Rocks, Ridges, and Rivers

Allow award-winning geologist Dale Leckie to guide you through one of Canada’s most amazing unesco World Heritage Sites – the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks. In Rocks, Ridges, and Rivers, Leckie tells the dramatic story of the Rockies, its rivers and valleys, glaciers and hot springs, caves and karst, mountain building and erosion. 

This insiders’ guide includes the stops along the well-travelled routes through Banff, Yoho, and Jasper National Parks that travellers would be wise to seek. All the geological wonders can be seen from roadside pullouts or after short walks along well-maintained paths. With eye-catching illustrations and photographs, this guidebook blends storytelling with science, and natural beauty with easy to understand explanations. 

Rocks, Ridges, and Rivers tells you what you need to know to experience and understand the geologic natural history of Canada’s Rocky Mountain Parks, where more than half a billion years of history waits to be discovered. 

Leckie answers all your questions about the features that make the Rockies such a profound destination, including: 

• Lake Louise – what geological and geomorphological processes created its turquoise waters?

• Miette Hot Springs – what makes the water at this spring so hot?

• Emerald Lake – how did glaciation create this body of water?

• Athabasca Glacier – what does this glacier tell us about ancient climate?

• Fossils of the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale – what do these remains reveal about the Cambrian Explosion?

• Maligne Canyon – what is a hanging valley, anyway?

With Dale Leckie as your tour guide, be prepared to be amazed by the geological story written in the rocks, ridges, and rivers.