Above: The Fairmont Hotel Macdonald sits on a bluff overlooking parkland along the North Saskatchewan River

The nearest airport to Jasper National Park is in Edmonton, which rises from the Alberta prairies 140 miles east of the Rockies. Edmonton began as a trading post in 1795, expanded outside the fort over the next century and was incorporated as a city in 1904. It was named capital of Alberta a year later and grew modestly until oil was discovered nearby in 1947. As the oil and gas industry developed, the city boomed. Modern Edmonton has more than a million residents; thriving financial, high-tech and service industries; an unexpectedly vibrant arts scene; and one of the largest stretches of urban parkland in North America.

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Above: The Fairmont Hotel Macdonald sits on a bluff overlooking parkland along the North Saskatchewan River

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