Tag Archives: Canada UNESCO sites

Waterton Lakes National Park: Where the Prairies meet the Peaks

By Karlie Marrazzo

Southern Alberta is a special place in my home province and my favourite place to road trip. When most people think of Alberta, they picture the magnificent Rocky Mountains, crystalline blue glacial waters, and rival city hockey teams. I was born in the dead centre of the province, surrounded by prairies, not interested in hockey, and a four-hour drive away from the majestic Rockies. No matter how far I’ve journeyed in this wide, wonderful world, a chance to explore Alberta is one I will always enthusiastically take. And so far, Southern Alberta is my favourite part of the province to explore. Wheatfields stretch into an endless horizon, hoodoos and coulees provide mystery and intrigue, and the Indigenous history is rich and fascinating. The mountains are there, too, jutting sharply from the ranch land at their base. Horses, cows and hay bales dot the landscape consistently; this is real cowboy country.

Summer 2020 has been a difficult one for so many reasons, for people all over the globe. Still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, taking care of our mental health, alongside our physical health, is of paramount importance. While most of us on the planet are restricted by local and international travel restrictions, getting out and safely exploring our own backyards has become more popular than ever. After having to cancel a trip to Italy earlier this spring, I have made it a priority to get out on a few Alberta road trips this year. For our second summer road trip, my boyfriend and I headed south to Waterton Lakes National Park, with a few stops along the way.

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Lake Louise: A luxurious trip in unusual times

By Karlie Marrazzo

The world has changed completely over the last six months, and travel as we know it will likely never go back to the way it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Like millions of other avid travellers, I had a trip planned before the pandemic broke out – a trip to Italy scheduled for April – and had to cancel. Of course, this is a minuscule problem compared to those whose health and livelihoods have been impacted by COVID. As someone who suffers from anxiety on a day-to-day basis, the outbreak of the pandemic made these anxieties skyrocket and added a large dose of paranoia as well. It has been a struggle for me to think about the huge and rippling impacts COVID will continue to have on the world, the fear of getting sick looming in my mind every day. Everything locked down seemingly overnight in Canada, on a dreary weekend in mid-March. I had been reading the news from China and Italy for weeks already and dreaded the day the virus would hit closer to home. It came as no surprise to me, and when Air Canada cancelled my flights to Italy, it became all the more real.

Alas, this is a travel blog, so this post will be focusing on my first mini-trip out of town since the pandemic hit. Opening up to the idea of going out of town for a day trip or a short weekend trip was not something that happened quickly or an idea that I approached lightly. I have been very serious about isolating myself over the past four months, only seeing a very limited number of people and making essential trips to stores, so taking the step of spending two nights in a hotel, while it seems insignificant and unimportant, was a big one to me.

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Jasper Dark Sky Festival: An astronomical weekend in the Rockies

Bighorn sheep stand on the road in Jasper National Park.

By Karlie Marrazzo

A glow-in-the-dark map of the Solar System graced my bedroom wall when I was a little girl, accented by luminescent cutouts of stars, moons and planets pasted to my ceiling. As I gazed upon my artificial universe, my mind drifted to far-off worlds, fueling dreams about the endless wonders of the universe and who else might be out there with us. My passions turned to travel and the arts as I grew older, but I still find joy in gazing upon the heavens and letting my mind fly high amongst the stars. The Jasper Dark Sky Festival, presented by Rocky Mountaineer, aims to connect people of all ages to the wonders of our universe and to stargaze in one of the world’s largest dark-sky preserves.

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Giveaway! Experience the Rocky Mountains with the Epic Summer Pass! CLOSED

glacier-skywalk-jasper

By Karlie Marrazzo

It’s giveaway time! You all know how much I adore my home province of Alberta, the land of soaring mountain peaks, golden prairies and wide open skies, so I’ve teamed up with the lovely folks at Brewster Travel Canada to give away a FAMILY PACK of their brand-new Epic Summer Pass! What is an Epic Summer Pass, you ask?

The pass gives unlimited access to five of the most spectacular attractions in the world-renowned Rocky Mountains: the Banff Gondola, Banff Lake Cruise, Columbia Icefield Glacier Adventure, Glacier Skywalk and Maligne Lake Cruise. This limited edition pass, on sale until May 31, is $130 per adult and $70 per child, pays for itself after just three visits to any of the attractions. I’m giving away a family pack (two adults and two children) to one of my lucky readers! Continue reading Giveaway! Experience the Rocky Mountains with the Epic Summer Pass! CLOSED

A weekend in Banff National Park

alberta-unesco

By Karlie Marrazzo

Earlier this summer one of my longest running wishes came true; I won a trip at a Travel Alberta media event in my hometown of Edmonton. It was a small, intimate event with travel professionals and bloggers from around the province and the first event of its kind that I had ever attended. Great conversation and delicious snacks and drinks were plentiful. As the night wound down, business cards were drawn for several door prizes, each a trip to a different destinations in our spectacular, diverse province. When it came time to draw the prize of a trip to Banff for Performance in the Park, courtesy of Banff Lake Louise Tourism, my husband Dave’s card was drawn. Fortunately for me (or unfortunately for him, depending on how you want to look at it), he was to be away that weekend on his coast-to-coast Canada 5000 Rally. This left me with a free trip to one of the most beautiful places on the planet and my pick of who to have join me.

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A weekend in Dinosaur Provincial Park

dinosaur-provincial-park

By Karlie Marrazzo

Continuing on with our annual tradition of getting out of town for our anniversary, my husband Dave and I visited Dinosaur Provincial Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in our home province of Alberta, for our seventh anniversary last August. Like the year before, we wanted to stay close to home since we had a month long Europe trip just a few weeks later. Many people that we talk to here at home don’t know much about Dinosaur Provincial Park, or think that it is part of/near Drumheller, when it is two  hours, or 169km, south east of the town that is home to the world famous Royal Tyrrell Museum. My dad had camped there previously and raved about it, and we were drawn by the prehistoric history and barren badlands landscape.

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A weekend in Waterton National Park

The shore of Upper Waterton Lake.
Beautiful view from the shore of Upper Waterton Lake.

By Karlie Marrazzo

This past weekend, my husband Dave and I went to Waterton Lakes National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Southern Alberta to celebrate our sixth wedding anniversary. It’s become a tradition with us to go out of town every year for our anniversary, ever since our first anniversary of dating, all the way back in 2003. Aside from our wedding day and a couple of longer distance trips, we always spend our anniversary in the mountains, usually in Banff or Jasper. We wanted to try something new this year and have only heard good things about Waterton, so it was set. Continue reading A weekend in Waterton National Park