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Kananaskis Country Review

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Kananaskis Country

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Category: Scenic Drives
Location: Banff National Park

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Fodor's Review:

Three provincial parks make up the 1,600-square-mi (4,200-square-km) recreational region known as Kananaskis Country, whose northern entrance is 16 mi (26 km) southeast of Canmore. The area includes grand mountain scenery, though perhaps not quite a match for that in the adjacent national parks. You can take part in the same activities you'd find in the national parks, and Kananaskis allows some activities that are prohibited within the national-park system, such as snowmobiling, motorized boating, off-road driving, and mountain biking. The main route through Kananaskis Country is Highway 40, also known as the Kananaskis Trail. It runs north-south through the front ranges of the Rockies. Only the northern 25 mi (40 km) of the road remain open from December 1 through June 15, in part because of the extreme conditions of Highwood Pass (at 7,280 feet, the highest drivable pass in Canada), and in part to protect winter wildlife habitats in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park and southward. Highway 40 continues south to join Highway 541, west of Longview. Access to East Kananaskis Country, a popular area for horseback trips, is on Highway 66, which heads west from the town of Priddis.

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