Alberta

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Welcome to Alberta!
Your group’s gateway to the Rockies

If a visit to Alberta were played out on a movie screen, it would definitely win more than its share of cinematic awards. The cinematography of the landscapes and stunning geography would leave you breathless. The warm and friendly characters would invite you in. The excitement and drama would keep your attention. And the weepy finish as the visit comes to an end would steal the show.

Groups are drawn to Alberta for many reasons, proving again and again the province is among the top destinations in North America.
Come and experience the uniqueness and diversity Alberta has to offer from the cowboy heritage and Rocky Mountains to the exciting cityscapes and world-class amenities.

Groups of all ages are drawn to Canada’s Rocky Mountain Playground.

World Heritage at Home on Alberta’s Range

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a world-wide organization that is dedicated to protecting and preserving the world’s cultural and heritage sites, from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to the Baroque cathedrals of Latin America. These sites belong to all the peoples of the world, regardless of what region or country they are in.

Five UNESCO World Heritage Sites are found in Alberta, and considering there are only 13 Sites in all of Canada this is something to be quite proud of! Group tours interested in taking in some World Heritage in the convenience of one province can do so here in Alberta. Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump, Wood Buffalo National Park, Dinosaur Provincial Park, Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks, and Waterton Glacier International Peace Park are the five parts of this fascinating group tour circuit, spread throughout the province within driving distance to one another.

Begin your tour in the southwest corner of the province, where you’ll find Waterton Glacier International Peace Park. Located on both sides of the Alberta, Canada and Montana, United States border, this beautiful park was the first International Peace Park in the world, formed in 1932 by combining Montana’s Glacier National Park and Alberta’s Waterton Lakes National Park. Today visitors will enjoy the peaceful surroundings, rich in plant and mammal species as well as prairie, forest, alpine and glacial features.

From Waterton, head north on Highway 6 toward your next stop, Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump. Here you will see a vast collection of thousands of years worth of buffalo (American Bison) skeletons, evidence of a custom practiced by aboriginal peoples of the North American plains for nearly 6,000 years. They used their knowledge of topography and the buffalo behaviour to kill their prey by chasing them over a precipice, later carving their carcasses below and leaving the skeletons behind. This remarkable historic site is the largest, oldest and best preserved of all buffalo jumps in the world.

From Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump, head north on Highway 36 to a world unlike anything you’ve seen. Dinosaur Provincial Park is home to some of the most extensive dinosaur bone fields in the world, some dating back 75 million years, and visitors can enjoy daily summer interpretive programs and digs. The park features stunning scenery including the mystical hoodoos that tower up out of the ground, and it is located in the heart of Alberta’s badlands.

Once you depart Dinosaur Provincial Park, you’re heading west toward the Rocky Mountains and Canada’s Rocky Mountain Parks. Four adjacent parks make up this UNESCO World Heritage Site, Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta, along with Kootenay and Yoho National Parks in neighboring British Columbia. Your trip here could be a day or last several weeks, as all parks are a haven for groups seeking outdoor activity, spectacular scenery, world-class amenities and so much more.

Your last stop on the tour is also the furthest out of the tour circle, but well worth the visit. Wood Buffalo National Park in the far northeast corner of Alberta is the second largest national park in the world at just under 45,000 square kilometers. The park is home to North America’s largest population of wild buffalo, and it is the last natural nesting place of the whooping crane.  Here you can explore vast wilderness and wildlife, boreal forest, shallow lakes, and other exciting adventures. The park is accessible by coach through Peace River country into the Northwest Territories to the park’s closest hub, Fort Smith. You can also fly from Edmonton or Calgary.

For more information on the UNESCO World Heritage Tour in Alberta, or any of these sites, please visit www.travelalberta.com.