#provincial-parks

#provincial-parks

The early morning sun is bursting around the dark corners of High Dodd and Sleet Fell, sending a flush of light across the golden bracken and on to the hammered silver of the lake.

Owl's Head has officially joined the Indy Pass, a fantastic news for Townships locals and travelers alike. It remains fiercely independent since Fred Korman opened it in 1965 with just three lifts.

The 2025-26 winter saw extreme weather, with the eastern half experiencing consistent cold and heavy snowfall, while the western half endured record warmth and a lack of snowfall.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park was the most popular park in the country last year, drawing more than 11.5 million visitors, according to data from the National Park Service. In fact, the park, which straddles North Carolina and Tennessee, accounted for 12.3 percent of all national park visits.

Confidence is highest from Sunday afternoon through Monday evening, when the individual models line up best on timing and on a colder snow-level drop. They converge on snow reaching all elevations across Alberta and staying below base at Kicking Horse and Big White.

For 2025, there was good news and bad news: overall, these areas were visited 323 million times over the course of the year. That's the good news; the bad news is that this figure was down ever so slightly - specifically, 2.7% - from a record-setting 2024.

Longer days, blooming flowers, and increasing temperatures make spring the perfect time for an escape to one of the 63 major US national parks. After traveling solo to all of them, there are a few I think are especially worth seeing between the months of March and June.

Avalanche Canada currently rates the danger as 'Extreme,' or the highest level of danger. People are encouraged to stay out of the backcountry and prepare for road closures if crews deem additional control work necessary.

The first wave is underway Friday and stays most productive through Saturday for the Alberta Rockies, with guidance tightly clustered on onset timing but looser on how far west the better snowfall bands reach.

Picture yourself standing on a small platform in the middle of a Quebec forest, balancing on what feels like an oversized bird perch. The moment your weight settles, something magical happens. A bird call rings out, blending seamlessly into an ethereal soundtrack that seems to rise from the forest itself. Welcome to Human Perches, the latest installation from Montreal design studio Daily tous les jours that's making us rethink how we experience nature.

The body is a shifting landscape transformed by surfaces and sensations. Each look captures a different tactile world: the heat of blood, the cool weight of metal, the yielding drift of water. The result is a sculptural study of how the elements carve, shield, and release the self. The materials we embody become the emotions we carry, and the body becomes a materialised exhibition of our emotions, from the pulse of Blood to the discipline of Metal to the surrender of Water.

I was five years old when I had my first encounter with a black bear. In the spring of 1990, my father, a wildlife biologist, brought home an orphaned three-month-old cub in a cardboard box. The cub's mother, having burrowed beneath the roots of an old tree, had been killed in the den by a logging excavator, but the cub, weighing barely more than a bag of apples, survived. Forestry workers caught the young bear and dropped it off at the Fish and Wildlife office in Peace River, Alberta, where my dad worked, and he called my mom with the news.

Every single one of the resort's 116 runs was open, and all 16 lifts were spinning. In early March, that's a big deal. Arriving at a mountain firing on all cylinders-with no closures shrinking the map, is a decadent experience during this trying winter. Big White provided wide-open freedom across five alpine bowls and perfectly spaced glades.

If you've never driven into Banff, it's a sensory overload. Razor-edged peaks reminiscent of the Italian Dolomites, glacier-carved valleys that echo Yosemite, and a constant play of light and shadow that shifts with every bend in the road. Photos don't do it justice.

I trekked it in December 2023 with plans and a permit to camp at Bright Angel Campground, a scenic cottonwood-shaded hideaway just near the famed Phantom Ranch (the only lodging on the world wonder's floor). Then, two days before my trip, a miracle happened: One last-minute reservation became available for Phantom Ranch. The ranch digs typically book out over a year in advance, but if you're lucky, you can either get in via the lottery or a last-minute opening. This made the grueling but gorgeous hike down and up the steep South Kaibab Trail even more memorable.

AllTrails, a hiking app with trail maps and reviews, dug into insights from their 90 million-plus members and team of trail experts to spotlight lesser-known places where the trail alone is worth planning a trip around. Their guide, Travel-Worthy Trails for 2026, spotlights eight unexpected destinations around the world where the trail is the destination.

Alaska is a hot spot for grizzly bears, easily home to the most of any of the 50 states. There are an estimated 30,000 across the entire state, representing over 98 percent of the United States population. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game manages the population, ensuring that the population remains healthy and grizzly bear viewing opportunities stay abundant.

While most are familiar with the world-class Mont Tremblant, the route there is dotted with independent resorts-each with a distinct vibe-that light up the Laurentians ( Les Laurentides ) like constellations against an ancient sky. These ranges offer something different than towering peaks: intimate terrain steeped in character. They tease the eye, spark the imagination, and possess a certain magic for producing champion skiers and snowboarders. Their ancient geology creates a singular landscape of rolling, forested hills and tight tree runs that feel worlds away from the mega-resorts.

A multi-day, mostly low-to-moderate impact storm cycle runs from Saturday night (01/10) through Tuesday night (01/13), with the Interior BC mountains picking up the best totals but also the trickiest snow quality as warmer air pushes in. Revelstoke stands out for overall accumulation, while Big White and RED Mountain see lighter, wind-affected refreshers that trend denser by late Sunday into Monday.

Whether you love it, hate it, or are just hearing about it for the first time, Alterra's Reserve Pass is likely here to stay. But if you don't know what the Reserve Pass is, it takes a slightly different appearance at a variety of Alterra ski resorts, generally encompassing a dedicated priority lift line and exclusive amenities. It's an intriguing concept, and one that makes sense in an ever-growing segmented ski resort product lineup.