Here's what we've been up to for the last several weeks:
Calgary
Stayed here for a couple of nights - mainly to break up the trip with a little "city stuff" in between all of the mountain meanderings. We stopped at the Olympic Village from the Winter Games of '88 and then motored in to our B&B in the middle of the city, which we proceeded to explore for the next couple of days. Don't have a whole lot to say about the experience - it's a nice city as cities go I suppose, but two nights was plenty to convince us that we needed to get out of town and back into the wilderness. We don't have too many photos to memorialize the stopover, but we did make an interesting side trip one of the days to Fort Macleod - the original fort in this section of Alberta that was established by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Mounties) in 1874 to put an end to a thriving whiskey trade being conducted by American traders with the local Blackfoot Indians. We think of the USA as being a young country but we don't have anything on the Canadians. Some places in Canada (like this one) are barely 125 years old.
The RCMP's were eventually successful and kicked the Americans back across the border. Having earned the trust of the local tribes through their fair dealing on a variety of potentially contentious issues, they brokered a treaty with the tribes of the Blackfoot Confederation in 1877...a treaty that's still in effect and which forms the basis of aboriginal property rights to the present day. Because of all this (and the lack of any major gold discoveries), Canada was able to avoid the destructive wars with the plains Indians that characterized American expansion in the West. The treaty has never been modified (or broken) by either side. An interesting side note is that under its terms each member of the Blackfoot tribe was entitled to an annual payment of $5 from the government, a payment that continues to the present day...and it's still 5 bucks, which doesn't go quite as far today as it probably did in the 1870's.
There's actually a pretty little frontier town at Fort Macleod which built up around this RCMP outpost. It's not a reconstruction - it's the real deal. All of these buildings date from the founding of the post in the 19th century.
After the constraints of the city we were anxious to get to our next stop, which was a self-catering cabin on a horse ranch about an hour south of Calgary.
The Rocky Mountain Foothills
Talk about being in the back of beyond. Our little cabin near the town of Turner Valley couldn't have been further removed from the hustle & bustle of the city. It was located in the foothills of the Rockies (eastern side) at about the 5,000 ft level and about a five minute drive from the entrance to a pretty little Alberta Provincial Park. We arrived just ahead of a drenching rainstorm - in fact we got some hail and sleet at the cabin - and so decided to just stay in for the night and play with the wood stove until it passed, which it did overnight. Next morning was sunny so we headed into the park to explore some of the trails. The first thing we noticed was that the snow level from the previous night's storm was only about 500 ft above us - we basically drove up into it as we ascended the canyon looking for hiking trails. After a couple of false starts due to all of the mud, we found an area along the river that included the waterfall below, which was our picnic spot for lunch. There was a very pretty (dry) trail that paralleled the river going upstream for about a mile and a half - made for a terrific walking day.
The ranch where we stayed is essentially a back-country outfitter for hardy souls wanting to pack it up into the Rockies for a week or so, and they also offered hourly and daily trail rides through the Provincial Park and forest.
Along with all of the horses they had a small herd of buffalo, one of which was standing next to the road as we exited the property one day.
Crowsnest Pass, Alberta
After 4 nights at the ranch we headed south to the small municipality of Crowsnest Pass before turning West again to begin the return leg of the trip. Only stayed here a couple of nights but did stop by the "Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump" historic site along the way down there. In the days before horses (about 5,000 years actually) the plains Indians hunted buffalo on foot. In early Autumn the tribes would converge on a few areas where there were steep cliffs in the foothills of the plains and stampede all or part of a buffalo herd over the edge of it, where other members of the tribe were waiting to butcher the animals quickly, ie before the meat turned bad. This place was named after a young brave who was watching the buffalo tumbling over the cliff one afternoon and got stuck in the middle of the animal avalanche...hence the name. The last time the site was used in this manner was the mid 1850's, after which time all of the hunting was accomplished from horseback. I always associated the plains Indians with horses but they didn't actually get them until the early 1700's - courtesy of some of the early Spanish expeditions into the interior of the continent in the 1600's.
Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump in Southern Alberta
Another side trip was to Waterton National Park, which borders our Glacier National Park across the international border on the Canadian side. You can actually hike or ride from one country to the other (if you have your passport). Really a pretty place and one we had been to a couple of years ago as a day trip from Glacier when it was unfortunately raining. Didn't have any better luck this time - it was cold and showery when we arrived but, having driven this far, we decided to go ahead a drive the two scenic roads that penetrate into the back country. Glad we did. The rain let up a bit as we left Waterton Village and we saw lots of pretty scenery and creatures. Saw a black bear emerge from the forest just ahead of us as we rounded a curve - even "herded" him along for a bit before he tired of the game and bolted into the forest. Also a resident herd of deer which, as you can see from the photo of the yearling buck below, aren't at all skittish around cars or people.
Rita took this just leaning out of the window of the car as we paused alongside.
At the end of the drive was a pretty little lake that had a short 3 mile hiking trail along the right-hand side. The far end of the lake (looking south) is the US. You can actually walk across the border here if you continued beyond the viewpoint.
You can get a good idea of the type of day it was from these two photos. And this was the dry part of the day. Still, the park was beautiful as advertised. Just wouldn't mind seeing it in sunshine at least once before I die.
Golden
After the two nights in Crowsnest Pass we continued West, crossed back into British Columbia, and stopped in the town of Golden - located just west of Lake Louise on the western side of the Rockies. Stayed 4 nights on a Buffalo ranch, in a nice 3 bedroom house they offer as a self-catering place on their property...complete with hot tub! It was another remote site, nestled against another Provincial Park just above us along a logging road. As we got out of the car we heard an elk "bugling" in the forest above us - it was rutting season...felt like we were in the movie Jeremiah Johnson all the time we were there.
As expected there were numerous hiking opportunities in the area. All we had to do was drive 15 minutes up the logging road, which paralleled a mountain river, to find isolated walking tracks. So isolated in fact that we had the bear bells jangling the whole way and had the bear spray at the ready...just in case. No bear encounters but boy what pretty scenery. The photo below was our lunch spot after hoofing it into the bush for an hour or so.
One day we drove about 45 minutes up to Yoho National Park, which is located only about 20 minutes from Lake Louise as you descend west from the Continental Divide. Didn't think it possible but it was actually prettier than Banff or Jasper - and a lot less crowded. More great hikes and views of magnificent waterfalls as you can see.
The water in the rivers and lakes up here is all the same aquamarine blue color that we first saw in New Zealand a couple of years ago - and for the same reason. It's ice melt from the glaciers above. Apparently all of the grinding of the ice wears away the underlying rock and creates what they locally call "rock flour" - or silt, basically, but so fine that it really does have the quality of flour. And boy does it get into everything. The car looked like it had just emerged from the Outback after driving the local roads for a couple of days and was extremely difficult to get either off the car or out of all the nooks and crannies in the molding that I never thought dirt could get into.
The silt is so fine that it doesn't merely dissolve in the water as it's carried along - it's actually "suspended" in it, ie it will never just settle out once it hits a still patch of water like a lake. That's why all of the local waters have that "glow in the dark" quality that looks so pretty on a sunny day. Emerald Lake is advertised as the most beautiful of the Rocky Mountain lakes - surpassing even Lake Louise. See for yourself.
The photos above and below are of Emerald Lake in Yoho, one of many drop dead gorgeous places in the National Park
After Golden we continued West towards Kamloops, our stop along the way to Whistler.
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