Canadian Rockies Vacation 2019 Days Seven, Eight, and Nine

Day Seven.

We got a late start leaving our Calgary hotel. Sometimes it is hard to keep track of where the key card is and who has it. It was a little sad for me leaving Calgary. We got coffee from Tim Hortons in High River. I was happy to find a grain elevator in southern Alberta. They are pretty rare now.

Our main destination on day seven was Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump in southern Alberta.

What is a buffalo jump? Before horses were introduced, First Nations peoples used jumps to kill buffalo/bison. Buffalo runners would drive them over a steep cliff (36 feet) and the bison would be killed as they landed. The buffalo runners would disguise themselves as wolves or bison. The Head Smashed In title refers to a young man who wanted to watch the hunt from below but was buried under the falling buffalo.

There is a museum that explains buffalo hunting and First Nations culture.

They used every part of the buffalo after it was killed.

We visited on a Wednesday so we got to experience Drumming and Dancing. My favorite was the older lady who was very regal.

Another dancer.

Drummers.

There was crowd participation at the end, which we didn't join.

We continued on to the Crowsnest Highway. We had lunch in Pincher Creek at Harvest Coffeehouse.

I took lots of photos of the Alberta sky, which I miss.

We changed drivers in Frank, Alberta. Frank is the place where a devastating landslide happened in 1903.

J drove through extremely heavy rain in the mountains. We saw some lightning. We arrived in Cranbrook, BC. We had a little trouble getting the right room at the Best Western. We had supper at Mr. Mike's which was across the street. Good food. I had a lobster avocado salad.

The colour of the hotel's pool was green so we skipped that!

Day Eight (Cranbrook, B.C. to Spokane)

We had a reasonably priced hot breakfast from restaurant inside the Best Western. Omelettes for less than $10. Our wait at the U.S. border was 30 minutes. We stopped in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, for coffee and baked goods at Under the Sun. It is both a charming store and a coffee shop. I'd go back there if I'm ever in that region again.

We stopped in Sandpoint, Idaho, which is one of our family's favourite places. We had lunch at Trinity at City Beach. We ate outside with a view of the beach.

I laid out on Sandpoint City beach for an hour and read a book.

We drove to Spokane. We stayed at the Centennial Hotel which was unfamiliar to us. It has a very modern interior. We hung out in and out of the beautiful, large pool in the sunshine. I wanted to stay another day at this spot!

Day Nine (Spokane to home)

I woke up early. I think I was still on Mountain Time. I got tea from the lobby and read newspapers.

Breakfast from McDonalds. A did some driving in eastern Washington. We had lunch in Moses Lake at Taco del Mar. We stopped at the Thorne fruit stand. We got home at about 4 pm.

This was our longest vacation we've every had. I think J survived! :)


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Canadian Rockies Vacation 2019 Days Five and Six.

We left Jasper on Monday Aug 12th. We stood in a long line to get breakfast and sandwiches (for later) at the Bears Paw Bakery. Their monster cookie was yummy. We were on the road by 10 am, driving south on Highway 93. We stopped for a break at the Columbia Icefields.

We took some beautiful photos at Waterfowl Lake. Dumb name for such a gorgeous spot!

We stopped at Lake Louise Village to stretch our legs. I bought a book on Mary Schaffer, who was the first non-aboriginal woman to explore Banff and Jasper parks and put Maligne Lake on the map. You can learn more about her here. We learned about Mary during our cruise to Spirit Island.

We went to the Banff Springs Hotel. It was fun exploring. My favourite part of BSH is Mount Stephen Hall. They were setting up for a wedding when we were there so we couldn't go in.

I drove from Banff to Calgary. It rained the whole way! We arrive in Calgary around 6 pm. We got burgers and milkshakes from Peter's Drive in. I got supper from Shwarma Palace in the Falconridge neighbourhood. Huge portions at a great price.

We stayed at the Port O'Call in Northeast Calgary. We were given a bad room to begin with that smelled of chlorine and had a "window" that faced the waterslide. We did move to a better room. I accidentally left my pillow (that I take with me when I travel that supports my neck) behind in the first room and getting that back was a bit of a bruhaha.

We noticed the price of gas in Calgary was the lowest of any place on our trip.

Day Six. Our best breakfast of our vacation was from Port o'Call. They had a breakfast buffet that was incredible. Cereals, fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, french toast, yogurt, and hot oatmeal. We were on the road at 10 am. We stopped for gas in Balzac. I checked out the store. It is quite rundown and depressing. When I was young, our mailing address was Balzac, Alberta.

We stopped again in Airdrie to change drivers. A drove for an hour on a very straight, quiet road.

We stopped at Horseshoe Canyon.

