Road Trips – Page 58 – On the road with Jim

Lake Louise – Alberta

Arriving at Lake Louise in Canada’s Banff National Park, we’ve now traveled north of the 51st parallel. In our first few camps, the first chore we did was to get the air conditioner going. At this camp, we’ve fired up the heater because of the night’s sub-freezing temperatures. To be fair, our camp elevation is above 5100 feet, so not all the drop in temperature is due to our northward migration.

Gang at the Lake View Lounge. — Anne, Deb, Fred and Sally stopped in the Lake View lounge for a glass of wine. One of Anne’s bucket list items as been fulfilled.

Lake Louise in Banff is spectacular. Although there are many larger lakes in the park, Louise’s size emphasizes how a glacier creates and then feeds the lake’s water system. With ten-thousand foot mountains towering above each side, the u-shaped valley is anchored by the aqua colored lake. Opposite the glacier sits the world-famous Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise Hotel. It has expensive rooms, expensive restaurants and expensive shops. Surrounding the hotel, thousands of tourist have come from around the world to snap selfies along the lakeside. A casino or two would make the scene perfect.

Red canoes in front of hotel. — Canoes are one of many way to explore Lake Louise.

This is the second Canadian National Park that we’ve visited so far and it seems that Canada manages them as luxury resorts and not a chance to commune with nature. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of trails into the back country and you’re free to climb the mountains, but you have to offer the initiative to do so. I’m glad that we got to experience the Canadian Rockies. They’re an awesome subject for a photographer.

Clouds on mountain tops. — After an afternoon shower, the clouds cover the mountain tops surrounding Lake Louise.

We’ll be spending another day here. Fred and I are going to throw fly lines at the Bow river this morning. Then since it’s Fred and Deb’s nineteenth anniversary, they’re going to try for a romantic window side table at the Fairmont’s swankiest restaurant. I’m sure that you’ll join us in wishing them congratulations. Meanwhile, the rest of us will be dining at Mickey D’s.

Tomorrow we head thru Jasper National Park on the Ice Field road before heading back down on the plains and a little town called Hinton. They have WiFi there and I won’t have to sit in the visitor’s center as I’m doing now. I’ll post more from there.

Waterton Lakes NP, Alberta

I wanted to get off a short note this morning before we get on the road to Banff and show a couple of shots of yesterday’s park visit.

Waterton Lake and Rockies — From the Prince of Wales Hotel lawn, this is the view you enjoy of Waterton Lake and Canadian Rockies.

If you’ve never heard of the Alberta winds, here is your notice. The wind blows here most of the time. And I’m not talking puffy little breezes. The winds come down off of the mountains and on to the prairie and they really batter you. The last two nights in the Ritz felt like sleeping in a Lowe’s paint shaker. I’d compare them to our summer monsoons, but they last all day and night.

Lake Waterton and Mountains — This is the scenic view looking east from the Prince of Whales Hotel.

It’s time to start packing now, so I’ll close. As I said, we don’t expect WiFi for a couple of days, but I’ll post news if I’m wrong. On to Banff and Lake Louise.

Oh Canada

We made the Canadian crossing after driving forty-five minutes from our last camp. Going through the Glacier/Waterton customs was an ordeal. We pulled our vehicles in line and waited to be summoned to the officer’s booth. Fred, being funny, told the guy to watch out for the tricky geezer behind him. He looked at our passports, asked us about guns and alcohol, why we were coming, and where we were coming from. Then he said, “You’re from Arizona! Where are your guns?” I told him that we must have left them in the bar.

After passing through customs we pulled over in the parking lot to take the obligatory pictures in front of signs. We shot one in front of the Waterton Lakes Park sign, one in front of the flags and then we walked back passed the customs booth to the roadside monument. We stood there chatting about how nicely they had mowed the border when a Canadian customs officer came out of the building to talk with us. He told us that the US Customs people called him to complain about the people wandering back and forth across the line. You’re not supposed to do that without going through customs. Then he asked if we’d like him to take our picture. After he did, he remarked that Canadians aren’t as anal as the US Customs people and we all had a good laugh.

Gang posing at the border — The gang lines up for a pose at the US/Canada border. The shot was taken by a Canadian Border Officer after scolding us about wander back and forth across the line.

After another twenty miles (I guess I should start reporting this in kilometers) we made it to a lovely little park at the north border of Waterton Lakes National Park. Our hostess, Kristin explained all about the park and what to do about the bears should they happen by. I told her to stop teasing us about that because there are no bears here . . . well as far as we could tell. Then I complemented her on her English. She laughed and said that she was from Tennessee.

Fred poses in waders. — Fred poses for the cameras in his new Wall-Mart waders.

After setting up camp, we drove north to the little town of Pincher Creek to get supplies at the Wall-Mart. Once you drive away from the Rockies, the countryside reminds me of eastern Kansas with low rolling green hills and red barn farms. In Wall-Mart Fred and I checked out waders. He found a set, but there weren’t any in my size. Anne asked a clerk where the wine was and the woman said, “Oh honey, you’re not from Canada are you dear?” So off we went to find one of the two liquor stores and in the process lost Fred and Deb. Don’t worry, they found their way back to camp.

Today we plan on exploring Waterton Lakes Park. Maybe we may see some bears there. We plan on leaving for three days in Banff National Park 200 miles north of here. The campground we picked out doesn’t have WiFi so the Blog may be dark for a while. If I can’t find a way to publish, I’ll save the good stories for when we’re back on-line.

St Mary, Montana

It’s the beginning of our second week of travel and today was the first time we didn’t have clear skies. In Columbia Falls yesterday, the temperature was in the high 90s before afternoon thunderstorms dropped some light rain. Today the storms have been building all day.

