Day 4 -- Welcome to Canada

June 22, 2014

After Catrina attempted to use the camper shower, and sandwiches were served for breakfast, we started out at 7:46 in the morning at Fort Macleod, Alberta.

Our first stop for fuel was at the Willow Creek, AB for 1.27/liter.  Catrina pumped fuel, threw away some trash, and filled a cooler with soda.  Jason bought ice.

Before leaving town, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a loaf of bread.  We wandered down the aisle looking at the odd products and high prices of things for sale in Canada.  We paused to contemplate ketchup flavored potato chips.  Catrina wanted Claritin for her allergies, but twenty five dollars seemed like an extreme amount to pay.

Upon reaching the counter, the needed credit card had disappeared.  We used another card for the bread, and then began to frantically search pockets and the car for the missing card.  The card had been used to purchase fuel, so it couldn’t be far.  We returned to the Flying J, in hopes that we could find the card.  

Catrina searched the trash can, where she had disposed of some trash.  Luckily, she glance up to see the card on the ground in the parking lot. 

We returned to the road.  We passed through Calgary at 10:30 that morning.  Calgary sits at the confluence of the Bow and the Elbow Rivers.  

The scenic views were breathtaking leaving Calgary as the Canadian Rocky Mountains lined the horizon. 

We were taking the Trans-Canada Highway from Calgary to Highway 93 North into Jasper.  The portion of highway between Lake Louise and Jasper is called the Icefields Parkway, travelling through both Banff National Park and Jasper National Park

At 11:30, we stopped at Lac De Arcs, a lake reflecting a limestone mine.

Ten minutes later, we reached Canmore, Alberta and crossed the Bow River. 

At 11:48, we entered Banff National Park.  The fees are $19.60 for guests travelling through the park.  

We attempted to drive into Banff to see the hot springs there.  The streets were narrow, and filled with pedestrians, making driving a car pulling a camper too difficult for us to continue.  So we turned around before seeing the hot springs.   

On either side of the highway here, there were tall fences to keep critters out of the road.  To allow wildlife to pass over the road, they had built, over the road, land bridges.  

At Lake Louise, we turned off onto the Icefields Parkway. 

At 1:20, we reached Crowfoot Glacier overlooking the turquoise waters of Bow Lake.  Bow lake is the headwater for the Bow River that we had already crossed.  A glacier is defined as a slowly moving mass or a river of ice formed by the accumulation and compaction of snow on mountains. 

Above, is Indian Paintbrush.  To the left, is Bow Glacier.

At 1:54, we passed Waterfowl Lake. 

When we came to Saskatchewan Crossing, we debated on re-filling the gas tank.  All the pumps were full, but it was ninety-eight miles to the nearest gas station.  Mathematically, the car should have made Jasper with no problem and a little left over. So we continued without more fuel.

At 2:17, we came to the confluence of the North Saskatchewan, Mistaya, and House Rivers.  

We are unclear if these are Stone Sheep or Bighorn Sheep.

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At 2:49, Mount Amery (elevation 10,941 feet), Mount Saskatchewan (elevation 10,954 feet) and Cleopatra’s Needle, a dolomite pinnacle, sometimes called the Lighthouse Tower.

This is called the Weeping Wall. 

Water from the melting ice fields in the Cirrus Mountain cliffs weaves it way out of the cracks to form a series of graceful waterfalls. 

At 3:02, we stopped at Bridal Falls.  The Falls across the valley were beautiful standing on the edge of the parking lot.  Catrina snapped a few pictures there, but a friendly fellow tourist directed us into the edge of the parking lot, into the woods, claiming a much better viewpoint. 

He was right. 

Here, we were beside a beautiful waterfall weaving its way downward, through and around the large boulders.  The rocks were difficult to navigate and the rushing water sounds pulled ones insides down.  The idea of slipping into this frigid rushing water, and the instantaneous peril, was alarming and breathtaking.  Yet, we were still impressed with the roaring white waters. 

However, we began to notice with every stop we took had the car was telling us we were closer and closer to the Empty mark on the fuel gauge. Now, mathematically, we would not make it to Jasper.  

At 3:07, we passed the Saskatchewan Glacier.

At 3:13, we made it to the edge of the Columbia Ice Fields, 241 square miles of ice.  Here, Jason, as a boy, walked with this grandfather up to the edge of the ice.  Signs marked the location of the ice with each passing year, showing the rates of melting.  Now, they bussed people to the edge of the ice.  Had we had unlimited amounts of fuel and time, Jason would have liked to walked to edge to have seen the difference of melting between when he was a boy and now.

About 4:00, we were discussing the precarious fuel situation when a big black Mama Bear stepped out of the opposite ditch, looking both ways for vehicles.  We turned around to watch her stop traffic for her two baby bear cubs. 

At 4:32, we stopped for a female elk, but our camera was dead, and could not find the spare battery in time. 

We did not stop at Athabasca Falls, in hopes, that we would have enough fuel to make it to Jasper.  And finally, at 4:40, with less than two miles to spare, we made it Jasper.  We filled up at 1.29 per liter. 

At 5:30, we came across a herd of mountain goats

To the left is a picture of Grand Cache Coal Corp.

Above is a picture of the Smokey River, as it weaves around the Northern Alberta Resource Railroad. 

When we arrived in Grand Prairie, AB, we attempted to pick up a few things at Wal-mart.  We walked up to the door, and were taken aback to learn that the Wal-mart was closed.  First, we were used to twenty-four hour stores.  Secondly, it was still very daylight outside, and it couldn't really be ten o'clock at night!

We filled up on the way out of town for 1.27/liter.

At 11:30/10:30 we entered British Columbia, once again crossing a time zone into Pacific Time. 

We stopped when we reached Dawson Creek at 11:00.  It took us 50.5 hours of driving to reach the beginning of the Alaskan Highway.  We parked in the Wal-mart parking lot, and a good rest was had by all.