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.