[Leg #10 is a long one, covering the three weeks Robyn Scott and I traveled together, so I’m splitting it up into more manageable sections – kf]
Day 14 (7/28/15): Waterton Park, Alberta, Canada
Mmmm. Big, thick slice of delicious huckleberry pie for breakkie. Perfectly beautiful day as we headed back to Waterton Park to see the sights. The vistas across the fields of hay and livestock to the foot of the mountains less than a mile or so away were stunning. I love visiting the Rockies and over my lifetime have traveled them extensively from New Mexico on up to Jasper, Alberta in Canada. One of the best parks is the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park that straddles the U.S. and Canadian border. The U.S. side is known as Glacier, and the Canadian park is Waterton. I had been to Glacier in Montana a couple of times and we were planning on doing a day there but recent fires had shut the ‘Going to the Sun’ road so our detour to drive it on the way up was nixed.
Too bad because I had been looking forward to the handicap accessible trails in Glacier: the Trail of the Cedars, Running Eagle Falls and perhaps part of the Swiftcurrent Nature trail would be passable enough, but some other trip. Always leave something undone so you have a good reason to go back. The Canadian side is less touristed, although not many people make it to Glacier either, since it is so remote. I’d read about Waterton’s wheelchair ready trails found at Linnet Lake and Kootenay Brown and knew the village was paved. I had been here once before with my mom on a Caravan bus tour a few years ago. But we had never fully explored the mountain roads around Waterton then, as the tour bus didn’t take us there.
Prince of Wales Hotel sits on a little peninsula at the crux of two lakes at Waterton Park.
The turn off to Waterton runs by long lakes, at first surrounded by grasslands and low foothills that lead up to the small lakeside village. There, the mountains surround the narrow lake and it’s small valley and town. Coming up from the prairie behind behind us it is framed beautifully. A “wow” type of place.
Robyn was sad today, a bit homesick and misses her puppy. It’s ok though since we are good friends. Whom else could I waft my previously worn T-shirt under her nose and ask if it was stinky? Only a good friend! They will complain, but they will do it. LOL!
Akamina Parkway
We bypassed the town site, saving it for a later lunch and drove up the Akamina Parkway to the intimate Lake Cameron near the border of Montana. It was a higher elevation, very chilly, with glacial snow and ice roosting on the mountains cupping the other side of the lake close by. Bundled up, I tried the scooter on a path that quickly turned to dirt but it got too rough. Back through the woods with the signs warning us of bears, and a quick warm up in the information area before attempting the trail in the other direction. This one got very steep after crossing a rushing creek, and I had to turn back. I was cold anyway so we headed back to Waterton for sustenance at Trappers Mountain Restaurant.
Lake Cameron
No bears today. They went to town.
The menu had Poutine for $18CAN. I had to have that as it is an Canadian culinary quirk. Basically a mess of french fries smothered in cheese curds (think cottage cheese) and brown gravy. A carbolic load to fuel you for the freezing temperatures as you dog sled overland or paddle up river, singing Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald songs. You can add stuff, so I was hard pressed to pick between pulled pork or BBQ Brisket with a sprinkling of green onion. YUM!
Poutine, the Canadian comfort food.
A trip to the adjacent gift shop and we waddled out of there feeling better. On the edge of the village is Cameron Falls, the runoff from the lake we visited after winding around and down the mountains. You can see how the land has been heaved up over the eons as the falls are a cut in sharply diagonal rock layers. There was a young boy sitting cross-legged on the grass by the river engrossed with feeding bold little chipmunks. As Robyn correctly pointed out, getting wild animals used to being fed does them no favors when the crowds die down, but I think these little scamps were too far down that path already to stop the boy. I hope they buried some of their treasure.
Cameron Falls, in the small village of Waterton Park.
We continued on down a bit farther to get close to the lake and more stunning scenery. Although there were houses and campgrounds around, there were marmots in the park, a deer enjoying eating someone’s garden, and a Great Horned Owl that swooped into tree by the road. S/he was followed by five nervous magpies who sat on the branches around but not too close. One peck of that razor sharp curved beak or talons and the smaller birds were done for and they knew it, and so did the owl who remained impassive. I think they will sometimes steal birds eggs or young chicks so that’s why the little birds were alarmed.
Just gorgeous!
