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Hiking Trails to Heli and Back
Copyright (c) 2006-2012 Travel Alberta, All Rights Reserved
Written by: Travel Alberta
You've hiked umpteen of Banff's hiking trails so you likely think you've really seen the Rockies? Ralph Sliger, president and operations manager of Icefield Helicopter Tours is inclined to believe you probably haven't yet got the bird's eye view that only comes with a helicopter. It's a special Rocky Mountain high. When he points out "look what you've been missing," he's referring to photo after memorable photo of jagged peaks, emerald valleys and flower carpeted alpine meadows that he's acquired in his seven years of flying customers into the strata of their dreams – and not a paved hiking trail to be seen. While the call to adventure with activities such as hiking tours is strong, it's the scenery that remains the greatest pull for people who want to get in a chopper and see it all: water, ice, mountains and trees.
"People want to see the expanse of Alberta," says Sliger. "They want to see how large the mountains really are plus our wide forests and all the incredible ice."
On one particular tour, you'll see six glaciers and high alpine lakes and fly over a 9,000 foot (2,743 metre) mountain pass and a 900 foot (274 metre) waterfall. You can also add a one-hour stop with a guide describing the flora and fauna, walk along a creek and hiking trail to another spectacular waterfall, and feast from a five-course gourmet picnic basket in the wilderness.
Visitors from Germany were recently piloted to "yoga in the wilderness," where a group of women did soulful stretches in the Kootenay Plains area and the range shadow of the Columbia Icefields. This kind of group activity is open to anyone who cares to book it, says Sliger.
A typical day at Icefield Heli in the summer season begins with the early morning fishing trip. Then the hiking tours go out, and next the sightseeing tours and picnics and special stops. Later in the afternoon, the hikers get picked up and then in the early evening, the fishermen are brought back.
"We had a gentleman in his early 70s who went for a fishing trip with his son and grandson and was overjoyed," says Sliger. "You see, he couldn't go with them before because it was an eight-hour hike and he wasn't in good enough shape physically. But this allowed him to get to where he wanted to go and have this adventure with his family."
Sliger has even taken people in wheelchairs heli-hiking, where there wasn't a long stretch of arduous hiking but a lot of wide-eyed enthusiasm.
"Aerial tours are our most popular trips, then fishing and hiking tours and then weddings," says Sliger. There's no maximum group, but there is a minimum of two required. Fishing is a minimum of three.
Rise Above the Sands of Time
Heli-adventures and sightseeing aren't limited to the Rockies. Delta Helicopter Tours operates flights out of Fort McMurray in Alberta's North country that take in the Oil Sands and dunes. Mark Hoggson, System Operations at Delta Helicopter in Edmonton, says: "It's an aerial view of some of the open pit mines and the sand dunes are like the northern desert." While they don't fly right over the mines because of airspace restrictions, the tours provide a view of this area that's otherwise hard to attain. You can cross the historic Clearwater River and fly over Northern Alberta's boreal forest en route to Fort McMurray's Oil Sands, seeing two of the largest open pit mining operations in the world. You can treat yourself to an aerial tour of the city or book a heli picnic complete with a romantic wicker picnic lunch.
Try A Little Taste Of Wilderness
Pacific Western Helicopters does scenic heli-tours that feature views of Wilmore Wilderness Park, as well as the Canadian Rockies. You can get guided heli-rafting, heli-camping or heli-horseback tours, among other choices such as helicopter boosted hiking tours. You can even heli your way to dinosaur trails! Glen Slade, Base Manager, says: "Depending on what tour you choose, you'll see waterfalls, river valleys and on a clear day, Mount Robson. We do a picnic on mountain peaks and you can spend an hour or two relaxing in a spectacular alpine setting among purple and yellow and white flowers."
Taste Of Wilderness Tours provides guiding choices with the helicopter trips, among them an interpretive tour that includes embedded dinosaur tracks, says Slade. All of the tours are flown out of Grande Cache, which is in Alberta's West country and right next to the Canadian Rockies.
Copyright © 2006 Travel Alberta, All Rights Reserved
Travel Alberta is the destination marketing organization for the Province of Alberta. Guided by the Strategic Tourism Marketing Council, Travel Alberta is the steward for the effective delivery of tourism marketing programs. For information about our organization, please visit our Travel Alberta industry web site at http://industry.travelalberta.com
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