Friday 28 June 2013

Newsletter 6 - June 2013



The lady at the Alberta Border Information Centre did a good job convincing us of the places we should visit on our roundabout way to Calgary. At Cardston, Don Remington began collecting horse drawn vehicles in 1954 and 30 years later donated 44 vehicles to the Province. 
Ladies Phaeton

Prairie Schooners
An elegant museum now houses over 250 horse drawn vehicles, carriages, coaches, buggies, wagons, sleighs and specialized vehicles such as hearses, firewagons and breadcarts. 
Wells Fargo stagecoach
We spent more than three hours there – so interesting and well done.


Great selection of carriages and sleighs
But the best was the next day, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. The jump was used for more than 5000 years by the Blackfoot to kill buffalo by driving them off the cliff. 
Head-smashed-in buffalo jump interpretive centre
Google the name and check out the website. It’s a World Heritage Site and many of the guides are descendants of the Blackfoot with lots of interesting stories.

Head-smashed-in buffalo jump site
So after some Buffalo Stew for lunch we headed for Fort MacLeod, where one of the earliest forts of the North West Mounted Police was established in 1874.
Fort Macleod
The Yankees were coming over the border and selling whiskey and guns to the Blackfoot Indians in exchange for buffalo hides. Of course the Mounties did their job and made their presence felt in the region.

We left the mountains and were travelling across the prairies, however every so often we’d come to a “gully”- could be a couple of kms wide - where originally a river had carved out its path. 
Alberta Oil Jack Pump

Alberta red barn
Lethbridge had its 1909 longest, highest railway bridge of its type in the world. Brook had an aqueduct- the longest concrete structure of its kind in the world. 
Brook Aquaduct
It was constructed in 1914 and used for more than 60 yrs to bring irrigation water to the farmers. Now there are earth built canals.

Drumhellar was originally settled to develop the coal mines – UNTIL, fossils of dinosaurs were found in the area in 1884. 
Drumheller Information Centre - dinosaur country

Rotary Spray Park outside the local swimming pool
A wonderful museum was built and in a series of chronological galleries that celebrate the 3.9 billion year history of life on earth.
Royal Tyrrell Dinosaur Museum

"Black Beauty" T Rex skeleton

Albertasaurus
In Dinosaur Hall about 40 mounted dinosaur skeletons including Tyrannosaurus Rex and the original Albertosaurus are displayed. 
T Rex

We were there fascinated, for nearly six hours and to break up the afternoon we went on a walk through the canyon with a guide who pointed out the fossils, exposed sedimentary layers, interesting vegetation and rock formations. 

Tyrrell "Badlands"
He also talked about “badlands” which we’d heard from the southern states like Texas and Arizona. The term was used originally by French trappers which translated as “bad lands to cross”. It referred to gullies with steep slopes, loose soil, slippery clay and deep sand, all of which impede travel especially after an intense rain shower. So it was back to the same campground that night before setting off to Calgary on the Sunday - the best day if you’re driving a motorhome through a city.

There are over a million Calgarians with a median age of 36 so it’s a young vibrant place. The city is set on the Bow River in a wide river valley. 


Calgary Skyline
Lougheed Mansion
We visited the Lougheed Mansion built in 1891 and then to the site of the Winter Olympics in 1988, where we were able to get a lift to the top of the giant ski-jump. It was from here that Eddie the Eagle had his moment of glory.
Calgary Olympic ski jump tower
You've heard of Eddie the Eagle - meet Garry the Galah

We had been keeping an eye on the weather forecasts as we wanted to have a “good day” to drive the Icefield parkway. As rain was expected in a couple of days we headed for Banff. (Bloody Absolutely Nothing For Free) We met some people from Brisbane who were on a bus trip. It was easy to identify their accent and nice to chat with them.
Banff Springs Hotel

We looked at all the famous hotels and of course the views from them, and then went to the National Parks Campground.
The line up to book in to Banff campground


It's a tough life in Banff - but someone has to do it!