Continuing back out of Waterton near the other edge of town we suddenly saw a black bear! A young adult, just 10 yards off the road, snuffling around tiny clearing. We created a bit of a bear jam when we stopped for a photo but others did too, and we all slowly moved on. Driving away we saw a few hikers about 50 yards up from the bear and heading his direction, as well as a Park Ranger high tailing it in his vehicle to the site. I hope he got there first! I wonder what he did? I know bears that get used to foraging in peopled areas get captured and released far back in the wilderness. Drama we didn’t stick around for as we had an agenda.
My crappy camera on my phone, but she was very close!
By now it was 7pm and we had planned to drive the Red Rock Canyon road at that time since early evening and morning are your best chances for viewing wildlife. We hoped all the tourists would be at dinner and sight seeing with the kids done for the day. We had overheard one kid whine about “seeing ANOTHER mountain?!”, so we hoped the evening would find families at the sites scarce. It was a nice drive with grass covered foothills to our right and mountains on our left. There were deer in the field but we pressed on to the canyon.
Once there, we saw a lovely rainbow from the parking lot. Nature is so filled with eye candy. I couldn’t quite see the “canyon” from the parking spot, but the head of the supposedly paved trail looked a bit dodgy and I worried about my scooter. While I waffled, Robyn went on to explore on her own. Who knows when I’d be back here again, if ever? So I grabbed an amenable stranger to help haul my scooter out and headed for the trail. After exiting the parking lot the trail became a narrow, bumpy, pitted, half dirt, potholed affair skirting the canyon edge with a few steep and tilting grades and I almost tipped over my scooter. Yikes. The Canadian idea of handicap access is bizarre. For instance, “Accessible” Bathrooms in state parks sometimes have a 2″-3″ lip of concrete. I think they would benefit from a federal law like our Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If they have one, it’s weird. Pretty canyon though. Tight, narrow and only about 40 feet deep with vibrant, variegated shades of red in the iron-rich rock, streaked occasionally with bright white layers.
Red Rock Canyon
On the way back, the nearly full moon had risen and hovered over the mountains in the late lingering light. Our latitude extends the day somewhat. We got back to the hotel at dusk only to encounter a key card malfunction. This is a drag because we are at the back of the hotel with a separate entrance from the parking lot so Robyn had to drive around to the front desk to fix the problem. I dislike key cards for their propensity to fail. Still fighting a cold, and knowing that Pincher Creek had crap restaurants, I had leftovers again and crashed, the lovely sights of Waterton lingering.
Day 15 (7/29/15) Pincher Creek, Alberta, Canada to Canmore, Alberta:
I thought I’d left something in the hotel when we left but I hadn’t. I got frustrated because my brain was not working properly and I didn’t know if it was just a build up of fatigue, the altitude, or early dementia from being sedentary. I know it’s the first two, but because I’m tired, my defenses are down and fighting this cold depletes me, too, so I was worried about early onset dementia. I may sound like I’m on the go, but physically I’m limited and know am a candidate for it. I have started going to the gym when I’m at home though, which is hopeful.
A good cry helped, and Robyn gave me a pat. We headed north-northwest to our next lovely destination in the Canadian Rockies, Canmore, Alberta. At the outset though we were in the plains again leading up to the mountains, so more flatness. The Rockies sat punctuating the horizon, curving 180° from our entire left, ahead and away to the north.
The grasslands here are home to some hardy cows who can stand the fierce “Blue Northers”, (as we called them in Texas) that come barreling down from the Arctic, a bitterly cold front channeled by the mountains. We used to say that there was nothing to stop a Blue Norther from whipping down the great plains but “bob wahr fence”. There’s another little bit of my home state up here surprisingly. They have road signage alerting drivers to “Texas Gates,” which are those cattle guards built into the road where it bisects a fence, that allow cars to go over the polished grid of spaced metal bars across the road but aren’t appealing to a cow apparently.
Robyn realized the bovines must speak Canadian, so they’d say “Moo, eh?” But there was a lot of just empty plains, and the occasional old farm, one being a turf farm. Robyn, being the fun, silly person she is, made up a song:
Old Mac Donald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-oh
And on that farm he grew some turf, ee-i-ee-i-oh
With a (silence)….Here and a (silence)…there
Here a ….. There a …….
Everywhere a …..
