Alright, back to our regular blogging news...here's the latest camping trip photos.

Years ago my family lived in Lethbridge, Alberta. We traveled all around Southern Alberta--seeing everything there was to see. I traveled back in time and re-visited some of those places on my last camping trip. Here's what I did...

This is taken at Frank slide. "On April 29, 1903, at 4:10 a.m., 82 million tonnes (30 million cubic metres) of limestone crashed from the summit of Turtle Mountain and buried a portion of the sleeping town of Frank. The dimensions of the rock mass that fell are 150 metres (500 feet) deep, 425 metres (1,400 feet) high and one kilometre (3,280 feet) wide. The bustling town of Frank was home to approximately 600 people in 1903. Of these, roughly 100 individuals lived in the path of the slide. An estimated 70 people were killed.

The primary cause of the Frank Slide was the mountain's unstable structure. Underground coal mining, water action in summit cracks and severe weather conditions may have contributed to the disaster." From the Frank Slide interpretive centre website.

Crow's Nest Pass. Very fond memories from childhood of driving out to the Crow's Nest Pass. Essentially it is a grouping of 5 towns that amalgamated--likely for tax reasons and access to services. Crow's Nest Pass received its name from the path the crows took to get through the mountains in southern Alberta to BC. Yep, it is a simple as that.


I don't remember stopping here before. It was an old abandoned coal mine site. The picture below of the house (wrap around patio) was the Mine Manager's home at the time. The picture below this is what is left of it. I have a pretty good imagination but never would have guessed the 'before' look.





One of the other buildings that remains out at the mine site. This is the one the trains went in and out of to collect the coal.


Wind machines.Apparently this is Cowley Hill there are 77 turbines here collecting wind energy. Plus another 52 off to the left. There is a lot of wind in Southern Alberta and a lot of turbines of a variety of sizes to be found. They are giants.





View of the Rocky Mountains just before arriving in Pincher Creek.


These pictures were all from Day 1 of my last camping adventure. The evening ended with me arriving at a campground just outside of Waterton National Park. The campground was full (not surprising as it was the Canada Day long weekend) and I was put into the overflow area. Their idea of overflow and mine are a bit different. The campsite had some trees on two sides, a picnic table, a fire pit and was right on a small pond. Yep, rough. Oh, and did I mention the mountain views all around me? I think the only draw back was the walk to the washrooms...but even that wasn't too far. I would be happy to camp in the overflow area anytime.

My plan for Saturday morning had been to take a red bus tour of the Going to the Sun Road or Road to the Sun as it has been incorrectly known in my family for the past number of years is this amazing road in Montana.

Taken from Wikipedia..."Going-to-the-Sun Road is the only road through the heart of Glacier National Park in Montana, USA. It was completed in 1932, and it is the only road that crosses the park, going over the Continental Divide at Logan Pass. A fleet of 1930s red tour buses "jammers", rebuilt in 2001 to run on propane or gas, offer tours on the road. The road, a National Historic Landmark and a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, spans 53 miles (85 km) across the width of the park.


The road is one of the most difficult roads in North America to snowplow in the spring. Up to 80 feet (24 m) of snow can lie on top of Logan Pass, and more just east of the pass where the deepest snowfield has long been referred to as Big Drift. The road takes about ten weeks to plow, even with equipment that can move 4000 tons of snow in an hour. The snowplow crew can clear as little as 500 feet (150 m) of the road per day. On the east side of the continental divide, there are few guardrails due to heavy snows and the resultant late winter avalanches that have repeatedly destroyed every protective barrier ever constructed. The road is generally open from early June to mid October.

The two lane Going-to-the-Sun Road is quite narrow and winding, especially west of Logan Pass. Consequently, vehicle lengths over the highest portions of the roadway are limited to 21 feet (6.4 m) and that means no recreational vehicles or trailers in excess of this length restriction are permitted beyond two larger parking areas, each located at lower points dozens of miles below Logan Pass, on both the west and east sides of the parkway."

The views are well worth the drive. Ok, so I said my plan was to take the red bus tour. Now, in order to take the tour I needed to be at the departure area by 9am. I was about one hour and one national border away. As I went to bed Friday night I mentally told myself wake up early so I would have time to get there. I awoke just after 5am (TOO EARLY) and headed out shortly after that. The border doesn't open until 7am so I headed into Waterton townsite for a tour. I was rewarded for my early morning drive by getting to watch deer and their fawns wander around eating the lawns of the local residents. And surprisingly I was not the only tourist on the go at that time of the morning.

