About 75 mi/120 km northeast of Calgary and two hours away by car, Drumheller is one of the hubs of Alberta's "dinosaur country," renowned for the large number of prehistoric reptile bones found there.

From Drumheller, you can take the Dinosaur Trail, a 30-mi/50-km scenic route that circles through the badland terrain in the Red Deer River Valley. Along the way, stop at the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

At the trail's halfway point, you can cross the Red Deer River on the Bleriot Ferry, one of the few remaining cabled ferries in North America. The route also runs near Midland Provincial Park, where travelers seeking a little exercise will want to take a walking trail to the site of the former Midland Coal Mine.

Hoodoos—massive toadstool-like pillars of stone formed by erosion—can be seen southeast of Drumheller, along Highway 10. Despite the fact that they've survived several millennia, the hoodoos can crumble easily: Climbing on them is prohibited. They can also be seen in several other locations in Alberta.

If you can, arrive in Edmonton at night. As you ride in from the airport, you'll see Edmonton's glittering steel-and-glass skyline rising on the far shore of the North Saskatchewan River. It's a dramatic introduction to the way oil money transformed this stretch of the north.

Founded by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1794, Edmonton today is Canada's most northerly big city, a provincial capital and an industrial center with an economy based on petrochemicals, biotechnology, engineering, forestry and agricultural goods.

Ideally situated between Canada's remote north and the picturesque Jasper National Park, Edmonton is gaining popularity as a sightseeing and tourist destination. Edmonton is Canada's fifth-largest city, with an educated and innovative workforce that fuels Canada's billion-dollar economy in its wealthiest province. The University of Alberta and the state-of-the-art National Institute for Nanotechnology in Edmonton are setting standards in education and research, establishing Edmonton as the biotech capital of Alberta.