Alberta is situated in western Canada, between British Colombia in the west, Saskatchewan in the east, and the Northwest Territories in the north. It borders the U.S. state of Montana in the south. Alberta is one of the three Canadian prairie provinces. The Central Alberta region is situated in the middle of the state, with Southern Alberta in the south and Northern Alberta to the north. It also borders the Canadian Rockies in the west, surrounds the capital territory of Edmonton, and borders the Calgary region in the south and Saskatchewan to the East.
Central Alberta is an agricultural region, although the oil industry has made inroads in several places. The forests and prairie of the province is easily accessible through a network of roads. In the forest part of the region, there are bears, wolves, deer, and moose. Summers in Alberta are warm, but temperatures can go down to -51 degrees F in the southern part of the province in winter. According to to Environment Canada, the province has more sunshine days--312 days per year--than other Canadian provinces.
Central Alberta has both national parks and state parks. The state parks feature activities and guided tours. Elk Island National Park of Canada is situated less than an hour away from Edmonton. It consists of aspen parkland, and has herds of free roaming plains bison, wood bison, moose, deer and elk, as well as over 250 species of birds.
The Canadian Badlands is an area in southern and eastern Alberta, which has been formed by glaciation and erosion into natural sculptures, criss-crossed by rivers and creeks. The erosion has exposed fossil dinosaur bones in several places. There are also campgrounds near several fishing destinations.
The Central Alberta region has several trails which make both day trips from the major cities and overnight stays possible. In winter, many of the trails turn into cross country ski tracks or snowshoe routes. The mountain regions have alpine trails which require some skill in handling. In the national parks, there are professional guides for hire. This includes guides which take visitors into the grizzly bear areas. State parks and national parks have organized campgrounds which can be reserved online.
Fishing in central Alberta is primarily lake fishing. Pike, perch and lake whitefish can be caught in Sylvan Lake, and pike in Pine Lake and Buffalo Lake. Walleye is catch and release, only and can be caught in Pine Lake, Buck Lake and Red Deer river. In winter, there is ice fishing for whitefish and pike in Gull Lake.
