Showcase your province's varied landscapes

[Klazu]

The Rockies are surely nice and the area around Banff beautiful (no denying that), but they are surprisingly far from Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton. One hour drive is in my books faraway to get to mountains. Same with Badlands.

Albertans have a beautiful province (outside of the Oilsands disaster area), but people live further away from all the variety than British Columbians do. And there is no ocean or even large lake in the province.

Each province do have their merits, but the concentration and proximity to these things is unbeatable in British Columbia.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Allan83

BC has prairies and badlands? Where? Quebec has big mountains? “Varied” is a subjective term...

Quebec has a few mountain ranges in the Appalachians... smaller than out West obviously, though. For example:



It also has at least 1) the sea, 2) deciduous St. Lawrence valley forests, 3) a true arctic, over AB, in addition to nearly all AB has. Doesn't have any true deserts, though.

I'm pretty sure BC is the most varied province, it even has drier spots in its interior. I would also say Quebec is 2nd for geographical variety as it's the only other large province that combines both "decent" mountains and coasts, in addition to everything else that many other provinces have (boreal forests, deciduous forests, plains, lakes, etc.)

And FWIW, I don't think there's any pride to have in having the most varied province... it's not like the people of BC built it themselves.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Its like people in Nevada, Montana, or Texas trying to claim that they are more geographically varied than California.

I think TX could give CA a run for its money on that one. It has more of what I'd call the "main biome" zones in it. Westernmost TX is pure Southwest. The Panhandle is pure Great Central Plains. Easternmost is truly Gulf Coast/Deep South geographically.

CA just has the sea and mountains. Like Oregon. And Washington State. And BC.

I could see how one could argue that TX is more varied than any of the above (and any other state or province, actually).

[Allan83]

BC does have prairies, in the northeast corner. It is called the Peace River. BC also has a massive plateau system in the Cariboo, very akin to the foothills. Also, the rolling grasslands of the Nicola valley are very prairie feeling (look around Douglas Lake Ranch).

The dry semi desert canyon systems of the Fraser and Thompson rivers are also essentially badlands themselves. Especially the Fraser north of Lillooet.

And yes, Quebec does have rather large mountain systems.

This feels like the classic missunderstanding that BC is just mountains and forrest.

I’ve driven the #1 and the #3 from Calgary to Vancouver and back many times, and I’ve been to the dry Kamloops valley, and down the Fraser Valley, and I’ve been to Vancouver Island, Long Beach, Tofino, Cathedral Grove, and many other places. While there is a lot of variety in these places, BC kind of is mostly mountains and trees. It certainly lacks the wide open prairie vistas, and the deep prairie river valleys that were formed by glacial runoff. I’m sure it has a few drumlins, eskers, and coteaus as well, but it really doesn’t have anywhere that has the same features and feel as the southern Canadian prairies, or the rocks and lakes of the Canadian Shield that you get in the northern parts of the prairie provinces, and in many places in BC and Quebec as well. I will admit that there is a great variety of mountains and trees in BC, quite amazing really, and I highly recommend it as a place to visit and explore, but as some who grew up on the Canadian prairies I find that BC also lacks a lot of variety that other places have. And that’s fine too. I highly recommend visiting and exploring Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba as well.

[PhilippeMtl]

Lac aux Américains


source:http://www.terdav.com/

Tadoussac:

source:www.laviecanadienne.com

Bonaventure River:

source: http://www.pleinairalacarte.com/phot...ure/p-259.html

Jupiter River:

source:http://www.anticostiphotos.com/galer...138_large.html

Vaureal Canyon:

source:http://www.anticostiphotos.com

[Allan83]

Originally Posted by Klazu

The Rockies are surely nice and the area around Banff beautiful (no denying that), but they are surprisingly far from Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton. One hour drive is in my books faraway to get to mountains. Same with Badlands.

Albertans have a beautiful province (outside of the Oilsands disaster area), but people live further away from all the variety than British Columbians do. And there is no ocean or even large lake in the province.

Each province do have their merits, but the concentration and proximity to these things is unbeatable in British Columbia.

An hour from downtown Calgary gets you to Canmore, which is well into the mountains. 40 minutes gets you into the Kananaskis, and if you live in the SW you can get to the foothills west of Bragg Creek in even less time.

Btw, you should probably know that the oilsands open pit areas take up about 700 km2, while the boreal forest in Alberta covers about 450,000 km2, so the oilsands take up less than 0.2% of that area, and all of that will be reclaimed. I suspect you’ve been mislead by people who don’t really give a crap about the environment. Real environmentalists don’t lie, after all. Many of the high profile BC environmental groups are really just political groups that hide behind the language of environmentalism, hoping to trick people like you. Why do you think they talk so much about Alberta, and say so little about all the mining disasters in BC, and raw sewage from Victoria that’s washing up on Washington state beaches? It’s because their real motives have nothing to do with the environment. The fact that they largely ignore BC's issues while trying to point deceptive fingers at Alberta puts BC's environment at greater risk, in fact, because attention is diverted away from the real issues, and then you get disasters like this most recent tailings pond breach. So be sure to check your facts, and be careful who you align yourself with.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Wash...081/story.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...ters-1.1177305

[Metro-One]

Really Allan? OK, whatever, you are right, but I will continue to put much more faith in literature actually published by geographers and other earth scientists.

