Late fall or early spring is a great time to drive through spectacular Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park of Canada, located in east-central British Columbia. My husband, Bob, and I find that the park's traffic greatly diminishes during these seasons.

This magnificent stretch of road winds through the heart of the Selkirk and Monashee ranges. You can learn all about this amazing engineering achievement at the Rogers Pass Discovery Centre, as well as visit the Summit Monument, elevation 4,534 feet.

Rogers Pass is along Trans-Canada Highway 1, about 43 miles northeast of Revelstoke and 50 miles west of Golden. The center is open daily, except on Christmas Day and in November.

For more information, call the center at 1-250/ 837-7500.

On a stopover during a scenic train trip through Agawa Canyon Park in northern Ontario, we took a hike on the Talus Trail to 175-foot Black Beaver Falls.

During a trip to Nova Scotia, we visited the Port-Royal National Historic Site, a living-history attraction near Annapolis Royal.

The site re-creates the French settlement established here by fur trappers in 1605; it was one of the earliest colonies in North America. The settlement was rebuilt using exact measurements from famous explorer Samuel de Champlain's drawings and writings.

If you're a Native American history buff, visit the Gespeg Micmac Interpretation Site on Quebec's scenic Gaspe Peninsula.

Located near rugged Forillon National Park, this reconstructed Micmac village features authentic birch structures--wigwams, a sweat house and a meeting lodge.

Roland, a little village in south-central Manitoba, puts on a whopper of a pumpkin fair every fall. It's among my favorites.

The Roland Pumpkin Fair--and a huge pumpkin sculpture at the edge of town (above)--honor native Edgar Van Wyck, famous for growing gargantuan pumpkins, including a world-record giant. I'm just glad I don't have to carve the monsters that win the weigh-offs--the 2003 winner weighed an astonishing 1,009 pounds!