"Calgary - i.e. Winnipeg west" a Calgary Travel Page by Redlats

What a crock! My parents and siblings that grew up in Winnipeg have all moved to Calgary. So we go to visit at least twice a year -- usually meeting with family.

Today Calgary is a bustling city of almost 1,000,000 people. This is somewhat amazing as it was just a small ranching city of 150,000 on the way to Banff when we first came through in the 1950's. Alberta is blessed with oil, so that has sped growth of cities like Calgary and Edmonton to their current levels.

Calgary is also blessed by being the closest city to the Canadian Rockies. That means two things - Calgary gets a lot of traffic for tourists on their way to the Canadian Rockies, but is also means that on clear days, you can see mountians to the west - real cool to those of us from the flat prairies. Calgary is a very scenic city built on hills the edge of the Bow River.

This quick growth has allowed the city to plan its road network well. There is a trail system that moves traffic from one end of the city to the other - as well, there is a Light Rail Transit system (the LRT) that speeds commuters in and out of the downtown. Much of the city highway and transit systems are funded by oil revenues - so Calgary has more infrastructure building in one year that a city like Winnipeg gets in eight years.

This picture is my mother at the Peyto Lake Lookout in Banff National Park (summer 2001).