCE).Sandford 1993, p. 23. The initial advancement of the ice field ended during the latter millennia of the Early Wisconsinan period (73,000 to 62,000 BCE), around the time ''Homo sapiens'' began to appear on the earth. The next major advance of t ...
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Canadian Rockies
The Canadian Rockies () or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part of the Canadian Cordillera, which is the northern segment of the North American Cordillera, the expansive system of interconnected mountain ranges between the Interior Plains and the Pacific Coast that runs northwest–southeast from central Alaska to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico. Canada officially defines the Rocky Mountains system as the mountain chains east of the Rocky Mountain Trench extending from the Liard River valley in northern British Columbia to the Albuquerque Basin in New Mexico, not including the Mackenzie, Richardson and British Mountains/ Brooks Range in Yukon and Alaska (which are all included as the "Arctic Rockies" in the United States' definition of the Rocky Mountains system). The Canadian Rockies, being the northern segment of ...
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Continental Divide
A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not connected to the open sea. Every continent on Earth except Antarctica (which has no known significant, definable free-flowing surface rivers) has at least one continental drainage divide; islands, even small ones like Killiniq Island on the Labrador Sea in Canada, may also host part of a continental divide or have their own island-spanning divide. The endpoints of a continental divide may be coastlines of gulfs, seas or oceans, the boundary of an endorheic basin, or another continental divide. One case, the Great Basin Divide, is a closed loop around an endorheic basin. The endpoints where a continental divide meets the coast are not always definite since the exact border between adjacent bodies of water is usually not clearly defined. Th ...
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Watermelon Peak
Watermelon Peak is a summit located in Banff National Park, in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Canada. Its nearest higher peak is Deluc Peak, to the east. __NOTOC__ History Watermelon Peak was named in 1966 by William L. Putnam, member of the first ascent party, which carried a four-kilogram watermelon to the summit, and consumed it there. The July 1966 first ascent party included David Michael, W.V.G. Matthews, William L. Putnam, M. Stearns, and L.R. Wallace. However, the name is not officially recognized by the Geographical Names Board of Canada.The peak is not listed in the Canadian Geographical Names Database. Geology Like other mountains in Banff Park, Watermelon Peak is composed of sedimentary rock laid down during the Precambrian to Jurassic periods. Formed in shallow seas, this sedimentary rock was pushed east and over the top of younger rock during the Laramide orogeny. Climate Based on the Köppen climate classification, Watermelon Peak is located in a subarctic cli ...
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Alberta Highway 1A
Highway 1A is the designation of two alternate routes off the Alberta portion of Trans-Canada Highway 1. However, it is not the only name used for spurs off Highway 1 - Highway 1X is another such designation. Despite these highways being suffixed routes of Highway 1, they are not part of the Trans-Canada Highway network, and are signed with Alberta's provincial primary highway shields instead of the Trans-Canada shields used for Highway 1. Bow Valley Parkway The Lake Louise to Banff section of the Banff National Park 1A route is also known as the Bow Valley Parkway. It begins at Highway 1 at Lake Louise, generally paralleling it until it meets Highway 1 again approximately west of Banff. It provides more immediate access to attractions in Banff National Park such as Castle Mountain and Johnston Canyon. This spur has a reduced speed limit of , and provides opportunities to view wildlife at various times of the year. Parks Canada introduced planned and marked pullovers alon ...
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Bow Valley Parkway
Highway 1A is the designation of two alternate routes off the Alberta Highway 1, Alberta portion of Trans-Canada Highway 1. However, it is not the only name used for spurs off Highway 1 - Alberta Highway 1X, Highway 1X is another such designation. Despite these highways being suffixed routes of Highway 1, they are not part of the Trans-Canada Highway network, and are signed with Alberta's provincial primary highway shields instead of the Trans-Canada shields used for Highway 1. Bow Valley Parkway The Lake Louise, Alberta, Lake Louise to Banff, Alberta, Banff section of the Banff National Park 1A route is also known as the Bow Valley Parkway. It begins at Highway 1 at Lake Louise, generally paralleling it until it meets Highway 1 again approximately west of Banff. It provides more immediate access to attractions in Banff National Park such as Castle Mountain and Johnston Canyon. This spur has a reduced speed limit of , and provides opportunities to view wildlife at various times ...
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Yoho National Park
Yoho National Park ( ) is a National Parks of Canada, national park of Canada. It is located within the Canadian Rockies, Rocky Mountains along the western slope of the Continental Divide of the Americas in southeastern British Columbia, bordered by Kootenay National Park to the south and Banff National Park to the east in Alberta. The word ''Yoho'' is a Cree expression of amazement or awe, and it is an apt description for the park's spectacular landscape of massive ice fields and mountain peaks, which rank among the highest in the Canadian Rockies. Yoho covers an area of , the smallest of the region's four contiguous national parks, which also include Jasper National Park, Jasper, Kootenay, and Banff National Parks, as well as three British Columbia provincial parks—Hamber Provincial Park, Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, and Mount Robson Provincial Park. Together, these parks form the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site. Yoho's administrative and visitor c ...
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Banff, Alberta
Banff is a resort town in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, in Alberta's Rockies along the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Calgary, east of Lake Louise, Alberta, Lake Louise, and above Banff was the first municipality to incorporate within a Canadian national park. The town is a member of the Calgary Metropolitan Region, Calgary Regional Partnership. Banff is one of Canada's most popular tourist destinations. Known for its mountainous surroundings and Banff Upper Hot Springs, hot springs, it is a destination for outdoor sports and hiking, Mountain biking, biking, scrambling and skiing. Sunshine Village, Mt Norquay, Ski Norquay and Lake Louise Ski Resort are nearby ski resorts within the national park. Toponymy The area was named Banff in 1884 by George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen, George Stephen, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, recalling his birthplace near Banff, Aberdeenshire, Banff, Scotland. The Canadian Pacific built a series of grand hotels along the ...
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Castle Junction
Castle Junction is a locality where the northern extent of the Banff–Windermere Highway ( Highway 93) intersects with the Trans-Canada Highway ( Highway 1), the Bow River, and Bow Valley Parkway (Highway 1A) in Banff National Park, Alberta. It is named after the nearby Castle Mountain, clearly visible from the junction. The area is also referred to as Castle Mountain; however, the official location is approximately southwest of Castle Junction along the Canadian Pacific Railway. Work started here in 1910 on the Auto Route of the Great Divide, a project to build a highway across the Rocky Mountains, when construction began on a road from Castle Junction to Banff. Following an interruption caused by World War I, construction wrapped up in 1923 when the newly constructed road between Calgary and Banff was joined to the Windermere Highway via the road between Castle Junction and Banff. Prime Minister Mackenzie King changed the name of Castle Mountain to Mount Eisenhower in ...
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Continental Divide Of The Americas
The Continental Divide of the Americas (also known as the Great Divide, the Western Divide or simply the Continental Divide; ) is the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas. The Continental Divide extends from the Bering Strait to the Strait of Magellan, and separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain into the Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, including those that drain into the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and Hudson Bay. Although there are many other hydrological divides in the Americas, the Continental Divide is by far the most prominent of these because it tends to follow a line of high peaks along the main ranges of the Rocky Mountains and Andes, at a generally much higher elevation than the other hydrological divisions. Geography Beginning at the westernmost point of the Americas, Cape Prince of Wales, just south of the Arctic Circle, the Continental Divide's geographic path runs th ...
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