Old MacDonald had a farm ee-i-ee-i-oh
I think it then mutated into different animals we’d seen on the trip, all ending with “eh?” See why I wanted her to join me for these flat lands over the upper mid-west? We were provided more amusement by a humorous rancher who had placed mostly ‘gimme caps’ (baseball caps with slogans on the brim) on his fence posts. This went on for 1.5 miles! If you figure a fence post every ten feet or so, that’s a lot of hats. It’s great to break up the monotony though and wake you up. If you’re ever near there check out the Hat Fence on AB Hwy. 22 about ten kilometers below Longview. Try to spot the deviations like the red Santa hat and the construction workers helmet.
We were already goofing on the different styles of signage here in Canada with different representations of icons like their diminutive little deer for a deer crossing sign which sometimes added disco-like reflectors to seize our attention. Today I saw a hand-made sign for what turned out to be a Bed and Breakfast. They decided to use pictographs so there was a bed symbol and an egg. Took me a second, but it was clever! It’s fun to see how signs are different in a foreign country. Here practically everything is repeated in French, and not just the signs. Going into the stores is a hoot because you see advertising and slogans of familiar products all translated for you because they are side by side. Some funny stuff there. Capitaine Crounche! C’est Crounchifique!!
Into the Kananaskis Range
Scruffy sheep coming out of the trees to graze the grasses so abundant by the roadside.
I don’t think Mrs. Ram is ever going to receive those flowers.
It’s better than a wildlife park! Hello Moose.
We reentered the mountainous region of the Kananaskis. More great scenery. Hardly anyone on the road so we could slow down and stop to see lots of Rocky Mountain Sheep grazing on the verge, as well as a moose. There were marmots, trees, trees, mountains, mountains, trees & mountains, creeks, trees & mountains, and a farm with llamas. It was a glorious, crisp day, but late afternoon there were some clouds over the peaks and just outside Canmore there was a fine mist over a lake fracturing the lowering light and casting the surrounding mountains in an ethereal glow.
The rain had mostly cleared by the time we entered town and located the condo Robyn had found online. We parked in the underground lot, essential in this snowy hub in winter, catering to the ski resorts and many seasonal visitors. Once in the 4th floor condo we found gorgeous views from the living room and our bedrooms of the surrounding and intimate Rockies. A few minutes later there was a double rainbow. Later an almost full moon. We were here for 3 days and going to enjoy it immensely! We walked to the next-door grocery store and got supplies. The restaurants were too ridiculously priced. The US dollar has suffered up here. Still fighting my cold, I grabbed a nice chicken coconut Thai soup and that hit the spot. Some TV and a very welcome bed, gazing out at the moonlit night over the peaks.
Day 16 (7/30/15) Canmore, Alberta:
Today was a day of rest. My first ‘do-nothing’ day since Day 3 in Chicago. No wonder I’m tired, fighting a cold and my brain is experiencing drop-outs! So we lazed about condo. I got some energy mid-day when I needed something out of deep storage in the van and decided to reorganize. Lots of souvenirs stuffed here and there! Got it tidied up to my liking and then scootered over to the handy grocery across parking lot. Beautiful day. Still warding off the cold but haven’t succumbed fully. Holding off on my heavy emergency Rx’s that my doctor gave me to keep on hand. I’d rather not risk getting immune to heavy antibiotics, so until I reach a critical point I’d rather do my remedy cocktails and eat immune building foods and aspirin for aches. Works like a charm keeping me from fully going down, although this bug and me being run-down is hampering its efficacy and it’s been a few days. I’m not worried yet as I don’t feel totally miserable.
More rainbows! Double this time.
I vegged, wrote a few notes up about our trip. Robyn went off to determine the route to the advertised hot-tub and got trapped in a stairwell! It was not handicap accessible like they said; you had to go up a stairwell to get to it, but the instructions I received in the mail didn’t say you had to have a key for that, so Robyn was able to get in but not get out, and her cell didn’t work in there or she forgot it, I can’t remember. Luckily about ten minutes later a resident happened along to release her. Whew!
We were pissed off with the rental folk though. No stairwell key, and there were other weird things like no Banff Park Pass which was supposed to be included, and no little kitchen niceties besides salt and pepper. I’ve never stayed in a VRBO/airbnb that didn’t have a few basics like some cooking oil, or viable leftover jars of condiments or unperishables from the previous renters. Maybe the prices of food up here are so steep that the house cleaners take it all home to supplement their income. Some apartments or condos in large complexes that get business through VRBO or airbnb are run by secondary management companies and not the actual owners, so they aren’t as hands-on with a desire to please like owners. Oh well. The view was stunning, even if the sun coming through the big picture windows baked us by the end of the day.
Sequitur Journal 