Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
graphs, videos, and hands-on displays, and a great display tells the story about the bears
of Kananaskis Country. The knowledgeable staff hides hordes of literature under the desk,
but you have to ask for it. Also ask them to put a movie or slide show on in the theater;
most revolve around the park. The movie
Bears and Man
is a classic 1970s flick dealing
with public attitude toward bears—one of the first documentaries to do so. A large lounge
area that overlooks the valley to the Opal Range is used mainly in winter by cross-country
skiers but is always open for trip planning or relaxing.
Boulton Creek Trading Post
Located along Kananaskis Lakes Road, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) south of Highway 40,
this busy hub is the park's only commercial center (9am-6pm mid-May-mid-Oct., exten-
ded to 10pm in July and Aug.). It sells groceries, basic camping supplies, fishing tackle
and licenses, propane, and firewood. The store also rents bikes. Next door is an unremark-
able family-style restaurant serving up pasta, burgers, and the like. A cooked breakfast is
$10 (although the restaurant does not open until 9am). It also has an ice-cream window
and serves coffee.
The creation of 35,800-hectare (88,460-acre) Spray Valley Provincial Park in 2001
provided the final link in continuous protection between bordering Peter Lougheed Pro-
vincial Park in the south and Willmore Wilderness Park beyond the northern reaches of
Jasper National Park in the north. To the west lies the remote and rarely traveled south
end of Banff National Park, while to the north is the Bow Valley and Canmore. The park's
dominant feature is
Spray Lake Reservoir,
a 26-kilometer-long (16-mile-long) body of
water that is an integral part of a massive hydroelectric scheme. The Spray Development
began in 1948 with construction of a road between Canmore and the Spray River. The next
stage was damming the river, creating a reservoir of approximately 2,000 hectares (5,000
acres), then diverting its course through Whiteman's Pass and using the water flow as it
drops into the Bow River to generate hydroelectric power. The water drops a total of 300
vertical meters (1,000 vertical feet) and passes through three power plants, which com-
bined generate enough electricity to power a city of 100,000.
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