Back on the Road to Lake Louise (Day 13)

The snow has been cleared off and we're back on the road to Banff! There's still a lot of snow around though- crazy. The day was overcast, so we couldn't see that much of the mountain tops, but it was still fun to be amoung the mountains.

After picking up a park pass for the day at the gate to Banff National Park, we somehow managed to completely bypass the town of Banff. Oops. Guess I'll have to see that one on the way back. So, we continued on to Lake Louise instead.

After stopping at the park office, we learned that the late snow pack had most of the hiking areas still closed for the winter. We opted to drive over to Lake Louise and take the walk around the lake.

Despite the masses of other tourists and although the lake was snow-covered, it was still really pretty. We walked most of the way around the path, then got a little bored and headed back. On the way back though, I did get a shot of Ski Lake Louise with the Chateau Lake Louise in the foreground (neither was quite as impressive as I had imagined from seeing them televised on World Cup downhill races).

We got back in the car and headed to the only open camping area, Mosquito Creek (of all names) and on the way out of the town, we (along with a couple other people) spotted this juvenile black bear hanging out on the side of the road.

When we arrived at Mosquito Creek, there was a lot of wet, slushy snow on the ground. We considered setting up our tent on the concrete slab in the warm-up shelter, but figured that may not be a solid decision. There were a few left-over quincies/snow caves that we could of used...

but they too didn't quite grab me. So, we hopped back in the car to try our luck that one of the hostels en route would be open. We made a quick stop at the Icefield Centre which houses the Columbia Icefields in its backyard.

Very cool (although the Argentine glaciers still have a leg up in my opinion!). At the first hostel, there were no more vacancies (this being Saturday evening) so we ended up at the Athabasca Falls Wilderness Hostel.

Apparently a "wilderness hostel" is a primative, but very comfy hostel. There is a main lodge with a lounge and kitchen, then log bunkhouses for sleeping and a swanky outhouse. Electricity-yes, running water-no. And it was really quiet...right up until the busload of 19 travellers arrived. Then it got pretty hairy. Luckily, it was a beautifully warm evening, so Dan and I retreated to our Senate seats in the yard and read. We're both pretty tired, so hopefully it will be quiet in the bunkhouses!

Snowbound in Calgary (Day 12)

Yes, you read that right. We are in Calgary and we're bound in by, yes, snow. 10cm of fresh snow. It's been pretty gloomy and wet since we arrived here on Wednesday. Yesterday, Dan and I ventured downtown on the bus to MEC and it was overcast and pretty chilly. At that point, the weather forecast was for 25cm of snow. But, by the time we were walking back from MEC, it was sunny and warm downtown.

That's until we got to the bus stop. Then it started slushy raining. Then it started to hail. Then it started to rain. Suddenly, it seemed a little more likely that the forecast may come true.

By the time we got back to Dan's brother and sister-in-law's house, it was just raining. Not too bad. But, later in the evening, it started snowing. And not fake-spring snow, but really truly winter snow. And cold.

By the time we got up this morning, there was 10cm of fresh snow on the ground.




Apparently the highway through Banff (our route for the next few days) wasn't in such hot shape. So, we went swimming instead. We packed all seven of us up in the car and went for a swim. Jack (5) was swimming like a fish, Faith (3) was enjoying floating around in her lifejacket and Audrey (1) was flirting with the lifeguard. We had a hoot and the kids were really, really good. But now I'm pooped. Man, kids take a lot of energy!

Through Cypress Hills to Calgary (Day 10)

Somewhere in the middle of the night, it started to rain. We woke up and lay there hoping that it was just a little shower. Then it started to thunder and lightening. I was half tempted to get out of the tent to watch the thunderstorm on the open prairies, because I bet it would have been wild. But I didn't. Instead, I huddled under the covers and prayed that it wouldn't rain enough to wash out the clay roads.

When I got out of the tent, you could hardly tell it had rained. The ground was so dry it just sucked up all the rain.


We packed up the car and drove the rest of the Ecotour out of the park. We spotted a couple of mule deer in one of the fields on our way out (check out the big donkey ears),



and a couple of different groups of antelopes.



Along with a tonne more ground squirrels playing chicken on the road in front of the car, Dan also spotted a badger. I'd never seen one before and I guess it's rare to see them since they're kinda ferocious (you can barely see him beyond the fence as he's making his getaway from me).





The road started to change as we got towards Cypress Hills, where the flat lands gave way to more rolling hills and windy roads.





And I'm pretty sure that's snow in the distance. The temperature changed significantly and there were quite a few big pockets of snow on the ground. And once we drove into Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, it looked like we had landed back in Ontario- back to evergreen trees and snow and hills.





My co-worker Kathleen had recommended that we make the detour to Grasslands and Cypress Hills and it turned out to be a great side-trip. The Cypress Hills are pretty spectacular and even with a bit of overcast sky, you can still see forever.




On the way out of Cypress Hills, we drove a flock of turkeys- wild or domestic escapees, I'm not sure.