So next morning with an early start we made it to Lake Louise with the hundreds of others. Took our photos of this amazing vista with the glacier in the background, in sunshine, and then watched the dark clouds come over. 
Lake Louise

Canoes at Lake Louise
However it was only a cloudburst and had cleared by the time we had lunch and drove to Morraine Lake.
Morraine Lake

The spectacular Icefields Parkway, (350+ kms) between Banff and Jasper, is a pretty famous stretch of highway. The mountains are rugged, majestic and imposing.
Waterfowl Lake
There are more than a hundred glaciers in the area, many alpine meadows, pine trees and numerous turquoise lakes, all making it so scenic.
Peyto Lake
We stopped at most of the overlooks (lookouts), and often walked into the site for photo opportunities.
Icefield Parkway view
The valley follows three main rivers systems and there were so many waterfalls and rushing torrents flowing into them along the way.
Mistaya Canyon
Mistaya Canyon has been formed by thousands of years of turbulent waters wearing away the layers of limestone and leaving levels of harder rock. The Athabasca Falls are similar.
Athabasca Falls
So often we just gazed open mouthed at the majesty of the scenery.

With all the stops we didn’t arrive at the Columbia Icefield until after 5.00pm, but it was bright and sunny so we took a trip onto the glacier in a massive “ice-explorer bus”. 
Athabasca Glacier
Athabasca Glacier - Columbia Icefield
The height of the moraines that had been deposited along the edge was unbelievable. We were quoted all sorts of statistics but the glacier is certainly retreating, as moraines in front of the visitors centre show where the glacier reached its peak (1844) in recent times.

We didn’t reach Jasper until 9.00pm that night, still in sunshine, but what a day!!!

One of the activities people are offered from Jasper is the Maligne Lake Cruise. Well the cruise didn’t do anything for us, but the drive to it was very pretty and the Maligne Canyon was worth a stop. 
Maligne Canyon


Maligne Canyon falls

We came across a lot of cars that had pulled over, and that usually means some wildlife. The forest is quite thick and it is cleared for about 6-7 metres on each side of the road to give motorists a chance to stop if wildlife is crossing. In the roadside ditch a black bear was busily eating dandelions and her three bear cubs were rolling and tumbling as they played near her.
Mumma and the three bear cubs
They were like little fluffy puppies about 35 cms tall – quite young. 
The Three Bear Cubs
About twenty of us were just watching gobsmacked. Even a tour bus pulled over for the people on board to take a look. This had to be one of the highlights of our trip so far.

Morgan Cole was a Rotary Exchange Student from Canada to Yass in 2006. We have kept in touch and this summer after her graduation, she is working at William A. Switzer Provincial Park just out of Jasper. We spent the next few evenings with her and her boyfriend, Riley.
Dinner at the Hinton Golf Club with Morgan and Riley
Just out of Hinton volunteers have built more than 3 kms of boardwalk through a local wetland area. There are more than a dozen beavers here – we saw four and a muskrat – and spent more than an hour just watching and photographing the beavers busily blocking up the flowing water from the dams. 
Beaver collecting sticks

Beaver moving sticks to block up the flow of water
They are Canada’s largest rodent and the symbol of National Parks. Their incisor teeth continue to grow so they have to wear them down and there were many trees that had been felled by them.

Beaver collecting sticks
The next day the rain arrived but we did the washing, emailing, banking and all those other jobs that must get done. Next evening the four of us went to Miette Hot Springs-four pools, 40*C, 35*C, 18*C and 12*C. So we tried the hot pool but it was too hot, the cold pool was too cold and the 35*C was just right. (Some people from our party jumped into the cold pools – to cool down.)
Miette Hot Springs
So we sat there with the cool rain falling on our faces and heads, until our fingers went wrinkly, got changed and drove back to camp, stopping to look at a black bear on the way.

