"How far is it to the Canadian Rockies?"

The Canadian Rockies and the national parks within them are huge. To get the most out of your trip, it's a good idea to plan in advance. Below are links that we've checked for quality of presentation and accurate information.

Parks Canada Websites: These are the official national park websites. They include weather info, trail reports, safety and wildlife info, park maps and more.   Banff National Park   Yoho National Park   Jasper National Prk

Where to stay to take in one of our interpretive shows:

We do regularly scheduled interpretive shows in the evenings at the following hotels during the summer.  For more information and the current schedule click here.

Recommended hotels:

These are all within a 35 minute radius of Lake Louise.

 Moraine Lake Lodge
 The Lake Louise Inn
 Paradise Lodge & Bungalows
 The Post Hotel
 Baker Creek Chalets
 Storm Mountain Lodge
 Cathedral Mountain Lodge
 Num-ti-Jah Lodge

Recommended stores:

For all your outdoor gear needs and very nice clothing too, we recommend our own local shop, Wilson Mountain Sports.

Websites for Canadian Rockies trip planning:

 Digital Banff
Created by locals for locals and visitors alike.
 Banff Lake Louise Tourism
 Lake Louise Hotels
This clean and nicely laid-out site provides a good overview of the local hotels and has a great map.
 Banff Hotels
Their sister site, also easy to navigate, provides a good overview of Banff town lodging, including hotels, cabins, B&Bs and more.
 The Field and Yoho National Park Guide
A beautiful site about Yoho. The main town, Field, is only 20 minutes from Lake Louise.
 The Icefields Parkway
An interactive guide to the road between Lake Louise and Jasper.
 Gem Trek Maps
You can order the best topographic maps for this area.
 Guidebooks
Our friend, Graeme Pole, is the author of an excellent interpretive sightseeing guidebook to the Rockies (Rocky Mountain Explorer) and a wonderful hiking guidebook (Classic Hikes in the Canadian Rockies).  They can be ordered online at the link above, or, get your own signed copy directly from the author at his website.

Other activities and guides you may be interested in:

 Jessica Stichelbout, Cross Country Skiing
Lake Louise is heaven for cross country skiers.  Jessica is an expert instructor.
 Ben Gadd
The god of local interpretive guides now lives in Canmore.
 All Things Wild
Interpretive guided hiking in Jasper with Kirsten Schmitten.
 The Jasper Naturalist
Interpretive guided hiking in Jasper with Anne Williams.
 Wild Water Adventures
Whitewater rafting - the local Lake Louise-based company.
 The Athabasca Icewalks at the Columbia Icefield
 Monique Hunkeler, Marriage Commissioner
Mountain marriages by Monique!

Canadian Rockies "off the beaten path":

If you have been to the Rockies a number of times, or if you have an adventurous spirit, it is worth spending time near Golden, BC (1.5 hours west of Lake Louise) and in Kootenay Plains - Bighorn Country (1.5 hours north and east of Lake Louise, off the Icefields Parkway).

 The Icefields Parkway
An interactive guide to the road between Lake Louise and Jasper.
 Aurum Lodge
A beautiful eco-lodge located on the Kootenay Plains.  There are sights to see and hiking to do in this area (although you must be comfortable with unsigned trails). You can explore Bighorn Country and nip back into Banff Park for daytrips to the Columbia Icefield.
 Tourism Golden, BC
The area around Golden provides opportunites for visiting real wolves (kept in an ethical manner), spending time at a bison ranch, maybe seeing a grizzly bear at the gondola, bird watching, eating very good food and participating in every kind of outdoor activity going.  The town itself is at low elevation and is more "summery" in summer.

Nature of the Canadian Rockies:

 Amar Athwal
Amar takes amazing photographs that often involve the latest wildlife "happenings" in Banff National Park.
 Rocky Mountain Peak Finder
 The Searching Wolf
 International Wolf Center
 The Marmot Burrow
 World Lynx
 Canadian Wildlife Service - Hinterland
.......Who's Who
 The Animal Diversity Web
 US Forest Service Fire Effects Information
Accurate biology and habitat information on the plants and animals of N.A. Research citations included.
 Kimball's Biology Pages
An online biology textbook with illustrations.
 The Cornell Lab of Ornithology
 The Fatal Light Awareness Program
Help prevent migratory bird deaths in cities.
 The Ultimate Ungulate Page
Your guide to the world's hoofed mammals.

Miscellaneous:

 Alpine Threadworks
Our friend, Neil Warren, makes beautiful, waterproof tote bags of all kinds.
 Roger Hostin - Canadian Rockies Photography
 John E. Marriott - Wildlife and Nature Photography

Our Donations and Volunteer Work

A portion of our profits are given to wildlife conservation and research. Each year, Great Divide Nature Interpretation makes donations to the following organizations:

The Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area
The Lake O'Hara Trails Club
Rocky Mountain Eagle Research Foundation
Wings Over the Rockies Bird Festival - Conservation Fund
The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative
The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
The Bow Valley Naturalists - project work

We donate items as fund raisers for various organisations. For example, the Friends of Yoho National Park, the Kicking Horse Ski Club and the Rocky Mountain Eagle Research Foundation.

And we do volunteer work with the Interpretive Guides Association, the local MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) project and Wings Over the Rockies Bird Festival.

Going Carbon Neutral

In 2008, Great Divide Nature Interpretation decided to go carbon neutral. To reduce the CO2 emissions produced by our business and home, we have taken the following steps:

1. We buy wind-generated electricity from Bullfrog Power.

2. We’ve made every effort to reduce the amount of energy we use. We use CF and LED bulbs and have eliminated phantom power through the use of power bars. We have a solar hot water system, and burn wood in a high-efficiency stove.  We also try to consciously avoid wasting energy.

3. Using several different internet “CO2 emission calculators,” we determined how much CO2 our office, vehicles and household produce. We now purchase carbon offsets to compensate for the CO2 emitted by all aspects of our business, home and life.

This does not cancel out the CO2 we emit, but it does prevent an equivalent amount from being put into the atmosphere. The fees paid to Climate Care – the gold standard offsetter company we’ve chosen – are used to fund the installation of windmills and solar panels, and the construction of biomass electricity generators and run-of-the-river hydro projects throughout the world.

If you are looking into how you can reduce your CO2 footprint, try searching the internet for green electricity providers in your area, and organizations that can offset your CO2 emissions.

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