1.During the conference, you could visit Banff, Bow River, and even enjoy Banff Upper Hot Springs.

2.After the conference, you may plan to have the following trip (the following plan is made according to my personal experience ^_^):

   a. 1st day

    (1) in the morning, you could have a ride of Gondola and reach to Sulphur Mountain, feeling the great view
         and going to National Weather Observation Center at the top of the mountain

    (2) then, go to Minnewanka Lake and Stewart Canyon (you might have chance to meet wildlife on the trails)

    (3) in the afternoon, you could drive to Lake Louise, on the way to Lake Louise, you could visit 
       either Johnston Canyon (there are two great waterfalls, it is beautiful) or Castle Mountain

    (4) in the evening, you will arrive Lake Louise (and you could stay at Lake Louise Inn, their breakfast buffet 
         is good :p )

   b. 2nd day

    (1) in the early morning, you could spend some time in Lake Louise, walking around and enjoy the refreshing
         air

    (2) after breakfast, you could drive to Jasper National Park, on the way to Jasper, you could spend some
        time in Bow Glacier, Crowfoot Glacier, and Bow Lake

    (3) at noon, you could have lunch at the restaurant just beside Athabasca Glacier and Columbia Ice Field ^_^

    (4) in the afternoon, you could buy a boarding pass and have a ride to Athabasca Glacier (you might want to
         prepare an empty bottle to get 100% glacier water, of course, do you really want to drink it? I would say it
         depends on you :p)

    (5) on the way to Jasper, you could also stop by Athabasca falls (it is so pretty)

    (6) in the evening, you will arrive Jasper (and you could stay at Tonquin Inn, they have free coffee at
         the reception in the morning)

   c. 3rd day

    (1) after breakfast, you should prepare some foods for picnic ^_^ (or you could prepare it last night)

    (2) in the morning, you could drive to Maligne Canyon and Medicine Lake (it is amazing! And I hope

         you have your video camera with you)

    (3) at noon, you could picnic at Maligne Lake and have a boat tour

    (4) in the evening, you could

(a) go back to Jasper, or

(b) head to Edmonton, the captial city of Alberta, directly, the driving time is approximately 3 to 4
             hours (if your return flight is from Calgary, then you can spend one more day at Edmonton;
             if your return flight is from Edmonton, then it is perfect ^_^), or

(c) go back to Calgary, the driving time is approximately 2 to 3 hours (if your return flight is
              from Calgary)

   d. 4th day (optional)

    (1) in the early morning, you could take a look at Patricia Lake and Pyramid Lake (this one could be arranged
         as the first thing to do in the 3rd day)

    (2) after breakfast, you could drive to Edmonton, the capital city of Alberta, the driving time is approximately
          3 to 4 hours

    (3) you could stay in Holiday Inn Express or Crowne Plaza or Sutton Place Hotel, and then visit the beautiful
         city, West Edmonton Mall (the largest mall in North America and the fifth largest in the world,
         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Edmonton_Mall ) and even Edmonton Learning Centre, Athabasca
         University if you want

    *ps: every year, in Edmonton, we have Heritage Festival which involve more than 75 different countries
           to show us their cultural and foods, unfortunately, this year, Heritage Festival will be held during 
           August 1 to 3, 2009.

   e. 5th day (optional)

    (1) after breakfast, you should prepare some foods for picnic ^_^ (or you could prepare it last night at 
         West Edmonton Mall)

    (2) in the morning, you could drive to Elk Island National Park

    (3) at noon, you could have picnic at Elk Island National Park

    (4) in the afternoon, back to Calgary, the driving time is approximately 2 to 3 hours, you might also
         want to stay one night in Calgary (if your return flight is from Calgary)

    *ps: AU campus locates at Athabasca (2 hours drive north from Edmonton)

    *ps: Fort McMurray in the northern Alberta, is a famous tourist city for tracing aurora (about another
           2 hours drive north from Athabasca, however, please remember, the aurora is not so easy to see :p
           you could try http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/)

The plan is for your reference and information, is a good tour plan for visiting Alberta in summer,
at least I think it is ^_^ Enjoy it and see you in Banff this summer!


Sincerely,

Maiga Chang
maigac@athabascau.ca
http://maiga.dnsalias.org
01, 24 '09 PM 12:34 in Edmonton