PS I love how you completely downplay anything to do with the ocean and the massive canyon and valley systems along the #1 and #3, while overplaying the badland river valleys in Alberta.

If those are considered massive deep valleys, then the valleys in BC must have blown your mind

And there is much more to BC than the areas you have listed, again, such as the Peace River area, the Chilcotin grasslands, the Fraser Canyon north of Lillooet (by far the most impressive Canyon system in southern BC but rarely seen by people), The Cariboo plateau, etc...

And with the ocean, you do get many geographical features, such as fiords, inlets, long beaches, massive river deltas, Island chains, etc... all which are not in Alberta.

But whatever

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by Klazu

The Rockies are surely nice and the area around Banff beautiful (no denying that), but they are surprisingly far from Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton. One hour drive is in my books faraway to get to mountains. Same with Badlands.

The Rockies are far from Calgary? I'll mention that the next time I drive there from my inner city house in less than 45 minutes You can literally see them from a good 40% of places in the city. Banff is an hour away, deep inside the Rockies. The Rockies (hiking, camping, rafting, etc) are not an hour away. Trust me, I've been to them around once a month for the past 2.5 years

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

The Rockies are far from Calgary? I'll mention that the next time I drive there from my inner city house in less than 45 minutes You can literally see them from a good 40% of places in the city. Banff is an hour away, deep inside the Rockies. The Rockies (hiking, camping, rafting, etc) are not an hour away. Trust me, I've been to them around once a month for the past 2.5 years

Still 4 times further than North Shore Mountains.

[Chadillaccc]

So because they're not right here, that means they're far away? I see... Again, wonderful photos, stupid subjective conversation to nowhere. We will never agree, so stop trying to argue.




Calgary to Shuswap - Part 2












All photos by me.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

So because they're not right here, that means they're far away? I see...

Yep.

Originally Posted by Klazu

It's incredible that I can just take my bike (no car needed) and everything from mountains, beaches, canyons and rainforest to vast farm fields is within my reach

Great photos, Chad.

[Trans Canada]

Great photos Chad, especially water and sunset.

Klazu, you must have mistaken this for the "Showcase your city's varied landscapes" thread. A province's varied landscapes need not be in biking distance.

I don't think anyone would deny that Vancouver (and the surrounding area) is Canada's most beautiful city.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Trans Canada

Klazu, you must have mistaken this for the "Showcase your city's varied landscapes" thread. A province's varied landscapes need not be in biking distance.

Of course not and I am sure you got my point about the proximity. This is also not a serious discussion/debate by any means.

However, the closer these landscapes are to people, the more frequently people will use them. Having lived next to Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Germany for five years I always hated it that I had to drive/travel an hour just to get out of the city. In Vancouver I live in middle of Downtown and still it takes me only 10 mins by car or 20 mins by bike to be in an old growth rainforest / canyon / mountains. That's something unique to most major cities in the world and I love it.

With that clarified, back to photos, please.

[Allan83]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Really Allan? OK, whatever, you are right, but I will continue to put much more faith in literature actually published by geographers and other earth scientists.

PS I love how you completely downplay anything to do with the ocean and the massive canyon and valley systems along the #1 and #3, while overplaying the badland river valleys in Alberta.

If those are considered massive deep valleys, then the valleys in BC must have blown your mind

And there is much more to BC than the areas you have listed, again, such as the Peace River area, the Chilcotin grasslands, the Fraser Canyon north of Lillooet (by far the most impressive Canyon system in southern BC but rarely seen by people), The Cariboo plateau, etc...

And with the ocean, you do get many geographical features, such as fiords, inlets, long beaches, massive river deltas, Island chains, etc... all which are not in Alberta.

But whatever

Oh yes, water too. I would be remiss if I forgot to mention the ocean. In fact BC has all three elements from the famous song in abundance.

• Video Link

See, where I grew up, not so much. It’s more like sky and soil and grass and bushes. This is much different than BC, but very varied in its own right.

http://www.usask.ca/biology/rareplan...tour/index.php

If those are considered massive deep valleys, then the valleys in BC must have blown your mind.

The first time, yes they did, but they are also a very different kind of valley. My family had a cottage on this lake when I was young. It's a little more than half an hour north of Regina.


http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...ntain_Lake.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Mountain_Lake

[Airboy]

Morning Shot just west of Edmonton. A reclaimed coal mine.

[Trans Canada]

I saw some amazing aurorae above northern Alberta about an hour ago, could still be going at this moment. I'll post some pics when I find my camera cord....

[uzi]

^Had any luck?

[Trans Canada]

Click for full size (very blurry - no tripod). All photos by me.

[uzi]

ive been chasing this freakin ribbon from 3weeks but had no luck. im jealous of you. I wanna see it. nice pics btw!

[Canada1]

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