Destination: KANANASKIS VILLAGE, Alberta

Alberta's Kananaskis Country attracts visitors year-round

The 36-hole Kananaskis Country Golf Club features mountain vistas.

 KANANASKIS VILLAGE, Alta. -- This is what Banff probably looked like a couple of lifetimes ago, a small yet elegant enclave in the Rockies, inconspicuously tucked into a seemingly endless wilderness, humbled by a ring of craggy and imposing peaks.

 Two hotels. A trading post. Convenience store and post office. The occasional cougar darting through the village square. Bears foraging along the two-lane blacktop that links the holiday hamlet to the Trans-Canada Highway and Calgary, only about an hour to the east.

 But driving to Kananaskis can be a bit of a shock, especially travelling from the west. Leaving Banff National Park, the mountains lose their height and breadth. Out of the shadow of the peaks, the big Prairie sky broadens the horizon as the landscape flattens.

 But take a slight turn, south on Highway 40, and the Rockies return in a snap. This area, known as Kananaskis Country, is Alberta's gift to itself from the oil boom of the '70s and the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

 In the late 1970s, then-premier Peter Lougheed, his government cash-rich from black gold, designated the 4,000-square-kilometre Kananaskis Country recreation area. It includes four provincial parks: Bow Valley, Bragg Creek, Elbow-Sheep and the one named for the former premier.

 In 1983, the area began to develop some of its destination distinction with the opening of the high-calibre 36-hole Kananaskis Country Golf Club. By 1987, two tasteful hotels -- the Lodge at Kananaskis and the Kananaskis Inn -- sat at the foot of the mountainside where the Olympic downhill skiing events would be held a year later. They remain the only hotels in the village.

 But it is enough to attract a year-round stream of weekending Albertans and visiting tourists, and even the occasional Hollywood crowd. Clint Eastwood came to film his Oscar-winning Unforgiven (1992), and Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins followed for Legends of the Fall (1994).

 Here, the real legend of the fall is the golden eagle, since the Kananaskis Valley is a migration flyway for the majestic raptor. October also presents the last opportunities on the golf club's Mount Kidd and Mount Lorette courses, designed by noted American architect Robert Trent Jones Sr.

 But, for skiers, the coming snows also signal the opening of the Nakiska ski area, on 2,816-metre-high Mount Allen, its 30 alpine runs and trails a legacy of the '88 Olympics, and Fortress Mountain, a white powder favourite for skiers and snowboarders of every skill level.

 But perhaps the greatest attraction of Kananaskis Village is that it doesn't have a single strip of neon, not even a gas station, as many newcomers have learned the hard way.

 Yet it's difficult to imagine a more pleasant place to run out of gas.

 Besides, the bellhops at the lodge have gas rations for those running on empty.

BOTTOM LINE:

Tips on travel to Alberta's Kananaskis Country:

 Where: 90 kilometres southwest of Calgary; bordered by the towns of Bragg Creek, Longview and Canmore. Kananaskis Village, about 20 minutes south on Highway 40 from the Trans-Canada, is open year-round.

 Winter activities: Downhill and cross-country skiing, sleigh rides, ice skating, tobogganing, dogsledding, snowshoeing, snowmobiling and ice fishing.

 Summer activities: Golf, tennis, horseback riding, mountain biking, kayaking, river rafting, fishing, helicopter hiking.

 Kananaskis Country info: Phone: (403) 673-3985; Web site: www.gov.ab.ca/env/parks/
prov--parks/kananaskis.

 The Lodge at Kananaskis: 321 rooms -- including two-level units with loft bedrooms, fireplaces and balconies -- three restaurants, lounge, deli, health club, indoor swimming pool, games room, shopping arcade. Rates: January-May, $129-$469; June-October, $219-$599. Christmas family packages (rates start at $212 per person for two nights, double occupancy) include some meals, skating parties, sleigh rides, carolling, ice carving, native arts and crafts, wine tasting and a visit from Santa. Reservations: 1-800-441-1414; www.cphotels.com.

 Kananaskis Inn: 90 rooms, restaurant, pub. Rates: $95 to $200. Christmas special (Dec. 24-27): $799.99 per couple, includes three nights, breakfast and dinner, choice of either a ski-lift ticket or sleigh ride. Phone: 1-888-591-7501; Web site: www.kananaskisinn.com.

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