Home Again

 Sunday night

We were up about 8 AM and lazed around for a while before going to the motel continental breakfast.

Shortly before 10 AM we went to the Remington Carriage Museum. After spending two enjoyable hours there we gassed up and left town at noon. I forgot to take photos so snagged this one off the net.

We drove through beautiful pasture lands (Blood Reserve) and continued until Nanton where we stopped at Tim Horton's for lunch (yummy new menu items!).

We drove through Calgary using Deerfoot Trail (very quick as it is Sunday) with our next stop at about 3:40 PM  at Veronica and Serge's place, "just for a coffee break". Two hours (plus) later after being fed another meal by Veronica we were on our way!

Caro drove the remainder of the way home with us pulling into the driveway at 8:20 PM.

Waterton Park

 After a great night in Pincher Creek we ate our breakfast at A+W and by 10 AM we were in Waterton Park. I had forgotten to bring my park pass however the fellow at the park gate said I could keep today's paid receipt and within thirty days take it to another national park office where, along with my yearly park pass, show today's receipt and get reimbursed. Excellent!

Today was stunningly beautiful and according to a guide we had later on in the day this weather was exceptionally good. 

We started our hiking by heading up to Cameron Lake where we walked the west side as far as we could before the trail ended. It was beautiful.

This was a 3.4 km round trip hike over rooted dirt path with occasional muddy spots to deal with.

From the parking lot there we also completed a 1 km round trip hike to Akamina Lake.

On the drive back to town we took the opportunity to stop and read the information on Western Canada's first commercially viable oil well. Really interesting.

At Waterton town site we had a snack type lunch and then headed over to the marina to catch the 2 PM boat trip on the big lake; we had purchased these tickets earlier in the day which was probably a good thing as even though the town itself is not crowded the boat seemed quite full. We were just able to get seats on the top (open) deck.

After a beautiful blue sky, nice temperature, and some great guide commentary our one hour, 15 minute boat tour ended and we were back in town.

More hiking followed at Cameron Falls in town followed by walking around just viewing things,

Tonight we had a great supper and are in Cardston enjoying a bottle of bubbly (courtesy of Mike and Michelle).

The drives in this part of the province are simply the best! We love all the beautiful vistas and endless changes of scenery. An example (taken this morning) gives an idea but the photo simply cannot do the scenery justice!

It seems like,time and time again, we have a great day when travelling.

Another Road Trip

 We left town about 9:15,heading to the south of the province.

Caro drove to Olds at which point we gassed up, ate lunch at Tim Horton/Wendy's and I took over.

We had decided to drive southward down highway 22 which is slower but the scenery is beautiful.

While going though Black Diamond I missed the turn to continue on highway 22. It turned out for the best as at Okotoks  we saw the glacier erratic rock (I haven't seen that in decades). Another missed turnoff and we ended up on highway 2A to High River which was interesting as we went by a huge series of solar panels near the Cargill facility.

We finally got to our main stop of the day at 1600 hours. Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump was really good. I remember being there many years ago however my memories of it were faint therefore today was like seeing it for the first time again. We had one hour to visit before closing time and that turned out to be pretty much all we needed.

Upon leaving the Jump site we headed directly west (and later south) on a secondary highway that was mostly gravel (but not bad to drive on). We ended up going through a shower or two before entering an area FULL of power producing wind turbines. COOL!!

Our stop for the night was Pincher Creek. I hadn't really checked prices ahead of time so we were very surprised to see $250/night costs. Caro suggested we try a motel that looked "OK" but wasn't on Hotels.com or Booking.com. The sign on the counter inside the office said "no vacancy" however we hit the jackpot as a guest had just cancelled a minute before so we got the room at a very reasonable rate of $118. The room is perfect for us tonight.

We ate at the Chinese food place we had eaten at many years ago and had LOVED then. There was no difference with this visit. The place was packed and it was buffet night with a wonderful selection. OMG, another spectacular meal at the Bright Pearl!

Caro remembers us camping at the local campground.We drove around but I remember nothing. Caro remembered the laundry/office building. The place is pretty run down now.

A great day today!