8 Thrilling Places In Southern Alberta (Besides Banff)

in this video we're going to be exploring eight thrilling places in Southern Alberta that aren't in bam there's numerous world heritage sites in Alberta we're going to visit some many of these places are not that well known but all of them are thrilling so let's begin the first stop is Dinosaur Provincial Park this place is located about 30 minutes north of Brooks Alberta it's world famous for its dinosaur bone finds over 40 different kinds of dinosaur bones have been discovered here there's a visitor center and a cafe during summer in some of the peak season some of the park is closed off to visitors to preserve the Heritage but there's about 6 to 8 kilometers worth of trails that you can walk around and in the summer of 2023 they were expanding the trail system you can get up close and personal to all the bad lands there are some Wildlife here including rattlesnakes but you probably won't see one if you don't like rattlesnakes go before Mother's Day or after Canadian Thanksgiving there's a 3 kmet dirt road through the park so you can also just do a driving tour and from what I understand this place has outstanding camping facilities I was here in fall and most of the camping spots were available it can get very hot here in summer Dinosaur Provincial Park also happens to be my favorite place for doing night Photography in Alberta there is no fee to enter the park and it's all paved roads to get here the next stop is Waterton National Park it's located in Southern Alberta along the Montana border one of the more famous buildings here is the Prince of Wales Hotel it sits on top of the hill overlooking the lake in Waterton there's a lot of boating activities and there's a whole bunch of hiking in fact you can hike all the way to Glacier National Park in Montana if you wanted to they do have a border crossing on the trail and within the Waterton Town site there is a waterfall it's right off the parking lot and if you want to get on the highway and drive about 20 minutes you can get to Lake Cameron this is watton's version of Marine Lake I'm here in summer and it's not that packed you can rent boats here or go hiking Waterton National Park truly is a gym in Southern Alberta Parks Canada does charge a fee to enter the park the next stop is Red Rock Canyon this is technically part of Waterton National Park but so few people people know it exists that I gave it its own section there's this Creek that goes to the mountains and it's surrounded by this vibrant red rock it's only about a kilometer and a half to walk all the way across the canyon and back but I think this place is absolutely fascinating and it's a paved Road the whole way and Red Rock Canyon is only a few feet away from the parking lot any skill level can enjoy this place and if you want to walk another 2 or 3 km round trip you can go visit another waterfall they've recently upgraded this place to make a better viewing area the next stop is riding on Stone Provincial Park this place is very important in the Blackfoot Confederacy a lot of cultural and spiritual ceremonies were held here and it got its name writing on Stone because of the petroglyphs they rode on the wall here that you can actually go see it's all paved roads to get here there isn't a fee to enter the park and I would estimate there's about 6 to 8 kilm worth of hiking you can do here some of the park is closed off to the public and of course there's rattlesnakes here too but you probably won't ever see one this park is absolutely surreal you're going to be walking through these hudos and thousands of years of wind has created some really interesting shapes this place is a world heritage site and most visitors can see everything in one day or maybe two days they do have a visitor center and a cafe open in the summer months and the camping here is exceptional the next stop is the crow Nest pass this is in the very Southwest part of the province and it borders the province of BC it's also where you can find the Frank slide about a hundred years ago a big chunk of that mountain fell onto the town of Frank it's still buried under all those rocks and there's a bunch of mining towns through Crow Nest pass all of which have a bunch of unique shops and buildings and even in the summer months it's not really all that busy compared to Bam you could do fishing hiking and camping all throughout the crow Nest pass there's a whole bunch of smaller parks around here too and because all of these towns are mining towns there's a whole bunch of museums and Exhibits preserving the mining history there's even some abandoned mines a couple of which offer tours so you can go inside of them and once you're here you're not that far away from a couple of the other places like riding on Stone and water toon National Park and on your way into Crow Nest pass you can see the famous burmis tree and also you can stop by at lumbre waterfalls there's no hiking required here these Falls are just a few feet away from the parking lot and it's just off Highway 3 the next stop is drum heler Alberta this is is not just a city it's a region and it's right in the heart of the bad lands the more popular spot here is Horseshoe Canyon it takes about half a kilometer to walk into the canyon but then you can get