A Park Less Visited Lots To Do And See Away From All The Crowds

The Inland Northwest is blessed with a generous quantity of wilderness areas and national, state and county parks, but too many of them are being loved to death.

An excess of visitors means crowding, noise, vandalism and damage to fragile environments.

With the idea of encouraging people to spread out and learn about some off-the-beaten-path areas, here are some locations worthy of a visit. These getaway areas receive little media attention, which translates to fewer people and cars. Yet they have streams and lakes for fishing, trails for hiking and biking, and plenty of places for camping or wildlife watching.

Yoho National Park British Columbia

Yoho National Park is one of the lesser-known parks in the Canadian Rockies. It is located on the western slopes of the mountain range and is directly northwest of and adjacent to Banff National Park.

Yoho is noted for its waterfalls and glacial lakes. Water created one of the park’s major attractions, a natural rock bridge over Kicking Horse River. Water also formed the hoodoos, pillars of glacial silt topped by precariously balanced boulders, creating long-stemmed toadstool shapes.

The park’s waters also created spectacular waterfalls and carved steep canyons, necessitating the building of a spiral railroad tunnel inside a mountain in order for the trains to gain enough elevation to make it over the summit.

And millions of years ago, its waters helped to create the Burgess Shale, a fossil bed containing the remains of more than 120 marine animal species.

For information, call (604) 343-6324.

Peter Lougheed Provincial Park Alberta

Peter Lougheed Provincial Park is located in southwest Alberta’s Kananaskis Country. The park is a wilderness setting on the eastern slope of the Canadian Rockies. Towering, snow-capped granite peaks, pristine lakes, alpine meadows and glacial streams provide panoramic views.

Like most state and provincial parks, Lougheed offers ranger-guided interpretive programs for visitors. The park has a good selection of hiking, biking and equestrian trails, roadside and backcountry camping, and lots of water for recreation.

The park has a very special lodge. William Watson Lodge (403-591-7227) is a facility especially designed to accommodate people with special needs, either overnight guests or day visitors. The lodge’s facilities, cabins and the vehicle and tent sites are all equipped for the disabled visitor. All nature trails are barrier-free.

Cathedral Lakes Provincial Park British Columbia

Cathedral Lakes Provincial Park is just across the U.S./Canada border in the Okanagan region of south-central British Columbia. The closest large town is Keremeos, about 20 miles northeast of the park.

The park offers a unique experience for its visitors because it lies in the transition zone between the western rain forest of the Cascade Mountains and the arid Okanagan Valley. A variety of flora can be found in the park, and the big game animals are popular photo subjects.

The best access to the park is via the Cathedral Lakes Lodge Jeep. The Jeep departs from Ashnola Road, and a reservation is required.

For more information on the park and the lodge’s offerings, call Cathedral Lakes Lodge, (604) 499-5848.

Eagle Cap Wilderness Oregon

The Eagle Cap Wilderness is located in the northeast corner of Oregon. It lies adjacent to the famed Hells Canyon National Recreation Area and Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.

Eagle Cap is an enormous alpine wilderness area encompassing high peaks, deep lakes, rushing streams, towering forests and alpine meadows. Within its boundaries are more than 500 miles of trails for horses, llamas and hikers. Motorized and mechanized vehicles (ORVs and bicycles) are barred from the trails because Eagle Cap is a federally designated wilderness area.

For more information on the unlimited recreational opportunities in the region, call one of the following.

Visitors Information Center, (503) 742-5722.

Pine Ranger District, (503) 742-7511.

Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, (503) 426-4978 or 523-6391.

Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce, (503) 426-4622.

Eastern Oregon Visitors Association, (800) 332-1843.