And to Dan's delight, we drove out past a group of cowboys (girls) herding cattle into a nearby field. Yes, we're definitely in the prairies!




Back on the TransCanada, we went through Medicine Hat and caught a passing glimpse of a humungous teepee (World's Biggest???).



And then before long, we were across the border and into Alberta!



Alberta definitely has its own vibe. The land of big trucks and oil jacks.

And relatives. We made our way to Calgary to spend some time with Dan's brother's family and his parents who are visiting. It will be nice to spend a few days with everyone and have a warm house and people around! We've both been travelling a lot since the last time we saw Dan's parents, so it feels like it's been too long since we've had a good visit. And he's got a trio of pretty cute niece and a nephew, so they should keep us busy!

PS: By the end of today, we'd had our biggest wildlife sighting day yet. Not counting all the suicidal ground squirrels, Dan tallied 12 mule deers, 8 antelopes, 6 turkeys, a collage of different birds and a handful of hawks. Not bad.

Indian Head to Grasslands National Park (Day 9)

We woke up to a warm, sunny day in Indian Head. After breakfast and a long chat with a very sweet lady RV traveller from Florida en route to Alaska, Dan and I went out in search of Indian Head's fame Round Barn. We did eventually find it, but to Dan's disappointment, it wasn't quite in the state we expected.

This was how the website said it was supposed to look:


but this is what we found:


Seems the barn was on the original homestead of Indian Head which has since been sold off and the current owners weren't too keen on having a tourist landmark in their yard. So, the barn has been removed and the town is currently trying to fundraiser to build it next door. Too bad.

We made our way along the TransCanada to Moose Jaw SK where we had another "Home of the World's Biggest..." spotting. Mac the Moose from Moose Jaw.

The salt deposits around Saskatchewan are crazy (left over from ancient oceans?!). I was starting to think we were back into snow when we came upon a big salt mine just outside of Chaplin SK.

From Swift Current, we headed south towards the sleepy village of Val Marie SK, our gateway to Grasslands National Park where we were planning to camp from the night.

The fields of grasslands in this park are so vast and so long that it makes the prairies we were seeing from the highway look like a metropolis.

There are resident herds of roaming bison (which we unfortunately didn't see) and quite a few active ranches still in the park. The ranches are so big, all you see is fields and fields and fields of farm land without a barn or house in sight. The grasslands also break up from time to time into these rolling buttes, which is a stark contrast to the prairies flatlands.


We drove the Ecotour Drive through the park, which included a drive past the only prairie dog colony outside of the northern United States.

The fields are crawling with prairie dogs darting from burrow to burrow. Heads pop up all over the place and it looks like a real-life version of Whack-a-Mole. The prairie dogs are neighboured by tonnes of Richardson's ground squirrels who look the same but just smaller. They are all over the place, in and out of the park. They sit in the ditches, or on the side of the road, or right on the yellow lines, and watch traffic whiz by. I thought for sure we would pancake a few of them, but they managed to leap out of the way just in time.


Our tent site for the night was at Belza's Ranch, an old ranch still standing in the park.

The ticks were apparently out, so Dan and I didn't venture too far into the grass. But even from our tent, the vastness of the surrounding fields is pretty overwhelming. It's crazy how small and alone you feel standing out there. It's eerie- pretty, but eerie.

Were could hear the coyotes tonight. We fell alseep to hear them crying far (I hope) off in the distance.

PS: I'm really, really hoping it doesn't rain tonight. The park warden warned us that the roads become impassable out here with just a bit of rain (they're clay and pretty primative). The park maps says "when rain begins, exit QUICKLY". Oh good.

Snowy Winnipeg to Indian Head (Day 8)

Morning weather: -2 C with wet, miserable flurries. May 4th.

We drove out of Winnipeg this morning in a crazy snow squall that kept up until we hit Brandon MB almost a hour later. The snow was wet and sticky and just enough to make driving a little too exciting for first thing in the morning.

As we left Winnipeg, the Weakerthans sang us out with "I Hate Winnipeg" live from the Vinyl Cafe stage which happened to be airing from CBC Winnipeg. A throw back to Dee and my previous drive through Winnipeg (although we definitely don't hate Winnipeg...but it's a funny song all the same).

By the time we crossed over into Saskatchewan, it was clean and sunny again.


I was amusing myself snapping drive-by photos from the car window and I managed to capture a couple of really cool shots:

We also took the change in weather to stop in a field just off the TransCanada for lunch. Dan snapped this cool photo of our lunch spot:

After lunch, we started seeing a lot more of the grain elevators along the countryside and usually curiously position near the train station.

I love the prairies. I can't get over how far away the horizon always is. And that you can watch a storm coming hours away. Between the patterns in the fields and the grain elevators, I was thoroughly amusing myself taking drive-by shots out of the car window while Dan chauffeured us across the country.

We eventually made our way to Indian Head SK where the friendly KOA Campground keeper welcomed us in.

He had just hooked up water and electricity, so we were able to camp in style. We had a little walk around the little town after and then, for the first time this trip, were able to enjoy supper and the lowering sun in relative warmth!

