Cranbrook: 80km (50 miles) N of the U.S.-Canada border

The largest city in southeastern British Columbia, Cranbrook (pop. 19,000) exists mostly as a trade center for loggers and agriculturists. The town itself has few tourist sights, but Cranbrook is central to a number of historic and recreational areas and offers ample numbers of hotel rooms. Its setting is spectacularly dramatic: a broad forested valley that looks onto the sky-piercing Canadian Rockies and back side of the U.S. Glacier National Park.