Mountain hiking

We were on our way at 0830 heading towards Kananaskis. We stopped for gas and food in High River (great Co-op there). The town is still recovering from the horrible flooding a few years ago. The down-town area is very charming..

With the car gassed up we headed over to the mountains. We stopped for lunch at one nice picnic area but the over aggressive horse flies chased us back to the car where we finished our cheese buns with ham.

We stopped for our hike at "Ptarmigan Cirque" trail. It was extremely popular and we go the last parking spot.
The hike took a total a 1 1/2 hours  and went way up to beautiful meadow.

We were above the tree line and in the photo above you can see where a glacier used to be, leaving just moraine behind.

 Once the hike was completed we drove to Canmore with the thought of going through Lake Louise and Rocky Mountain House on the way home. Once in Canmore the BC forest fire smoke became very thick. We couldn't even see some of the mountains so we decided to cut our losses and head home via Calgary.

We stopped in Red Deer at Peters Drive-in on Gasoline Alley and made it home by 2015 hrs. Almost seventeen hundred kilometres driving, probably 6 hours hiking in total and two nights hotelling. an AWESOME time.

Cyprus Hills Alberta

   After an awesome sleep last night in a King size bed we were up at the crack of eight (!) for a breakfast (included in our nightly cost). The waffle machine didn't work so that was a downer but the rest of the breakfast selection was nice.

   We drove down to the Cyprus Hills (a first time for us to be there- I may have been there as a small child). We were blown away at how beautiful the town of Elkwater was and how gorgeous the park was. A really beautiful, alpine like location.After visiting the really cool visitor information center it was time to go hiking.We drove up to Horseshoe Canyon viewpoint and walked one of the paths for about a kilometre. The flowers were beautiful.

    We then proceeded to Reesor Lake where we had a picnic lunch while watching many fishermen attempting to catch fish.
   We made a decision not to go to Fort Walsh as the gravel roads looked too rough for the Escape

    With lunch out of the way we started driving to Brooks. There has been many large forest fires in BC and the smoke has played a dominant role in our viewing as most of our great vantage points have been partially obscured as can be seen in the photo above taken at the Horseshoe Canyon viewpoint.
   Once we got into Brooks we went to a McDonalds (for the free wifi) and made plans for the rest of the day. It turned out there was a 2 1/2 hour  guided tour at Dinosaur Provincial Park at 0930 the next day but it was already full. Too bad.Oh well,another time I guess.
   We drove the 45 km to the park;arriving just before the visitors information center closed at 5 P.M. and got information on the hiking there. The next two hours were spent scrambling over badlands doing our best to find dinosaur bones. No luck!

   We had a blast and after finishing our last trail we headed back to Brooks where we got a room at the Days Inn. The folks at the Days Inn front desk recommended a restaurant nearby which was an excellent choice. I had French Dip and Caro had (gulp) liver and onions.
    A tiring day but,oh so much fun!

Road Trip!

     It was time for a road trip so after dropping Lisa off at the airport at 0630 for her flight to Halifax (ref-ing nationals in lacrosse) we carried on down to Drumheller for a visit to the Royal Tyrrell Museum. We haven't been there for many years and it was a wonderful visit. It looks like they have made many changes to their exhibits and there were a TON of people enjoying everything. Lucky for us we got there at 10 AM and easily found parking. By the time we left at noon parking was at a premium. After a driving tour of the dinosaur trail (including the Bleriot ferry and a couple of viewpoints) we headed east to Oyen.
     

      In the 50 plus years since I have lived there I have managed to return a half dozen times and today was the second time with Caro. I had envisioned spending upwards of an hour there but after 20 minutes there was nothing more to see (the town was empty anyway as it is Sunday). I noticed that the old bank building appeared to have either been moved or demolished. I snapped a couple photos of the final house we lived in as well as a photo of Neil's house.
 

      We carried on down to Medicine Hat at which point we decided to get a place. We booked a hotel (Baymont-very nice) via Hotels.com (thank you McDonalds for the free wifi) but before checking in we went to see the latest in the ongoing of Planet of the Apes movie.
    I am using the chromebook instead of my cell phone for this entry and I am very impressed with my ability to add more than one photo to the post and to place said photos throughout this posting.