News & Photos - August 2008

My First Travel Anniversary
Current Location: Unnumbered site, Deer Creek Campground, Sundre, Alberta
Dates: Aug 1-4, 2008
Services: None; Cost: $16.67; Nights: 3

“ When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.
- Susan Heller 		”

It's been one year since I sold my house and moved into this trailer! It's certainly been a significant lifestyle change... instead of weeding a garden and mowing a lawn, I'm inflating tires and washing the dirt and dust off the truck and trailer. Due to a winter spent in Milton, I was still shovelling snow... something that I thought I wouldn't have to do again.

During the last year, I've camped in 7 provinces and 4 states, driven 28,000 km and stayed in 76 different campgrounds. I've had one insurance claim (when heavy wind ripped my awning off), and one road-side assistance call (a tire that suddenly went flat).

Despite my entire living quarters being only one third the size of my bedroom in Milton, I don't feel squashed in the trailer. Perhaps this is due to the better use of space (in a trailer, no space is wasted); perhaps it's because I'm outdoors more (my back yard is 9,984,670 km2!)

Bones and Coulees
Current Location: Site 13, Carbon Main Campground, Carbon, Alberta
Dates: Aug 4-8, 2008
Services: E/W; Cost: $20.00; Nights: 4

“ A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu 		”

At Drumheller in the coulees of Alberta, the Royal Tyrrell Museum houses many dinosaur bones (both found locally and from around the world), as well as other displays of fossils. Two hours away, Dinosaur Provincial Park has guided bus tours of dinosaur excavations.


















As an added bonus, I have uploaded a panoramic video I recorded at the lookout at Dinosaur Provincial Park to YouTube. To play it, click on the play arrow in the center of the picture:

Powerless
Current Location: Unnumbered site, Whispering Spruce Campground, Balzac, Alberta
Dates: Aug 8-10, 2008
Services: None; Cost: $21.58; Nights: 2

“ Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.
- Anatole France 		”

All of the serviced (electrical/water hookups) campsites are already taken, so I'm in an unserviced overflow area while I get an oil change in Calgary and wait for the weekend crowd at the Banff area parks to go home on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, as soon as I unhitched the trailer, I found that the lights, water pump, etc. didn't work. With visions of my fridge contents melting, I got out my tools and started trying to figure out why nothing was working. The batteries were fine, but there was no D.C. power inside. Going inside to grab my meter, I turned on a light switch, and suddenly everything was working again! I guess the wire wasn't making good contact with the battery, and I had bumped it enough for it to work again. When I'm in town, I'll pick up some conductive grease to apply to the battery terminals, to make a better connection.

At the Base of the Mountains
Current Location: Site 15, Willow Rock Campground, Bow Valley Prov. Park, Kananaskis, Alberta
Dates: Aug 10-11, 2008
Services: E; Cost: $25.00; Nights: 1

“ The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.
- G.K. Chesterton 		”

Adjacent to the big national parks like Banff are a series of smaller provincial parks, with reasonable prices, higher vacancy rates and good views of the surrounding mountains.













It All Falls Apart
Current Location: Site 26, Spray Lakes West Campground, Spray Valley Prov. Park, Canmore, Alberta
Dates: Aug 11-14, 2008
Services: None; Cost: $20.00; Nights: 3

“ Most travel is best of all in the anticipation or the remembering; the reality has more to do with losing your luggage.
- Regina Nadelson 		”

I was told that the Spray Lake area was “scenic”, so I decided to camp here for a few days. This campground is up in the mountains; the 16 km gravel road up was twisty and a moderately steep climb, but not too difficult. The campsites are mostly meant for tents, and very few were large enough and level enough for an RV. Fortunately, there are few people here, so I had lots of vacant campsites to choose from, and I found a nice one right by the river. That's when my troubles started.

