When sharing the stage with places such as Banff, Jasper or Waterton Lakes, one can almost be forgiven for forgetting Alberta's - and Canada's - largest national park.
At 44,807 sq. km , Wood Buffalo National Park is Canada's largest national park and one of the largest in the world, yet postcards and coffee table books overflow with images of the alpine meadows and mountain peaks that make those other parks such sought after destinations.
But what Wood Buffalo offers is something much more otherworldly.
Located in the northeastern edge of Alberta, and protruding into the North West Territories, the massive landmass -- nearly eight times that of Prince Edward Island -- may not have the majestic mountain scenes that Alberta parks have become synonymous with but they do have a different kind of eye candy that's almost as tantalizing but even more rare.
This is the place to come to see a different kind of wilderness, in the form of the aurora borealis, or the northern lights.
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Aurora Borealis in Alberta
Calling the Northern Boreal Plains home means the park is flat.. very flat. And being so far north means its winter nights are long, long enough to allow visitors to appreciate what happens when you're this close to magnetic north pole.
When the sky is this big, the nights so dark and the air so electrifying, this national park offers some of the best northern lights viewing opportunities anywhere in the confederacy.