This mystic place surprised me a lot.
“Quiet, chill, and natural”, that’s how people described this place before I came here. They are right, this place is so quiet that you can hear the sound of dropping frozen leaves. It’s so chill that eating a cup of milkshake still can warm you up. It’s so natural that you will forget there is a smartphone in your pocket while walking on trails.
Kananaskis is one of the improvement districts in Alberta, located southwest of Calgary. The administrative center of this district is Kananaskis Village, which is a resort community that features numerous amenities for skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, and mountain cycling. The nordic spa and the golf course are also popular with tourists.
I love this very touristy area while it’s inconvenient sometimes, I don’t have the budget to buy a used car, therefore, I can’t go anywhere on my day off. Instead, I start short conversations with everyone I meet here, it’s interesting that they share so many things about Kananaskis I never knew.
So, I am going to let you know 5 things that surprised me a lot about this lovely town.
1. No Timmies
Tim Hortons is the largest coffee shop in Canada, there are about 3,500 Tim Hortons locations in Canada of March 2022. They serve over 5 million cups of coffee per day, but there is no Tim Hortons in Kananaskis Village. No 7-Eleven, no groceries store, no hospital & pharmacy, no gas station either. There are 25 kilometers from here to the nearest Timmies, it may take you about 5 hours to get a “Double Double” on foot, and costs you another 5 hours to return the accommodation then tell your roommates “I’ve finally gotten my favorite drinks, wooo!”. I appreciate my boss offers food & drinks discounts for the staff or I might die in hunger, I know nothing about hunting and have no idea where to find staple food or meat without a car. The residence department provides a shuttle bus service for us, though, but only once a week to Canmore or Calgary for picking up groceries.
BTW, Kananaskis still has a post office, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and an Emergency Services Centre. My two roommates come here because they joined Kananaskis Firefighting Residency Apprenticeship Program(FRAP), which is providing opportunities for individuals looking to enter the fire service.
2. Conservation Pass
The number of visitors has increased by 70% since 2014, and there are almost 5.4 million visits to Kananaskis in 2020, that’s one million more than Banff national park. Unfortunately, the government of Alberta found this place has seen significantly more litter, illegal parking, overcrowded day use, human-wildlife conflicts, and injuries in the past few years. They want to balance the recreational opportunities and conservation, which means they need more resources to maintain K-Country.
Kananaskis conservation pass was announced in April last year and has beginning on June 1st, 2021. The pass is for vehicles entering into the park and provincial sites in Bow Valley, the price is CA$15/day or CA$90/year per vehicle. People can purchase the pass online from the official website or buy it in person at the visitor information center.
Therefore, before you come to experience Kananaskis, don’t forget to get the pass while supporting conservation efforts in this area.
3. Hollywood Films
When the lunch with my manager in western Calgary, he asked me “What genre of movie do you like?”, I said “Maybe fantasy or documentary, like the Harry Potter series, Blood Diamond, and Brokeback Mountain”, I felt strange why he suddenly ask me about films, then he told me Brokeback Mountain(2005) was mainly filmed in Kananaskis. “Really?” I answered with surprise! He continued “You mentioned Blood Diamond that the lead actor is Leonardo DiCaprio, he has come here at least two times because some of the scenes of Inception(2010) and The Revenant(2015) were shot in Kananaskis”.
There are two newer movies that were shot primarily in Kananaskis, which are Land(2021) and Togo(2019). I haven’t seen that so I will definitely watch them with curiosity and a special perspective.
4. G8 Summit
The 28th G8 summit was held in Kananaskis in June 2002. I don’t know all of them but I can recognize Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Canada; President George W. Bush, USA; Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Japan, and the young Putin. The mountain behind them is Mt. Kidd.
Two decades have passed, Mt. Kidd still standing there, the spirits remain the same year after year while people change year by year. I hope leaders never forget the meaning of the G8 summit which aims to tackle global problems by negotiating.
5. Olympic Winter Games
Nakiska Ski Area, a ski resort in Kananaskis Country, was chosen to host Alpine skiing at the 1988 Winter Olympics. Nowadays, It is still open for skiing enthusiasts and is selected as a training center of Alpine Canada. The photo below shows the slopes of Nakiska on Mount Allen.
Traveling is learning.
Reading history is boring, but getting involved with history is always fun, that’s why I am fascinated by it.
Lastly, my first friend in Kananaskis, Eric, uses these two words to describe here — “Peaceful” and “Home”.
