Guide to touring Canada away from tourists

The famous national parks in the Canadian Rockies were already partly totally overloaded before the coronavirus. After the pandemic, the demand for destinations away from the masses may become even higher. Here are five recommendations without the hustle and bustle and away from the most visited areas of Canada.

1. The paradise behind the mountains

Those who arrive in Calgary, in the province of Alberta, usually go directly to the iconic Banff National Park. The address is correct, but much more original are the “Rockies” 20 minutes from Banff.

In Canmore, take the steep Three Sisters Drive uphill first. At mid-altitude, the asphalt turns into a bumpy stretch of gravel, which is called the Smith Dorrien Trail from there.

Above, the path passes through a gloomy gorge and then the curtain rises: Ahead lies the Spray Lake, deep blue, flanked by almost three thousand meter peaks whose steep slopes are marked by the furrows left by thaw and avalanches. . Not a car, not a cable car cabin, not a soul can be seen.

On the contrary, the chances of discovering moose, bears and wolves are as good as in neighboring Banff National Park. As part of the Spray Valley Provincial Park, the valley is part of a green bridge, on which the animals move between the provincial parks in the south and Banff.

2. In search of the vastness

In the wild “Badlands”, the traveler feels like an explorer again and again. It is not clear what the destination will be like because there are very few good images of this corner of southeastern Alberta.

This has not changed despite the famous Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, with its dinosaur fossils. The “Badlands” are still what they always were: 90,000 square kilometers of undulating and empty vastness, with channels called “coulées”, three or four small towns without much activity and dozens of towns in the middle of nowhere, whose existence is chronically threatened.

However, the place hides other highlights, beyond the starry sky and the always visible curvature of the earth on the horizon. There are, for example, the Writing on Stone Provincial Park shortly before Montana, which is part of the UNESCO natural heritage for its cave paintings, and the Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park, which opens like a huge hole in front of the car . On the sides are ghost towns like Orion, Empress, Rowley, and Manyberries. The people here have lived through many hardships and are humble, resigned and hospitable.

3. The arid route of Québec

A local once said that whoever wants to live there should be strong. Physically, because you have to work hard, and psychologically, because the winter is so damn long and then there is nothing to do, apart from entertaining yourself with DIY and Netflix. From Montréal to the Gaspé peninsula it is only eight hours by car, which for Canada is not much, but upon arrival, the traveler feels like at the end of the world.

The peninsula is extensive but does not reach 130,000 inhabitants, concentrated in small urbanizations with a gas station and a kiosk on the coast that in the region they call “dépanneur”.

The terrain is mountainous and so difficult to navigate that Route 132 only borders it with numerous curves. But he does it bravely, winding down a steep coastline hundreds of meters high where the Atlantic waves break and skirting small bays all the way to Percé.

The pretty resort on the eastern tip of the Gaspé Peninsula is known for its whale watching and Percé Rock, a monolith the size of a transatlantic ship. Route 132 is a more appealing alternative to the famous Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia.

4. Downhill to the Pacific

It is almost a miracle that there have not been more cars tumbling into the abyss here. We are talking about “The Hill” (the hill). This is what the locals call the route of Highway 20 that goes from Anahim Lake to Bella Coola in the Pacific, in the province of British Columbia.

Calling it that is a real understatement. The inhospitable terrain turns the road into a single lane gravel track, with rock walls to the right and a deep chasm to the left. The driver prays asking that a truck not come transporting wood in the opposite direction.

Already in the first 6.4 kilometers, the route climbs 1,219 meters. From the valley to the Heckman Summit, 21 kilometers later, it is necessary to overcome 1,828 meters of height. An incline of up to 18 percent presses the driver against the car seat and leads to heavy braking when descending again.

Excess adrenaline has its payoff. The Bella Coola Valley, with its dense forests and 2,000-meter craggy rocks, seems to be leaving the American park of Yosemite, but without tourists.

5. Impressive meadow

An infinite sky and a sea of ​​grass that gently curls in the wind. Not a tree or a bush as far as the eye can see. You can only see something on the horizon at ten or twenty kilometers, it is impossible to calculate the distance. In Grasslands National Park, conversations are silenced in the face of this immense void.

The national park in the southern province of Saskatchewan protects one of the last intact prairie areas in North America. There are almost no trails with directions to explore the area. Management advises visitors of isolation, rough and shaky terrain, orientation problems, and buffalo wallows, which are easily tripped over. The oval holes are reminiscent of the buffalo that once passed through here and rolled in the mud.

There are no campsites within the park, but you can camp wherever you want, as long as it is done away from the ranger’s routes and no fires are lit. But that’s not a problem: at night, the starry sky is more than enough.

dpa

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