Natural Wonders
From the icefields of the Canadian Rockies to the desolate terrain of the Canadian Badlands, Alberta has a multitude of wondrous and unusual natural attractions. Bring a camera or a sketch pad—you’ll be inspired to capture many a memory.
More than Mountains
Familiar in any language, the Rocky Mountains are unquestionably Alberta’s most well known natural attraction, but there are other landscapes and terrains around the province that have earned equal stature. In fact, the United Nations has designated four of our natural wonders as World Heritage Sites.
Canadian Badlands
Stretching from east of Red Deer in central Alberta to the Montana border in the south, the Canadian Badlands is a living history book going back millennia. It is said the early French settlers named this lunar-like landscape “Mauvais Terre” (Bad Land) because of its inhospitable terrain. But this desolate region of wind-scraped rock formations, barren canyons and coulees has revealed an abundance of riches below its surface. Large deposits of coal are overshadowed by the fossil finds, which are a global magnet for archaeologists and paleontologists and anyone who has ever been curious about “how it all began.”
One of the area’s ancient fossil beds has yielded up the largest dinosaur find in the world. The First Nations people made the earliest finds of fossilized dinosaur bones, which they saw as ancestors of the bison. They viewed the land as a giant bison graveyard, with the “hoodoos” as its protectors. Visitors come from all over the world to see these hoodoos—mushroom-shaped pillars of eroded sedimentary rock that are some of the most unusual geological formations found anywhere.
Some of the many places of interest in this vast region include the town of Drumheller, known as the Heart of the Canadian Badlands; the Royal Tyrrell Museum, devoted to everything “dinosaur” including ongoing archaeological digs; the Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site and Dinosaur Provincial Park.
Canadian Rockies
Part of the northern chain of rugged mountains that run the length of North and South America, our Canadian Rockies stand astride western Alberta and eastern British Columbia. Our highest peaks and ranges make up the north-south line of the Continental Divide, the “backbone” of our country, where rivers flow either west to the Pacific or east to the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.Three of our five national parks are located here—Banff, Jasper and Waterton Lakes. The scenery is breathtaking—towering mountains, snowy peaks, ancient glaciers, countless waterfalls, raging whitewater rivers coursing through steep canyons, serene alpine meadows, natural hot springs and deep glacial lakes.
Icefields
One of the best ways to see our glaciers and icefields is to tour along the classic Icefields Parkway, named for the massive glaciers that parallel its west side. It runs 230 km (143 mi) through remote, high altitude terrain from Lake Louise to Jasper. On the Lake Louise end, a highlight is Crowfoot Glacier, named for the original shape of the ice mass, like the three toes of a crow’s foot. Only two “toes” remain today as one has since receded.
The most famous is the Columbia Icefield, the largest mass of non-polar ice in North America. It is the last of the great sheet of ice that once encased most of Canada and now covers a high plateau between Mount Columbia—Alberta’s tallest mountain at 3,747 m (12,293 ft)—and Mount Athabasca. The icefield measures 325 sq km (125 sq mi) and feeds eight glaciers. You can see three of these from the Icefields Parkway. The nearby Athabasca Glacier is more accessible and is the most visited glacier in North America.
Northern Lights
Although we can’t claim the aurora borealis as our own, Alberta’s north is blessed with prime viewing spots. Whether you are in Wood Buffalo National Park’s backcountry or visiting Fort McMurray, Alberta’s northern-most city, you will marvel at the constantly changing colourful swirls, curtains and ribbons of light dancing in the night sky. As well as the Fort McMurray area, optimal viewing sites include Fort Chipewyan, Slave Lake, Peace River, Grand Prairie and Athabasca.UNESCO Natural World Heritage Sites
In recognition of our natural wonders, the United Nations has crowned Alberta with four UNESCO Natural World Heritage Sites. We also boast a UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Site, Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump.- Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks: The contiguous national parks of Banff and Jasper in Alberta and Kootenay and Yoho in British Columbia have been recognized by UNESCO for the striking alpine landscapes: the mountain ranges along the Great Divide, glaciers, icefields, lakes, waterfalls, canyons and limestone caves.
- Wood Buffalo National Park: Recognized because it is home to North America's largest population of wild bison, a natural nesting place of the whooping crane and the world's largest inland delta, located at the mouth of the Peace and Athabasca rivers.
- Dinosaur Provincial Park: This park contains some of the most important fossil discoveries ever made, in particular about 35 species of dinosaur, dating back some 75 million years.
- Waterton Glacier International Peace Park: Alberta’s Waterton Lakes National Park was combined in 1932 with Glacier National Park in northern Montana to form the world's first International Peace Park. It is exceptionally rich in plant and mammal species as well as prairie, forest, and alpine and glacial features.
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Alberta is packed with natural attractions...more than 360. To learn more, use the Search feature on the top right corner of this page. Click on Advanced, choose the Category tab, select Attractions / Natural Attraction.Additional Resources