Still raining and we heard that Calgary and other cities in southern Alberta were really getting heavy rain and flooding – really sad because the Calgary Stampede is on in ten days. So we stocked up the fridge and camped at Morgan’s park overnight. In the morning we saw two lunes on Gregg Lake – they are a type of dark brown and white duck (perhaps a bit bigger than a domestic duck), but this species was given the honour of being on Canada’s $1 coin some years ago when the country went decimal. Very quickly the dollars became loonies and now the $2 is a toonie.
Lune ducks on Gregg Lake

The next morning with the sun shining and in our shorts, we drove through undulating forest with many coal, gas and oil field exploration and logging sites – no real towns until we got to Grande Prairie- a big city of 55,000.

The first road here was from Edmonton and most of the prairies are farmed with beet, some cattle, wheat, and other grains- so completely different to the road we travelled the day before.

Friday 21 June 2013

Newsletter 5 - June 2013



The U shaped valley out of the north gate of Yellowstone went through beautiful farming area, with the road travelling along the Yellowstone River. 
Yellowstone River
We had a couple of days in Livingston, time for a haircut and a visit to the railway museum (in a magnificent century-old Northern Pacific Railway Station).

In the River park is a statue of Sacajawea holding her infant son (Jean Baptiste Charbonneau). 
Sacajawea Statue - money raised by selling bricks in the wall
Her loyalty, skills, courage and devotion on the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803-1806, as an interpreter with the Shoshone people, knowledge of native food sources and geography of the Montana region, were instrumental in the expedition’s success. She appears to be a larger than life figure in American culture and mythology, and seems to have outshone any other member of expedition except for Lewis and Clark.

We then took a scenic byway through more glorious countryside to the capital city of Montana, Helena (pronounced “hell in a”). 
A great way to see Helena
We’d picked up a leaflet about the city tram ride so learnt the city history and interesting places to visit like the cathedral
The new and the old churches in Helena
and the Original Governors’ Mansion.

Original Governor's Residence
The Mansion was built in 1888 for entrepreneur William Chessman. It was purchased for the state in 1913 and nine governors and their families lived here until 1959 when a new executive residence was built (without accommodation for servants.) It has been restored to the 1913 era and is just exquisite.

State Capital building
Last Chance Gulch is the Main Street downtown, and had an interesting story, as a small group of minors who’d come for the gold, decided to have one last try and eureka – they found the lode.

Main street downtown Helena
Nearby were the headwaters of the Missouri River, and beyond Lake Helena was a large 3 mile gorge with steep 1000ft sides. 
Gates of the Mountains - When the boat goes across the lake the "gate" on the LHS appears to close

Great rock formations - a geologist's delight
Lewis Meriwether had travelled up this gorge and made camp. We didn’t see any mountain goats but there was a bald eagle and her nest.

Bald eagle and nest
We took another scenic byway through Seeley Lakes and camped in the State Park that night.

Seeley Lake view

Seeley Lake with bridge view
More snow covered mountains all the way to Kalispell – isn’t that a nice name for a town – especially as it’s in Flathead County. 
Rotary inaction at Kalispell
Conrad Mansion, Kalispell was built in 1895 for Charles Conrad, prominent Missouri River freighter (before the railways). 
Conrad Mansion
He founded Kalispell and built this 23 room mansion. The youngest daughter of the family donated it to the city in 1974, and it has been fully restored. It seems not a thing was ever thrown out by the family, (including receipts for furniture, family letters, clothes, shoes etc etc. The dry stone wall surrounding the property is of particular interest.

Conrad Mansion with 100 year old dry stone wall
In 1932 international cooperation between the Rotary clubs of Alberta and Montana convinced Canada and United States to join Waterton Lakes Forest Park (Alberta- created 1895), and Glacier National Park (Montana – designated 1910), which in 1995 became the world’s first International Peace Park World Heritage Site.

The fifty mile long Going–to-the–Sun-Road, was built between 1921 and 1932. It is an engineering marvel and one of the most beautiful pieces of mountain road in the world. Parts of it are built into near vertical cliffs using a network of stonemasonry bridges, tunnels and arches. It is closed until mid June and only vehicles less than 21 ft are allowed to use it, so we might have to return after we leave Edmonton, and hire a car for the day.

