Banff is the first national Park declared anywhere in the world, done at a time when the idea of reserving huge tracts of land for the enjoyment of future generation was an admirable, though unheard of, concept. The park in the Rocky Mountains of western Alberta remains a lovely and as enjoyable as it must have seemed to the early CPR railway surveyors searching for a route through the mountains to join the then colony of British Columbia to Canada. Nowadays, the park is laced with roads and hiking trails, and the town of Banff is severely pressed to maintain a balance between serving the needs of the millions of visitors each year and the responsibility of maintaining a pristine wilderness environment. This is the Number One national park in the world to this day!,
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Immediately adjacent to Banff NP is Jasper National Park, which was created a bit later for the same reason - to protect a wonderful pristine wilderness while pushing trough a rail line to the coast to bind British Columbia more closely, but also to provide access to a second west coast port, Prince Rupert. The park has only one small urban area, the town of Jasper, and is home to the marvelous Columbia Icefield at the Athabasca Glacier, the loveliest lake in the world, Maligne, and the majestic peaks of the massive Victoria Range. As a bonus, Mount Robson Park is also included, as are town site insets for both Banff and Jasper, so anyone visiting the Canadian Rockies can benefit from using this map.