Alberta's Rockies comprise the Canadian Rocky Mountains in

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada. On the southwestern part of the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

along the

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

border, the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

covers all but the south of Census Division 15. The main industry in this region is tourism.

Geography

The View from the Summit of Mount Weed on the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park

This human region is almost identical to the Alberta Mountain forests ecozone. The region contains the Central Front Ranges and the Continental Ranges of the Canadian

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

, and includes the Banff National Park and Jasper National Park, as well as the

Kananaskis Country Kananaskis Country (abbreviated: K-Country) is a multi-use area west of Calgary, Alberta, Canada in the Rocky Mountain Foothills, foothills and front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. Its western edge borders Banff National Park and the Alberta-Br ...

park system and the Willmore Wilderness. The main transportation corridors run through the

Kicking Horse Pass Kicking Horse Pass (el. ) is a high mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Americas of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta–British Columbia border, and lying within Yoho and Banff national parks. Divide Creek forks onto both ...

and the Yellowhead Pass from east to west, while the Bow Valley and

Athabasca River The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') in Alberta, Canada, originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than before emptying into Lake Athabasca. Much of the land along its banks is protected in nationa ...

valley are followed by the longitudinal Icefields Parkway. Another important waterway that crosses this region is the

North Saskatchewan River The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows event ...

Tourism

Some of the best

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area–a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North Am ...

s of the Rockies are in this region, and are important tourist destinations. They include

Fortress Mountain Resort Fortress Mountain was a ski resort in Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada. The resort is situated on a Provincial Crown Lease surrounded by Spray Valley and Peter Lougheed Provincial Parks. The original lease was granted in 1967, which pre-dat ...

, Lake Louise, Marmot Basin, Mount Norquay, Nakiska and Sunshine Village. Other tourist attractions include the glaciers of the Columbia, Wapta and Waputik Icefields such as the Athabasca, Bow, Crowfoot,

Hector In Greek mythology, Hector (; , ) was a Trojan prince, a hero and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. He is a major character in Homer's ''Iliad'', where he leads the Trojans and their allies in the defense of Troy, killing c ...

, Peyto,

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

and Vulture Glaciers.

Glacial lake A glacial lake is a body of water with origins from glacier activity. They are formed when a glacier erodes the land and then melts, filling the depression created by the glacier. Formation Near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,0 ...

s line the Icefields Parkway and dot the surrounding valleys. Some of the more spectacular are Bow,

, Louise, Maligne,

Moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and Rock (geology), rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a gla ...

, Peyto,

Pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

and

Vermilion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color family and pigment most often used between antiquity and the 19th century from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide). It is synonymous with red orange, which often takes a moder ...

lakes.

Infrastructure

Banff and

Jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. The common red color is due to ...

are the main communities in the region. The length is defined by the Icefields Parkway, and it is crossed by the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

and the Yellowhead Highway into British Columbia. David Thompson Highway leads from the Rockies into

central Alberta Central Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. Central Alberta is the most densely populated rural area in the province. Agriculture and energy are important to the area's economy. Geography Central Alberta is bordered ...

from Saskatchewan River Crossing, and Banff Windermere Parkway leads from Castle Junction (south of Lake Louise) through the Kootenay National Park to the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

valley. The Bighorn Highway defines most of the eastern limit of the region. Health care has been the responsibility of

Alberta Health Services Alberta Health Services (AHS) is the single Health regions of Canada, health authority for the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta and the "largest integrated provincial health care system" in Canada. Headquartered ...

, since the province's health regions were amalgamated in 2008. Before then, Calgary Health Region was the health region ensuring well-being in the south of this region, while the north was supervised by the Aspen Regional Health Authority. Health care centres established in the area are: *Seton Jasper Healthcare Centre -

*Hinton Healthcare Centre - Hinton *Canmore General Hospital - Canmore *Banff Mineral Springs Hospital - Banff

Politics

On a provincial level, southern Alberta is represented in the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

by MLA's elected in the ridings of Banff-Cochrane and part of

Rocky Mountain House Rocky Mountain House is a town in west-central Alberta, Canada. It is approximately west of Red Deer at the confluence of the Clearwater and North Saskatchewan Rivers, and at the crossroads of Highway 22 (Cowboy Trail) and Highway 11 (David ...

and West Yellowhead.

Communities

The following communities are in Alberta's Rockies. *

Towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

of Banff and Canmore * Municipality of

( specialized municipality) * Summer villages of Ghost Lake and Waiparous *

Hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

of Lake Louise, Harvie Heights, Exshaw, Dead Man's Flats and Lac des Arcs * Saskatchewan River Crossing (unincorporated community) * Kananaskis Village (resort community) The towns of Grande Cache and Hinton, on the eastern edge of the Rockies, are sometimes considered as part of this region. The following rural municipalities are in Alberta's Rockies. * Municipal District of Bighorn No. 8 * Improvement District No. 9 ( Banff National Park) * Improvement District No. 12 ( Jasper National Park) * Improvement District No. 25 ( Willmore Wilderness Park) *

Kananaskis Improvement District Kananaskis Improvement District is an List of communities in Alberta#Improvement districts, improvement district in Alberta, Canada. It is located within Alberta's Rockies, between Calgary and Banff, sharing much of its boundaries with Kananaski ...

References