We scored another sunny day and were able to drive 14 miles to Avalanche Creek where a walk through the forest of old-growth cedars and Douglas fir was very pretty following one of the many raging torrents (from the snowmelt) in the area. 
A couple of Aussie grey nomads lost in Glacier National Park
We stopped at many overlooks to view the river as it widened and thundered over rapids and waterfalls. 
McDonald Falls
At the end of the glacial valley the McDonald Lake Lodge was one of the hotels built 100 years ago when tourists came by train and then travelled by bus, boat or horse to one of the dozen or so lodges built in the park.

McDonald Lake Lodge
McDonald Lake Lodge interior
For more than 75 years Glacier National Park’s fleet of Red Buses carried tourists around the park. Finally taken off the road about 2002, they were totally renovated by Ford and fitted with propane engines, so have continued the tradition.

Just a few of the red bus fleet that services the Glacier NP
This area was the ancestral homeland of the Blackfoot Indians – named because their moccasins were black from the prairie fires; their reservation is now across the prairies east of the Park. They originally hunted Buffalo here and used the Marius Pass – the lowest pass across the USA Rockies between Canada and Mexico. It took some time for the explorers to find it as the Indians closely guarded the location, but once found, a railroad was planned and completed in 1891.

The southern road follows the railway through narrow gorges with the raging torrent (Flathead River) and wonderful vistas of snow, mountains, pine forests, and wildflowers along the roadside.

Wildflowers by the side of the road
So we were now on the east side of the National Park. We walked to Running Eagle Falls 
Running Eagle Falls
and saw beargrass growing along the track. Beargrass produces a flower that’s hard to forget. The flower head is a conical cluster of too many white blossoms to count. 


Beargrass
So many other wildflowers are in bloom in the mountains and of all colours.

Balsam Root

Jones' Columbine
Back past Two Medicine Lake and the next entrance took us to Swiftcurrent Lodge, 
Two Medicine Lake - Swiftcurrent Lodge
with a walk to Josephine Lake. We were very fortunate with the weather to be able to do all these walks.

Josephine Lake
The Continental Divide is marked on all the maps (and roads in the mountains) of the Rockies, and separates the watershed showing the point where water drains to either the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean. Triple Divide Peak, near here, was more than a two ocean divide. From its three sided pyramid, rain and snowmelt travels to three major river systems, and enters the Pacific Ocean, Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

Triple divide peak in the distance
Every time we stopped you could hear running water - over rapids, through canyons, or tumbling over pebbles and stones. other times you only had to look up and follow the end of the snow drift where little waterfalls soon became big waterfalls streaming into the valleys. 
Little waterfalls becoming big waterfalls
And so into Canada, passing Chief Mountain, a landmark from time immemorial,to Waterton Lakes National Park.

Chief Mountain
A pause here:  On an information board - Yellowstone was the first national park in 1872, Royal National Park, Sydney was second in 1879, and Banff, in Canada was third in 1885.

Waterton Lakes NP was one of the prettiest places we’ve been to. The Prince of Wales Hotel was opened for business in 1927. 
Prince of Wales Hotel at Waterton Lakes
It sits on a hill at the end of Upper Waterton Lake and as we weren’t able to celebrate Garry’s birthday three weeks ago, we got dressed up and had dinner there. 
Upper Waterton Lake view from Prince of Wales Hotel
It was lovely sitting in a window seat looking down the lake at the snow covered mountains. 
A Pica in the RV Park
The fox looking for the picas

Two lovely drives out from the town centre took us to Red Rock Canyon
Red Rock Canyon

Red Rock Canyon view
 where we stopped for a deer and fawn, and Cameron Lake. 
Deer with Fawn
 We came around a bend of the road and two bears were crossing. I think we were both shocked and by the time we grabbed the cameras we only got the back of the second one as they disappeared into the forest. 
Bear crossing the road
Others at Cameron Lake had seen them too. 
Cameron Lake

Cameron Falls at Waterton
On the return trip we had to stop and wait for 4 bighorn sheep. How exciting!! We have been so lucky.

Big Horn Sheep butting heads on the Cameron Lake road
Dispute settled - back on the road again
Next stop, the prairies of Alberta.