The conference will be held in Kananaskis Village, in the heart of Kananaskis Country. The conference hotel is the Delta Lodge at Kananaskis. This is the site of the G8 Summit in 2002 and the downhill skiing events of the 1988 Winter Olympics. It is only one hour and fifteen minutes from the Calgary International Airport, which has twice-daily flights to London and Frankfurt, and frequent flights to major North American cities. Kananaskis Country is between Calgary and Banff National Park. It is the preferred mountain playground for Calgarians, because it is not as commercialized as Banff Park. The area does have excellent amenities, however, including 36 holes of a public golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones, horse stables, bike trails (road and mountain bike), and, of course, some great hiking trails and camping.
Kananaskis Country (pdf map) (lovingly called K-Country) is an Alberta provincial controlled-use area that includes two major provincial parks: Peter Lougheed Provincial Park (south of Kananaskis Village on Highway 40) and Bow Valley Provincial Park (north of Kananaskis Village on the TransCanada Highway). It is bounded (approximately) on the north by the TransCanada Highway (#1), on the west by Banff National Park, on the east by suburban communities of Calgary (Bragg Creek, Turner Valley and Longview), and on the south by British Columbia and more mountains. It consists of mountains, lakes, forests and foothills.
Albertans are very protective of K-Country and are determined that it should never achieve the tourist status of Banff National Park or Whistler-Garibaldi. Nevertheless, they have allowed some discrete enhancements to go into K-Country, and these are described below.
In his search for Canada's 50 most essential pop songs, CBC's Jian Gomeshi picked Ian Tyson's Four Strong Winds as the best. It is sung by Ian and Sylvia, and Ian sings in the bridge "I think I'll go out to Alberta, weather's good there in the fall." Indeed, when Ian Tyson split from Sylvia Fricker, he did move to a ranch in Longview Alberta, just outside K-Country on the eastern slopes of the Rockies. His endorsement of the weather is accurate, particularly for K-Country.
The skies are often clear in September. Kananaskis Village has a 1500 metre elevation, so the evenings can be chilly. There could even be a snowstorm, but it most likely would just be on the mountain tops, giving you some beautiful morning views of the snow-dusted mountains.
The Delta Lodge at Kananaskis has offered us special conference rates. It is a spacious hotel with large rooms, equipped with bathrobes and other luxuries. The hotel has a spa, well-equipped exercise room, and a salt-water indoor-outdoor pool.
Brewster runs a motorcoach shuttle from the Calgary Airport to Kananaskis Village. You should make a booking to ensure your seat. There is only one departure from the airport to Kananaskis (leaving the airport at 6:30 pm). There are two departures from Kananaskis Village to the Calgary Airport (8:30 am and 12:30 pm). These will cover the common flights to most cities (including the European destinations).
The drive from the Calgary International Airport to K-Country is one hour and fifteen minutes. You do not need to buy a park pass, since you do not go through Banff National Park. Parking throughout K-Country is free, including the parking at the hotel.
K-Country is served by well-maintained paved roads, so you don't need to rent an SUV – a sedan will do. There are optional gravel roads that you can take in K-Country, but they are all passable by car – remember to roll up your windows for the dust. You may find it most convenient to rent a car at the Calgary Airport to come to the Conference, as there is no public transport in K-Country. Think of your fellow participants, and ask who might be coming in on your flight, in order to offer them a ride – this is particularly important for PhD students.
To drive to Kananaskis Village, ask the car rental centre for directions to the TransCanada Highway (#1 West): north on Barlow Trail, to west on Country Hills Boulevard, to south on Stoney Trail, to west on the TransCanada Highway. From the TransCanada Highway, turn south on Highway 40, where the signs point to Kananaskis Country. Proceed until you see the turnoff to Kananaskis Village on your right.
Kananaskis Country has several short wheelchair-accessible interpretive trails. These are typically less than 1 km long and can be enjoyed by anybody on the spur of the moment. They have signs or brochures with signposts on the trail to tell you what you are looking at. They are informative for children and adults alike, and show you some beautiful and interesting things. One such trail is the rim walk south of the conference hotel.
