BANFF, Alberta, Canada -- Only one lift-served ski area remains in a U.S. national park, and that is Badger Pass in Yosemite. By contrast, Canada’s Banff National Park alone has three.

Banff and the smaller hamlet of Lake Louise (yes, the same name as the lake and the ski area) are surrounded by 2,568-square-mile Banff National Park, which at 126 years, is Canada’s oldest national park and a UNESCO World Heritage site. There is no better place to sample winter adventures from mild to wild that are ideal for a multi-generation vacation.

The Lake Louise ski area is a giant by any measure with its 4,200 skiable acres draped over three summits, the ridges that connect them and the giant snow-holding bowls they enfold. Despite its complexity, it boasts one great advantage: beginner, intermediate and expert runs are accessed from every lift. This means families and groups of varying abilities can ski or snowboard together, meeting at the bottom and riding up together.

Novices have access to an abundance of gentle slopes and long, meandering trails (actually low-angled summer work roads). Intermediate skiers and expert snowboarders can explore endless chutes, glades, gullies and remote bowls on some of the Rockies’ most challenging terrain. Sunshine Village is a small cluster of buildings in a high bowl surrounded by slopes. Day skiers access it by a gondola rising from a parking lot deep in the valley. The buildings dot the slopes, cruising broad snowfields that even cross the Continental Divide along the spine of the Rockies. In the evening, day skiers head downhill, leaving the vest-pocket village and the area’s only ski-in-ski-out hotel.

Families enjoy Sunshine because children can roam around on their own without getting lost, and romantic couples love its quiet, close-to-the-clouds remoteness.

Norquay, the smallest of Banff’s ski areas, is the hometown hill. It’s low key and friendly, with challenging front-side slopes and is the only one that offers skiing under the lights. Norquay provides visitors with a close-in option for half a day on the slopes on arrival or departure day — or to combine with the myriad activities available in the national park.

Ski Big 3, a joint venture of this trio, sells a joint lift ticket that accesses nearly 8,000 acres of skiable terrain. Free shuttle buses connect towns and mountains. Expect the ski season to stretch into late May.

The Banff Townsite, as the community is officially called, is jam-packed in summer but wide open during the winter. Lodging rates are low and crowds are absent, but the scenic beauty is unsurpassed. Visitors can get into restaurants and nightspots, and shop, shop, shop.

Surrounded by high mountains, deep valleys, endless forests and abundant wildlife, Banff feels remote but is just 70 miles from Calgary and its international airport.

Off the slopes

Those who prefer quieter pursuits can ice skate on a frozen lake, cross-country ski, snowshoe and view wildlife within the park. The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, one of two palatial hotels in the area, maintains an ice surface on namesake Lake Louise for skating against a drop-dead gorgeous mountainscape.

Every afternoon in the magic of waning daylight, the hotel puts on a party with steaming cups of hot chocolate, music and a crackling outdoor fire. Another must-do activity is the Alpine Lights evening — a Saturday evening ride on the Ski Lake Louise gondola to an on-mountain lodge for a prime rib dinner.