We made the drive around the south flank of Glacier Park and got to St Mary in the early afternoon, and that’s even stopping at the goat lick and lunch (it’s not the name of a restaurant, they’re different places). We had to move so we could see Glacier’s east side. As I wrote earlier, the Going to the Sun Road is still covered in snow.

Goats at the salt lick — Mountain goats migrate from the high cliffs down to a salt deposit along the Flathead River.

The goat lick is kind of cool. There is a turn out near the south-west corner of the park where you can see mountain goats if you’re lucky. They come down from the high mountains to a spot above a fork of the Flathead River where there are salt deposits. The last time Anne and I stopped, there were about a dozen, but there were only three today. Since they’re on the other side of the river, they’re over a mile away in the shot I made with my telephoto lens.

Storm over St Mary Lake — Afternoon thunderstorms create a dark mood in Glacier National Park.

After setting up camp, we piled in the car and drove up the east side of the Going to the Sun Road. That’s when the thunderstorms really developed. As moist air moves in from the west, the Rockies wring a lot of that water out before moving out to the dry prairie. With thunder echoing off of the mountains while rain and hail bounced off of Fritz, the park was showing off a different face.

Two mountain peaks in rain clouds — Behind a grove of burnt evergreens, two Glacier peaks are obscured by rain clouds.

We’re going to stay here for another day then move across the border to Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. It’s part of the Glacier Eco system and is called the International Peace Park. Besides, Fred and I have to see if we can catch something that moves.

Glacier Fishing

I feel obligated that I should start an official tally here on the blog. I mean, we have to keep score of these things don’t we? Otherwise you would be kept in the dark about such things ant that wouldn’t be transparent would it.

So after our first day of fly fishing, here are the results. Fred caught three trees, a rock, and some grass. I caught four trees and a cabin. I think it’s clear who is a ahead don’t you?

Columbia Falls, Montana

We arrived in Columbia Falls yesterday. Fred needs to get his stitches out (see the earlier post about pending disasters), and after five days of driving we scheduled time for a break. In addition to the medical concerns, we’ll restock some supplies and explore Glacier National Park so we can shoot some pictures and get in some fishing.

McDonald Lake tucked in glacial valley — McDonald Lake fills the glacial valley along the Going to the Sun Road in West Glacier National Park

Glacier is my favorite park (of the ones I’ve visited). It spans the border with Canada and their side is called Waterton Lakes National Park. Glacier is relatively small but has spectacular glacial mountains stacked one after another. I’ve joked before that it’s hard to photograph because to get one mountain completely framed, you back into another mountain.

Fred shooting waterfall — Fred composes a shot at McDonald Creek Falls in Glacier National Park

Going to the Sun road is the only road that traverses the park, and it crosses the Continental Divide at Logan Pass. At 6600 feet elevation, it is the best view of the park. Unfortunately, the road was closed every time we’ve visited and this year the snow won’t be cleared until mid July.

If you visit the park early in the season, you can cheat the snow plows by driving around the park on Highway US 2 to visit the other side, and that’s what we will do on Wednesday. We will spend a couple of days in Saint Mary before we finally cross the Canadian border.

Butte Montana

There’s a pattern developing with our campsites. After driving a couple hundred miles each day, we pull into an RV park to get an evening’s rest. We’ve planned these stops and reserved our spaces before we left. RV Parks have become the motels of our generation. Each of the parks that we’ve stayed at have amenities that make life on the road more pleasant. One of those things is a WiFi connection that makes it possible to communicate with you while on the road.

Of the four places we’ve stayed in, three were really accessible from the highway, while last night’s was . . . well, out-of-the-way. It was in Thornton, Idaho. I know! Where the heck is that? It’s a wide spot in the road north of Idaho Falls and it was a detour from Interstate 15.

The pattern I’m referring to is this. The more convenient a park is to the highway, the more the highway conveniently runs through your bedroom. So far we’ve had semi trucks, trains, freeway noise and industrial sites as our ambient background noise throughout the evening. We dismissed it as part of being on the road, until last night.

The abandoned Thornton Mercantile and Cafe sits empty along the east side of the street.

When we pulled up to the park in Thornton, we all thought we’d made a big mistake. This wasn’t a big city or quaint little town. It was a spot on a side road with a couple of abandoned grain elevators, a row of closed businesses on the east side of the road and a potato shipping plant across the street. We could easily see the railroad tracks running along the road. It was the train blaring that got us up early in Provo and we thought here we go again. With some apprehension, we turned into the driveway of the Thompson RV Park.

Potato Packing Plant — Potato shipping plants on Thornton’ s west side

When we parked inside of the gate and went to the office to register, we were surprised to find a lovely park with gardens, fish pond, mature trees and lots of space to spread out. After setting up, we had a chance to wander the gardens where Linda Thompson joined us and pointed out all the flower variety growing. “You should have been here when the tulips were growing.” We could imagine what we missed because everything else was still in bloom.

She proudly pointed to a willow tree that she had planted nearly 50 years ago. “It was a twig in one of my mother’s funeral arrangements and when the flowers faded, I stuck it in the ground. I call it the Mom tree.” The house was over a hundred years old and they’ve run the park for about half that time. She explained that she and her husband want to retire and sell the place. They want to move to someplace warmer.

Thompson Gardens — The gardens at the Thompson RV Park have been lovingly cared for by the owners for fifty years.

How was our stay? Dead quiet except for the occasional peacock call in the distance. We could hear that because it was remarkably quiet otherwise. We even talked in hushed tones around our gathering. It will be a shame when the Thompson’s leave. I can’t imagine Corporate America giving the love and care to keep the place the same.