Arrived in Drumheller and went to the Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology. They have a collection of over 130,000 fossils. Here is what J wrote:

"The museum itself was impressive if you like dinosaurs bones. I thought it might be a bit kid oriented but actually kids under 10 would probably be bored. You move through it a bit like an IKEA, except without the exits. The boys went through quite quickly because they weren't reading everything. My favourite part was the section on the stories on how many of the fossils were discovered by miners, and oil and gas companies, while digging. Alberta is a treasure trove of dinosaur fossils. Sheila's favourite was Albertosaurus, which is "related" to T-Rex. We let the boys read all the millions of years this and millions of years that since we think they have the discernment to process it for themselves."

Albertosaurus:

A guy excavating a basement near Calgary in 2016 found this fish fossil:

A beautifully preserved skeleton:

How they hauled out bones in the old days:

The ammolite displays were beautiful.

I left the museum feeling proud of all the discoveries that have occurred in Alberta, my home province. We had lunch in Drumheller at Bernie and the Boys Bistro. Our server (a young man) was very friendly.

There is a huge dinosaur in town.

You can pay to go inside the dinosaur and take the stairs to the mouth part and look out. We didn't bother with that.

In the late afternoon, we drove to the Hoodoos.

The landscape is so unique.

What is a hoodoo? A hoodoo is a sandstone pillar resting on a thick base of shale that is capped by a large stone.

There were a two ice cream trucks parked in the Hoodoos parking lot. Very smart.

A drove for an hour on the way back to Calgary. I talked on the phone to my friend Carrie (who lives in Calgary). That night, I met Carrie at a coffee shop near her house and we talked for about 3 hours. My boys were quite surprised by that! How little they know about women. :)


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Canadian Rockies Vacation 2019 (Days Three and Four)

note the eagle caught in flight!

Three hikes in one day. That's what I remember about Day Three.

We had breakfast at our hotel in Canmore. It was packed with people. Lots of Asian tourists. We got on the road by 8 am. We parked in the overflow lot and paid for the shuttle bus to Lake Louise. We got off in the parking lot of Lake Louise and then waited to buy tickets for the shuttle to Moraine Lake. I got cold waiting in line. I was wearing jeans and a windbreaker so it was pretty cold!  We purchased tickets for the 10:20 am bus. We walked around Lake Louise for a bit.

I got a cup of tea and a cookie from the cafe inside the Fairmount Lake Louise. The shuttle bus took 20 minutes to get to Moraine. We hiked up the rock pile to get the best view. The mountains were hidden by clouds but the colour of the water is so amazing!

We had hoped to hike to the tea house at Lake Louise (the afternoon before) but time didn't allow for it. J and I hiked to the tea house in the summer of 1997 when I showed J around Banff and Calgary during our engagement trip.

We had lunch in Lake Louise Village at Laggans. The food was good but sandwiches were 10 dollars.

We drove up Highway 93, also known as the Icefields Parkway. Our first stop was Peyto Lake. A short but steep hike. Gorgeous views.

C's new phone takes incredible photos. These are his. Click on them to enlarge.

Lots of wildflowers.

The funny thing about Peyto Lake was that one of A's school friends posted a photo of himself on Instagram at Peyto Lake a few days after we were there!

I took this photo of a glacier along Highway 93. I used my zoom lens.

I don't know its name

Along the highway, we stopped at the top of a huge hill to admire the view.

Columbia Icefields. This was the third hike of the day.

A bit north of the Columbia Icefields, there is a glass bridge that you can pay to visit. I'd be up for going on it but our son A said he'd never consider it. Here's a link to photos of it: Skywalk.

We saw lots and lots of wildflowers on the side of the road on Highway 93, especially Indian paintbrush.

We arrived in Jasper around 5:30 pm. This is the farthest north that J and the boys have ever been. The farthest north that I have been is Peace River, Alberta. We ate at Earl's. I had the quinoa avocado power bowl. We saw the Rocky Mountaineer train in Jasper. This is the scenic train that takes passengers during daylight hours through the Rockies. It is super expensive, though. We stayed at Pine Bungalows which has no TV and no Internet in the cabins.

Our oldest teenager hung out by the office (where there was wifi) and got bitten by the mosquitoes.

Day Four

J and I woke up early and went into town for breakfast at Smitty's. The boys slept in. We grabbed some sandwiches from town and then drove for an hour to Maligne Lake. We took the 12:30 pm boat cruise to Spirit Island. The entire trip was 1 1/2 hours.

We appreciated the informative and funny commentary on the boat by our guide Jen. The "cruise" is expensive but it is the only way to get to this amazing view. Unless you want to spend the entire day canoeing or kayaking.

We stopped at the viewpoint of Spirit Island for 15 minutes.

This is the view from the back of the boat.

After we finished with Maligne Lake, we drove to Maligne Canyon. It is named a canyon but it actually a gorge.

There are 4 bridges in the area but we only had time to get to two.

This was our hike of the day.

When we were back in Jasper, doing some window shopping, I noticed in a grocery store that bananas were a dollar a pound. Wow! It must be so expensive to live there. We had dinner at Authentic Burger which was a bit cheaper than most of the restaurants in town.


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