The Province of Alberta has 4 interpretive and information centres in Kananaskis Country, where you can go to learn about the local environment and get information about hiking trails, including trail conditions. These centres are run by naturalists, not tour operators, so you can go in to get information and not feel that you have to buy anything. As you drive south on Highway 40 towards Kananaskis Village, the Barrier Lake Interpretive Centre is on you right shortly after you cross the Texas gate to get into K-Country (a Texas gate is a sequence of pipes across the road that keep cattle in the Stoney Reserve from going into K-country). It is very close to Kananaskis Village, and you should drop in before embarking on a back country hike.
There is a very nice interpretive centre in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park (to the south), with a nearby interpretive trail. It has a small museum and a movie theatre for films on nature.
One of the "deemed assets" of the Alberta Heritage Trust fund is the award-winning public Kananaskis Country Golf Course at Kananaskis Village. It has 36 holes designed by Robert Trent Jones. You can book ahead, although they accept some walk-up golfers.
A less challenging golf course, 20 minutes to the north, is Brewster's Kananaskis Ranch Golf Resort. It is at the foot of the limestone cliff face of Mt Yamnuska, at the north end of Kananaskis Country, just off the TransCanada Highway.
Another fine golf course, 30 minutes to the north and west along the TransCanada Highway in Canmore, is the Silvertip Golf Resort. (A silvertip is a grizzly bear with silver-tipped hairs.)
The Kananskis River flows from a dam on lower Kananaskis Lake. Kayaking and rafting opportunities depend on the schedule for high water-flow from the dam. There are commercial white water rafting companies (Boundary Ranch, Inside Out, Chinook River Sports). Kayaking on the Kananaskis River is a popular sport, and you can get more information from the Alberta Whitewater Association (put Kananaskis into their search engine).
Boundary Ranch runs horseback trail rides.
Our conference hotel has several restaurants and lounges. There is a pub in Kananaskis Village. Otherwise, consider dining at the Kananaskis Golf Course, or travelling to Canmore to sample its fine restaurants. The conference registration includes breakfast, snack breaks, a Friday reception and Saturday lunch and dinner, so you won't need to search for more dining unless you extend your stay.
Many people focus on hiking instead, where they find that trail mix and water or a sports drink tastes like a gourmet meal, after a 200 meter elevation gain to a beautiful viewpoint.
K-country is not for the tourist power-shopper. If you want to buy a fur coat, fudge, Christmas ornaments, cameras, Canadian art, skis and sporting goods or gemstones, you should consider a trip to Calgary, Canmore or Banff.
But, you might wind up in K-Country and realize you've forgotten something essential. The hotel has a nice gift shop and Kananaskis Village has a convenience store. There are convenience stores at Kananaskis Village and at the nearby Mount Kidd RV Park – both stock Bear Spray (Pepper Spray), which is a good idea if you go into the back country. There is a gas station at Fortress Junction, south of Kananaskis Village on Highway 40 and it also has a convenience store. The shop that rents bicycles and canoes in Kananaskis Village also sells some hiking gear.
You can rent bicycles in Kananaskis Village. K-Country has some nice paved roads for people on road bikes. Highway 40 has broad shoulders and a modest speed limit, so cyclists can enjoy a vigorous ride up to the Highwood Pass. There are also lots of paved cycle paths between campgrounds, the golf course and Kananaskis Village. These are popular with families at the campsites.
Mountain bike riders can find some challenging rides. Some of the trails are shared with hikers. Other hiking trails are closed to mountain bikes.
Since the park is a protected wilderness area, there is no downhill mountain biking at the ski hill (where you take the ski lift up and bounce down the mountain on a heavy-duty bike).
One of the foremost activities for Calgarians in K-Country is camping. You might want to extend your conference trip to enjoy the fabulous camping in Kananaskis Country, since the conference is the first weekend after the Labour Day weekend. You could rent a recreational vehicle (RV) or bring your tent and camp from a rental car or in the back country.
Very close to Kananaskis Village is the Mount Kidd Recreational Vehicle Park, which has a variety of sites including full and partial hookups at the foot of Mt Kidd.
There are several other campgrounds in K-Country, that are owned by the Province.