It seems that the bumpy road here caused a stack of diner plates to push open the cabinet door, and two smashed all over the floor. It took my 15 minutes on my hands and knees to sweep up all the glass shards. Worse, I had electrical problems with my truck... when I arrived at my campsite, I noticed that the alternator warning light was on. Fearing that I might not be able to restart my engine, I left the engine running while I unhitched the trailer, then started driving back to Canmore. Along the way, more and more warning lights came on, as the battery (not being recharged by the alternator any more) slowly died. I managed to find a level shoulder on the highway, as the engine eventually completely died. After calling the Emergency Road-side Assistance number from my cell phone, a tow truck came by a half hour later. On the way into town, I phoned several garages to find one that could look at my truck this week; most are booked solid until next week. Fortunately, the local Ford dealership thought that they could fix it on Wednesday, so the tow truck dropped off the truck and myself there. However, their courtesy shuttle driver had left work for the day before I arrived, so they could not give me a ride back to the campground. I phoned many car rental places, but none of them had anything available until late Tuesday afternoon, and their prices ($90/day and up) were not reasonable. After calls to several taxi companies, I found out that most will not drive up into the mountains, due to the rough roads. Happily, one of the staff at the Ford dealership knew of a new taxi company (not even listed in the phone book!), and they agreed to drive me home, for $70!

So, there I sat... no truck, no way of getting out of there, no electrical hookups, no cellular service and no internet access (too many trees in the way). I did have lots of food, a full tank of propane, and enough water and RV battery power to last me for a few days. Best of all, I had some of the greatest scenery in Canada to keep me company.

By Thursday, I was told that my truck was fixed and ready to be picked up, however the courtesy shuttle driver would not go up the 16 km gravel mountain road to get me. So, I packed a knapsack and prepared to spend 4 hours walking into town. After an hour, I passed a pay phone, and phoned the dealership to inquire whether I could be picked up in my truck. Although the shuttle driver still refused to go up the mountain roads, the mechanic that I was dealing with agreed to drive my truck up to get me, thus saving me three more hours of walking.







The town of Canmore





Looking down at Canmore

This is the Spray Lakes Reservoir, located right outside my trailer:

Pricey, but Wow!
Current Location: Site C-33, Tunnel Mountain Campground, Banff National Park, Alberta
Dates: Aug 14-19, 2008
Services: E; Cost: $32.30 (plus $9.80 park admission); Nights: 5

“ Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness.
- Ray Bradbury 		”

A few days later, and a few hundred dollars poorer than planned, I've finally made it to Banff! As you'd expect from one of the top tourist attractions in the province, everything is overpriced and crowded, including the campgrounds. Still, it's a very scenic area, with lots of interesting things to do. It's quaint downtown is filed with B&B's, hotels, lodges, inns and lots of shopping.

A 30 minute drive from Banff, Johnston Canyon has an hour-long hiking trail that leads to two waterfalls. At times, the canyon is narrow enough that the trail is on a metal catwalk attached to the canyon walls! This is a very popular attraction, with several tour buses parked out front, and the trail was packed with families.

Just outside of the town of Banff is the Cave and Basin National Historic Site of Canada. In the fall of 1883, three CPR workers found the thermal springs. Water from melting snow and rain seep over 2 km into the porous ground around Sulphur Mountain. Deep underground, the water is heated and forced upwards along natural fault lines, picking up minerals such as pyrite and gypsum along the way. Seeing the possibility for tourists and western settlement, the government made the area into the Hot Springs Reserve, which later became part of Banff, Canada's first national park.

Part way up Sulphur Mountain at the south end of town is the Banff Springs Hotel, originally built in 1888 by the CPR, and rebuilt in 1928 after a major fire; rates are $304 per night and up. Nearby is the Banff Gondola. It takes 8 minutes to travel a 51° incline to the top of the mountain, an elevation of 2,281 metres above sea level (900m above Banff). At the top there are two restaurants, a 360° observation deck, and a short boardwalk to a former weather station on Sanson's Peak.





Johnston Canyon Trail








Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep





Along the Trans-Canada highway


Cave and Basin - Mineral Springs



View from the Tunnel Mountain Trail


Stewart Canyon Trail




Gondola to Sulphur Mtn.



Trail to Sanson's Peak



View from the top of Sulphur Mtn.


