Peter T, I've travelled throughout Banff National Park for the past 12 years and still don't consider myself well seasoned. If all tourists see is the Banff corridor on either side of the road, Lake Louise or a few ski resorts, yeah it's hardly pristine.

However I assure you, if you head up into the headwaters of the Panther, Clearwater or Red Deer rivers or in from Kananaskis country to the Palliser or Burstall Pass areas or have ever stood above the treeline on Pulsatilla Pass and have not been overwhelmed by prisitne wilderness, something is decidedly wrong with your senses or your perception of the massiveness of the Park area.

I have been in that Park during the height of tourist season, in valleys and mountains where I haven't seen another living soul in 5 days, other than those with whom I was travelling. Banff is huge and does have serious human impact problems in a few parts, but Banff is not just what you can experience from the well beaten path or highway.

And.....

Just a damned minute here, I know we want to keep this Island a secret, lest we get even more incoming migration, but no ice on Vancouver Island? Not familiar with the Comox Glacier ? Ever considered climbing Mt. Golden Hinde at 8,799 feet or a few others such as Mt. Colonel Foster, without encountering ice and snow, even in summer?

Fog? Fog? Rain? I live in an area of the Island where I can count foggy days on one hand and the rainfall on parts of the east coast of the Island, in the rainshadow of our mountains is quite often less than 27 inches in a year. Almost half of that experienced by Vancouver.

Come on Canadians, get out of your car........and get to know Canada....please.