If you venture farther into the back country than a signed Interpretive Trail, you should do some preparation for your own safety and enjoyment. The Provincial Government has many naturalists in K-Country who are alert to problems with trails arising from weather, water or bear safety. You should get up-to-date information from them before proceeding into the back country. They maintain a website with trail reports and safety information, and links to downloadable maps. The 4 Visitor Centres in K-Country have this information as well.
The Friends of Kananaskis Country sell the Gem Trek 3D hiking maps and books. Most people buy one or more of Gillian Daffern's books to pick their hikes in K-Country. Two of her basic books are Popular Day Hikes: Kananaskis Country, and Short Walks For Inquiring Minds Number 1 (Canmore and Kananaskis Country). Her more comprehensive books are: Kananasksis Country Trail Guide, Vol 1 (covering the Kananaskis Valley, including Kananaskis Village and Peter Lougheed Provincial Park) and Kananasksis Country Trail Guide, Vol 2 (covering the eastern slopes of the Rockies, which are normally accessed from Calgary and Bragg Creek). Most of the convenience stores in K-Country sell these books.
The Government of Canada is at the leading edge of providing topographical NTS hiking maps for free. Their website developers aren't very good, unfortunately, and their website abounds with broken links and interfaces. If you know the NTS sheet number, you can go right to their Canmatrix listing, which generates ftp downloads. For hiking you need the high resolution 50k maps (50 000 : 1), but if you are driving or want the big picture, the 300k maps are fine. The northernmost part of K-Country is on the 82O map (downloads without a new webpage), which includes Calgary, Canmore and Banff. Most of K-Country is on 82J (downloads without a new webpage). For the 50k hiking maps, 82J14 (Spray Lakes) covers Kananaskis Village, Mt Kidd, Nakiska, Galatea and the hiking near the conference site, while 82J11 (Kananaskis Lakes) covers most of Peter Lougheed Provincial Park to the south. Farther south in K-Country, there are nice hikes, such as to Elbow Lake or Ptarmigan Cirque (at the Highwood Pass) that appear on 82J10. These maps download as a zip file, which unzips to a folder that contains all the georeferencing (GeoTIFF) information that you need to pull it into your GPS software and generate waypoints to plan your hike. Kananaskis Village is at 50.55° North and 115.09° West. If you just want the map to carry on a hike, crop the TIFF file to a printable size and print it.
Two websites provide nice information and photos of the mountains. Bivouac has photos and lists of nearby mountains. For example, enter Mt Kidd in their search engine to get the mountain behind Kananaskis Village. Nearby is Mt Allan (the ski hill). If you pay their modest subscription fee, you see more photos and trip descriptions. PeakFinder is a nice service. For example, click on Peaks by Range and look at the Kananaskis Range or Opal Range. Or try Peaks By Park to get peaks in Kananaskis. Notable nearby peaks are Mt Kidd, Mount Sparrowhawk, Mount Allen, Mount Galatea and The Fortress. You might want to look at the topographical maps to pick the mountains that you want to see. Many of these mountains are also visible from Calgary (Banded Peak, Mount Cornwall, Mount Romulus and Mount Remus, for example are easy to identify from Calgary).
If you venture beyond the short interpretive trails of K-Country, you should have proper gear. The various guide books give useful information on gear. You need rain gear and layers of fleece or wool to keep warm. Water and trail mix to eat. Light hiking boots are a good idea. You can get some of these bits of gear from the convenience stores in K-Country, but for other items you may need to go to a store specializing in such equipment. There are stores like this in Canmore and Calgary. Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC) sells clothing, equipment and maps online, and bear spray (in the store). The Calgary MEC store is at 10 Ave and 8 St SW, with several related stores across the avenue. If you are coming from the US, you can buy equipment online from Recreational Equipment Coop (REI).
K-Country has black bears and grizzly bears. The park wardens close or place warning signs on trails when they know a bear is in the area, particularly for feeding. But, bears move quickly and could be on a trail you have chosen, so you should pay attention to bear safety. Stay in close groups of 6 or more and make lots of noise (bring a co-author or referee who you can argue with or some noisy children, perhaps). Seal your food so that bears cannot smell it. If you travel alone (as park wardens do), you should carry bear spray (a form of pepper spray), and be careful if you are walking upwind, as you could surprise a bear. You can buy bear spray at the outfitting store in Kananaskis Village. If you camp in the back country, you must hang your food between two trees away from your tent.