Shortly before 7am I arrived at the border where I watched the opening of the border ritual. The Canadian and US border patrol(?) meet at the two gates, shake hands, exchange keys and then open the gates. The rather grumpy agent that was checking my passport told me that under no circumstances would I be allowed to enter the US---with the wood that I had in the back of my truck. Oops. The wood has been there since my trip to Cold Lake and while I guess I knew it was there on some level I wasn't really thinking about it before I tried to cross into the US. She handed back my passport I pulled a large wide U-turn back into Canada.

"How long have you been out of the country?"
"Ummm, about 45 seconds."
A few explanations on my side a stern lecture on his side about the movement of wood in and around Alberta, the US and BC and I was back in line to cross back into the US. No trouble the second time and I was on my way. I arrived at the entrance to the park, asked direction on where I was to find my tour and headed off--then apparently I drove right by the hotel that I needed to get the shuttle at. A few more minutes down the road I knew I had gone wrong and seeing a sign that Logan's Pass was only 17 miles decided to drive myself.

The reason I wanted to take the tour was to be able to take pictures when and where I wanted. Driving and taking pictures is a dangerous thing, especially on the Going to the Sun Road. I can't look through the view finder so I just point, click and hope for the best....which does not produce the best of photos.

Here's a few photos up to this point in the trip

My campsite at 5am. Great sunrise that morning.

With a view of the mountains how can you go wrong?


Sunrise was well worth being up for. The mountains changed colour slowly, nice to watch.


Deer.


Aren't they cute????


This mountain was just inside the border of Montana.


Rainbow that greeted me at the entrance to the park. No wonder I missed my turnoff I was too busy looking for the pot of gold.


One of the many views along the 'Going to the Road Sun.'


As I continued along the road I could see some clouds moving in...then I couldn't see anything at all.

The cloud starts to move toward the road...

going...


going...


gone. No road. No mountain. No nothing.


I missed the signs marking Logan's Pass (the actual tourist information centre) and stopped a few kilometers down the road at a pull out. I looked down at the gas gauge and oops...it was rather low. Since I hadn't planned on driving through the pass I hadn't looked at the gas tank. Logan's Pass is at 6646 feet above sea level...over the 17 mile drive you gain about 4000 feet....and lose a lot of gas. I was down to just under 1/8th of a tank. Crap. Now I'm at about the 1/2 way point and am not sure if I should go on or go back. The original plan was to just hit Logan's Pass and go back to my campground. Now that I was there and really enjoying the drive I wanted to go all the way through. I asked some bikers if they thought I could make it to the exit of the park and they said yes. Then I asked a park worker and he said yes. After taking what I was hoping to be a few amazing photos of this deer...I was so close I could have touched it.

On the word of the strangers I asked that the road was all down hill from there I set off for the exit of the park. The drive was fantastic and the gas gauge didn't move the entire time. I left the park, had a great lunch and then went and did a small amount of shopping. I bought my favorite deodorant--Arrid--cream, a couple treats for the drive back and headed back to the park. The drive back through the park was every bit as enjoyable at on the first trip...different views...and no low clouds. I had supper outside the park on the way back to the border and made it back to the actual border around 5pm.

"How long have you been in the states?"
"Since the border opened this morning. About 9 hours."
"Did you buy anything?"
"Kinda."
"Kinda isn't really an answer. You are either pregnant or you are not. You can't be kinda pregnant. Did you make any purchases while you were in the US and what were they?"
"I bought chips, pop, deodorant, advil and some female stuff."
"Ok, carry on."
Not quite. But he did tease me about my blushing. He didn't ask anything more about my purchases and we started to talk about the drive I had done, the wood issue from the morning and that was it. He finished asking his questions over the course of the conversation and at one point he mentions "Are you carrying any fire arms or weapons?" I answered no...but then quickly realized if they searched my vehicle they would have found a rather large, rather sharp axe right behind my drivers seat. Oops.

I was very lucky. When I fly I never chance passing over the border and I'm not sure why I was not careful this trip. I guess cause I just have these things in my truck and really don't think about them anymore...whereas when I fly I must purposely pick the things I take with me.

Either way...I made it back to Canada with no worries...except that I can't seem to find my passport this week and it is starting to worry me. I know I got it back I just can't recall where I put it after I got back from the trip. Hmmm.(Passport was found almost minutes after posting this...now, where did I put my ring?)

It had been a long day and after a short walk I crawled into the tent and fell asleep.

Next...Writing on Stone.