Bow Falls


Banff Springs Hotel

CPR's Legacy
Current Location: Site 32, Lake Louise Campground, Lake Louise, Alberta
Dates: Aug 19-23, 2008
Services: E; Cost: $32.30 (plus $9.80 park admission); Nights: 4

“ Since we can't export the scenery, we'll have to import the tourists.
- Cornelius Van Horn, President of CPR, 1888 		”

After a week of very hot (32°C) weather, it's now raining and cool; Wednesday's high was only 11°C. As the weather wasn't nice enough to see the lake, I decided to drive over the Kicking Horse Pass to Golden, B.C. and Yoho National Park. This highway follows the CPR line, built in the 1880s. The original railway grade was 4.5%, the steepest in North America. Due to frequent accidents, the CPR built a pair of spiral tunnels, to reduce the grade to 2.2%. While I was at the tunnel viewing area, a long train pulling grain cars came westbound from Alberta, and entered the lower tunnel (the only one visible from the road). It's an odd sight to see the front and back of the trail simultaneously, at each tunnel entrance.

On Thursday, the weather hadn't improved much, but I decided to visit Lake Louise (4 km from the town and campground) anyways. There, the Chateau Lake Louise towers over the turquoise glacier-fed lake. The original one-story log cabin was built in 1890; today's building dates back as far as 1911.





CPR Spiral Tunnel




Chateau Lake Louise














Mirror Lake


Agnes Lake

Off-line
Current Location: Site 84, Waterfowl Lakes Campground, Saskatchewan River Crossing, Alberta
Dates: Aug 23-24, 2008
Services: None; Cost: $21.50 (plus $9.80 park admission); Nights: 1

“ The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.
- G.K. Chesterton 		”

This is a quiet unserviced campground in the woods near the Mistaya Creek. There's no cellular coverage here, nor can I get a satellite Internet signal due to the tree cover. So, I'll be off-line for a day or two, while I enjoy the mountain scenery.

Nearby are Bow Summit (the highest point along the Icefields Parkway) and Peyto Lake ("the bluest lake in the Rockies").



Near the campground


Peyto Lake


Mountains near Rampart Creek
Bow Lake panorama (Crowfoot Glacier at far left):

Rain And Snow, But No Ice
Current Location: Site 16, Wilcox Creek Campground, Jasper Nat'l Park, Alberta
Dates: Aug 24-26, 2008
Services: None; Cost: $15.70 (plus $9.80 park admission); Nights: 2

“ I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine.
- Caskie Stinnett 		”

At the north end of Banff National Park is a large, steep hill that requires first gear to climb. A short distance beyond that, a sign marks the border between Banff and Jasper National Parks.

The Wilcox Creek campground is very close to the Columbia Icefield and Athabasca glacier. I camped here, hoping to take a bus tour of the glacier. Alas, two days of rain kept me indoors. On the morning that I left, I was surprised to wake up and see snow falling outside! It didn't last long, but reminded me that in the mountains, any weather is possible.







Jewel of the Rockies
Current Location: Site AA40, Wapiti Campground, Jasper Nat'l Park, Alberta
Dates: Aug 26-Sep 1, 2008
Services: E; Cost: $32.30 (plus $9.80 park admission); Nights: 6

“ We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.
- Hilaire Belloc 		”

Although this isn't the worst campground in the world (I'll reserve that title for Cascadia Park (see Oct. 26-27, 2007), this is probably the ugliest campground that I've been in! For over $32 a night, I get only electric hookups in a parking lot; there isn't any grass between the units.

After waiting several days for the weather to improve, I drove back to the Columbia Icefield, and took the tour. A custom-built bus drives 40 passengers at a time to a safe spot on the glacier where they can walk around and take pictures. As you'd expect, it was very cold and windy there!

Like Banff and Lake Louise, Jasper also has a tram that climbs above the tree line. Although it was raining when I arrived at the top, the sun briefly came out, resulting in a pretty rainbow over the town. I think that this is the first time that I've looked down on a rainbow!







Sunwapta Falls





Tangle Creek Falls


Columbia Icefield Tour









Athabasca Falls






A raven on my truck









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