up close and personal to all the bad lands and there's no snakes here you may see some other Wildlife if you're a dinosaur Enthusiast the whole town is filled with a bunch of dinosaur related museums and Exhibits and Enders hoodoo Trail probably the most famous part of Drumheller it's just outside of town There's No admission fee and plenty of parking and they've made it easy for people to walk around to explore this area but you're not just restricted to the official area you're welcome to get and explore most of this area some people have even climbed up to the very top of the valley Drumheller Valley also has a few ghost towns like Dorothy Frank and the East mine and just north of town is horse thief Canyon a lot of people don't know about this place most of it is on private property but there are plenty of spots here that you can get out and walk around and don't forget to stop into the city they have a whole bunch of these dinosaur statues great shopping and even more museums and Exhibits the next stop is Red Rock this this is my favorite Badlands in all of Alberta it is pretty remote it's about 30 minutes south of medicon Hat Alberta the only Services here is a picnic table and a parking lot nothing else they've got hundreds of these massive red Boulders and a little bit of Badlands you're free to pretty much explore the whole valley and and some of these rocks are taller than me I'm 6' 3 and they're pretty much everywhere there's not very many well-defined trails but you don't really need it here and most people can visit at least part of this park without much effort it's highly recommended you don't visit this park while it's raining or when it just finished raining when it's wet it's very slippery and it's difficult to walk and if you feel like walking another kilometer and a half into the valley you can see some amazing bad lands I've been here many times and I've never seen another person in this part of the park I have seen a couple rattlesnakes here though so if you don't like snakes don't come during summer the next place we're going to visit is Canon ascus Park it's actually a collection of a whole bunch of provincial parks west of Calgary in the mountains and it's got most of the same features as bam including waterfalls and you're going to see some wild life I've seen more grizzly bears in Canon ascus than I've ever seen in B in the summer months they open up the Highland Pass that's a paved road that goes right to the heart of Canon ascus and along this highway there's a bunch of smaller Parks like this one this is lower Canon ascus Lake I'm here on a beautiful day in September and there's nobody here except for a person trying to get their boat in the water then I went to Upper Canon ascus Lake same thing there wasn't anybody here except for one guy fishing a lot of people who live in Southern Alberta prefer doing hiking in Canon ascus because there's less people and the views are just as stunning as bamp I've never had any trouble getting a parking spot except when you go to the Highland Trail it's a famous Trail in Canon ascus but it's almost impossible to get parking there wedge Pond is one of my favorite places for picnics and I also like going to mount lorett ponds this is about a 2 kmet hike around the ponds and the trail is paved and very well maintained some other parks in Canon ascus that people like to visit would be Peter lah Park durur Canyon and grassy Lakes I'll put a link to the Canon ascus website in the description below so you could check out all the different places you can visit and there's even a Canon ascus village where there's services and hotels there is a fee to enter this park at every entrance Point they'll provide you with instructions on how to pay for a pass and there are kiosks and here are some bonus places to visit Cypress Hills in the southeast part of the province and it shares a park with Saskatchewan it's like bam without the mountains or the tourists there's lots of hiking lots of Wildlife and a lot of people also bring their boat I was here on a nice September day and it was pretty much dead there is a town that has all the services as well including hotels the next stop is the happiest place in Alberta the birds of prey sanctuary in cell Alberta they have all sorts of birds for you to come and check out here but for me what makes this place special is for $6 you get a great big bag of duck food my goodness that was more fun than I expected and in MOS the AL Al Berta just southeast of Calgary they offered train rides at the Aspen Crossing I've never actually taken the train ride before but I've seen the train go by a few times and people seem to enjoy it they also have a massive Campground and an event [Music] center Star Trek fans may enjoy vul in Alberta all over town you're going to find Star Trek stuff and they have a great big Visitor Center with a whole bunch of products and Gifts you can buy that Star Trek related and it looks like they recre Trek Enterprise if there's something in this video that I missed please leave it in the comment section below I really hope you enjoyed this video thank you so much for watching

Channel: Chris Attrell

Views: 327,390

Keywords: alberta

Id: 4jJmOWxZmBs

Length: 17min 20sec (1040 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 08 2023