Unlike many places billed as the Canadian Alps, Strathcona Provincial Park comes by the comparison honestly. Six of Vancouver Island’s seven highest peaks rise from the park, while Canada’s highest cascade, 1443-foot Della Falls, dives off a cliff here. Strathcona has alpine tundra, alpine lakes, and an ice field. The park’s dense conifer forests, its flowered subalpine meadows, and its horned peaks crowned with snow all project the gestalt of the Swiss Alps.

The vast majority of the park is wilderness. If you enjoy route-finding with a 27-kilogram pack, you will love all this backcountry. You can even learn this skill in site by signing up for a program at Strathcona Park Lodge, an outdoor education and adventure-vacation centre on Upper Campbell Lake, just outside the park.