| The UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites considers | | | | someof the finest examples of gypsum karst |
| 830properties world wide as having outstanding | | | | topography in |
| universalvalue, 13 of those are in located in Canada, | | | | North America. |
| and 5 ofthose are in Alberta. | | | | 4 Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks |
| 1. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. | | | | Seven parks in the Canadian Rocky Mountains have |
| For thousands of years the native people of North | | | | some ofthe best-known mountain scenery on Earth. |
| America used the Buffalo to provide them with | | | | More than ninemillion people annually visit the seven |
| life'snecessities, meat, clothing, shelter, tools and fires. | | | | preserves alongthe Alberta-British Columbia border. |
| They stampeded herds over large cliffs and | | | | There are fournational parks in the ensemble -- Banff, |
| butcheredthem at the bottom where they had | | | | Jasper, Yoho and |
| camps set up. Theskeletal remains, at places more | | | | Kootenay. They account for most of the preserve's |
| than 30 feet deep, arestill there. At the butchering | | | | 22,990square kilometres. Adjoining them are three |
| camp the remnants of meatcaches and cooking pits | | | | British |
| are on top of layers of bones. | | | | Columbia provincial parks -- Mount Robson, Mount |
| Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is known around the | | | | Assiniboine and Hamber. |
| worldas a remarkable testimony of prehistoric life. | | | | The park has a wealth of natural wonders: jagged |
| 2. Dinosaur Provincial Park | | | | peaksand conifer-clad slopes, silt-laden glacial streams |
| The first time we traveled through Alberta, | | | | andturquoise lakes, the vast Columbia Icefield and |
| thelandscape suddenly changed. We felt like we | | | | thecomplex Castleguard Caves. The Burgess Shale, in |
| hadliterally landed on the moon. A feeling shared by | | | | Yoho,contains one of the world's most significant |
| many. | | | | finds ofsoft-bodied, Middle Cambrian-age marine |
| Strange land formations rise up on all sides, | | | | fossils, withabout 150 species, including some bearing |
| sculptedby wind and water into beautiful shapes | | | | no resemblanceto known animals. |
| sunbathed interra cotta, bronze and amber. A trip to | | | | 5 Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park |
| Dinosaur | | | | The abrupt rise of the Rockies from the |
| Provincial Park is a 75 million-year trip back in time. | | | | prairieflatlands has made the twin parks the place |
| This region was then a subtropical paradise populated | | | | "where themountains meet the prairie." Nature has |
| byturtles, crocodiles and sharks. Here dinosaurs | | | | provided muchthat is worthy of protection: high |
| oncehunted and mated, and ultimately met their | | | | mountains and deepcanyons, forest belts and prairie |
| demise,leaving an amazingly rich fossil and bone | | | | grasslands, deepglacial-trough lakes and rivers that |
| record for usto discover today. Dinosaur Provincial | | | | feed three oceans. |
| Park -- a worldheritage site like nowhere else on | | | | Diversity of wildlife - mountain goats, bighorn |
| earth! | | | | sheep,coyotes, grizzly bears, scores of birds, and |
| 3 Wood Buffalo National Park | | | | acelebrated "international" herd of elk that |
| With 44,807 square kilometres, Wood Buffalo is | | | | migratesannually between summer mountain habitat in |
| Canada'slargest national park. It was established in | | | | Glacier andwinter prairie ranges in Waterton. |
| 1922 toprotect the last remaining herds of bison in | | | | The highlight of Waterton's sparkling chain of lakes |
| northern | | | | isthe international Upper Waterton Lake, the deepest |
| Canada. Today, it protects Canada's Northern Boreal | | | | lakein the Canadian Rockies. In 1932, the park was |
| Plains. The largest free-roaming, self-regulating | | | | joinedwith Montana's Glacier National Park to form |
| bisonherds in the world, the only remaining nesting | | | | the |
| ground ofthe endangered whooping crane, the | | | | Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park - a |
| biologically rich | | | | worldfirst. |
| Peace-Athabasca Delta, extensive salt plains, and | | | | |