Hello Manitoba (Day 7)

After a chilly night, we woke up to the company of a friendly juvenile grayjay we named Petey.

Petey liked pitas. A lot. In fact, he made numerous attempts to sneak off with our bag of pitas while I was making breakfast. Good thing he's cute because he isn't the swiftest bird, misjudging a few of his perches. To save face, he made off with one of our teabags instead.

We packed up and got on the road to head to Winnipeg. After stopping at University of Manitoba to see if the summer accomodations were open (they weren't) our grumbling stomachs reminded us of one of the reasons I wanted to stop in Winnipeg. Alycia's.

When Dee and I did a similar cross-Canada road trip a few years ago, a nice guy in the U of Manitoba bookstore recommended we stop at Alycia's Restaurant for the best Ukranian perogies around. Alycia's is hidden in a residential district, all by itself in the most non-descript building. The ambience is fantastic. Sitting in possibly the "coziest" restaurant/living room I have ever been in, adorned with little trinkets, Babuschka dolls and photos of Alycia's family and famous diners, it reminded me a lot of my Ukranian grandmother's apartment. As I remember it, the kitchen wasn't really open yet (we were there super early after a night of non-stop driving) but the cooks fired up the perogies just for us. And man, they were even more delicious than we had anticipated. So, I had to introduce Dan to the goodness of Alycia's.

Although the restaurant had expanded about 500% so it wasn't quite as cozy, but there were still all the little trinkets and the Alycia shrine. And the food. Oh man. It was every bit as good as I had talked it up to Dan. We had perogies (with fried onions and real sour cream), kolbassa, cabbage rolls, coleslaw and homemade raisin pie. Ahhh. If you are ever in Winnipeg, you NEED to stop at Alycia's.

Super stuffed from all the Ukraine goodness, Dan and I made our way down to the Forks to check out the Historic Site. We walked around the waterfront which was still chilly (although the new World's longest skating rink had actually melted) and stopped to read some of the plaques so we actually knew why the Forks was a historic site. Apparently it was a central hub for Aboriginal trading and meeting back in the day. It has some pretty cool scultures

and installations, including Oodena (The Celebration Circle)- one of the coolest astronomy viewing areas I've seen.

These sighting scopes are set up so that you can look through them and see stars that make up different constellations. And there's plaques and stone carvings that explain the history and lengend about each of the constellations. Very cool.

After wandering around the Forks Market for a bit, we got back in the car and headed to Bird's Hill Provincial Park- our intended destination for the night. Note how I said "intended". Turns out the park opened on May 1st...good...but only for day-use. And the huge "Closed to the Public" sign at the gate to the camping area made playing dumb a little risky. So, Dan and I headed back to the city and checked in to another Super8.

Probably not the worst choice considering the temperature was going down and it was getting late. And although I haven't seen any waffle-makers in the lobby, another warm bed and internet access will curb some of my disappointment :)

Kenora to Whiteshell Provincial Park (Day 6)

I am a breakfast super-fan. Period. I would eat breakfast for hours if I could, just to have time to make more room for all the yummy things you can eat at breakfast. So, you can imagine my delight when I went to the breakfast lounge this morning to discover a make-your-own waffle station! HURRAH! And not just waffles, but a spread of cereals (including Fruit Loops!), fruit, muffins, toast, jams, bagels, cookies, juices and hot chocolate. Oh boy oh boy! Needless to say, I had a great breakfast!

After catching up the blog and finally getting the photos uploaded, Dan and I took a walk around the Kenora waterfront before leaving town. When had only a short drive in the car today just across the border into Manitoba!

I realize the distance between Kenora and Whiteshell Provincial Park (about 1hr west of Kenora), but both Dan and I agreed that it looked and felt like we were no longer in Ontario. The coniferous trees of Ontario change to huge forest of birch stands when you get into Manitoba. It was kinda nice to see deciduous trees for a change. And the deer! It was like you step over the Manitoba border and every deer in the province is waiting to check you out. In the first 20km inside the border, we must have seen about 100 deer. Crazy. We also narrowly missed making a fischer pancake of a little guy who we came upon who apparently thought the middle of a highway lane was a perfect sunbathing spot. We came to within metres of driving over him when he sprang to life and made a beeline for the ditch.

When we got to Whiteshell Provincial Park, we soon realized that it was series of resorts inside a provincial park. So, we ended up sneaking a tent spot at Caddy Lake Resort, where it seemed the majority of its seasonal users were RVs and cabins. It turned out to be a really nice spot with a neighbourhood of deer (obviously ongoing residents since every garden, shrub and flower pot around is shrouded in chicken wire), a nice little beach at the lake (complete with remaining crust of ice)

and a swanky bathroom with TP. Dan managed to stoke up a grand fire in the firepan, so we were able to sit and be toasty while the sun went down.

So toasty in fact, that I managed to melt a stylish streak of melted fleece across the palm some of my mitts ("what's that smell..."). Oops. At least it made my hands warm. Really, really warm.