Alberta – Page 2 – Wandering Dawgs

Day 19: Monday, June 3, 2013. Ft. MacLeod, AB to Banff, AB. Banff National Park Tunnel Mountain Trailer Court Site 636. 181 miles traveled

Just when you think you will have a really easy travel day, the unexpected happens.

After hearing the rain hit the roof of the camper all night, we woke up to having to hitch up the camper in, surprise, more rain! Henry was dodging puddles as he put up the water hoses and hitched up the trailer. One of the items on his check list before leaving a campsite is to check the tire pressure. One of our new tires was losing air.

Our first order of business after leaving the campground was to find a gas station with not only an air compressor but room for our 40+ foot truck and camper to maneuver so we could put air in the tires. Luckily there was a Shell station in Ft. MacLeod that fit the bill and for the cost of a loonie (one dollar) Henry filled the tire and we were on our way.

Driving through Calgary in the rain was no fun but we made it past the city safely. Henry continued to monitor the tire pressure and saw it was still leaking air. As we approached Canmore, the only town of any size before Banff, I searched the GPS for a tire store and found OK Tire Company. We followed the GPS directions to the store which was located in a residential section of town with no big parking lot for our rig. Henry pulled over to the side of the road across the street from the store and walked to the store to see if they could help us. They told him to drive a couple of blocks to the parking area for the ball field . A technician would meet us there.

How can something so small cause such a big problem?

A few minutes later the technician arrived as promised and found a sharp object in the tire. He was able to remove it, fix the tire, and remount it all for the huge cost of $25. I highly recommend OK Tire in Canmore, AB if you are ever in need of assistance in the Canadian Rockies.

I enjoyed the view from the dog park while we got the tire repaired

While he was working on the tire, I put on my rain jacket to take Blondie for a walk. As we walked around the parking lot for the complex of ball fields I heard dogs barking. Blondie and I went to explore and found the city dog park. I retrieved her chuck it and tennis ball from the back of the truck and off we went. She ignored all the other dogs as she chased her ball time after time over the grassy field. While she played I was looking at the jaw dropping beauty of the mountains all around. Even though they were mostly covered in clouds they were still spectacular to see.

This is probably the best view we have ever had from any campsite

Before we continued on to Banff we stopped at the Visitor’s Center for directions, maps, and more brochures. Elk were in the campground to greet us when we arrived. When we arrived at our site in the Tunnel Mountain Trailer Court all we could say was “WOW”. All the sites are long pull through sites with full hookups and a view of Mount Rundle. Even with the clouds and rain it was amazing. After the long stressful day we just sat in our chairs and enjoyed the view.

There would be a lot more WOW’s before departing Banff. Stay tuned….

Day 18: June 2, 2013. Great Falls, Montana, USA, to Ft MacLeod, Alberta, Canada. 216 miles traveled. Over 3000 miles traveled since leaving Georgia through 12 states and 1 province, camping in 10 states and 1 province.

A pleasant surprise when we arrived at our campsite – good internet!

“North to Alaska” was playing on the radio as we departed Great Falls – a good omen! As we traveled 122 miles through the plains of northern Montana from Great Falls to the Canadian border the interstate was bordered by ranches and farms as far as the eye could see. A few oil pumps and huge grain storage silos dotted the landscape. Horses, cattle and the occasional pronghorn antelope stood in some of the fields. Far off in the distance we could see the mountains.

The border crossing was not busy this Sunday morning. There was only one RV ahead of us in line before we stopped to have our passports checked and answer the usual questions. The agent was very nice and after a few minutes we were in Alberta traveling on Alberta 4 to our destination of Ft. MacLeod about 100 more miles away.

Our first stop was at the Alberta Visitor’s Center for lunch. I picked up more travel brochures to add to our collection and we were off again. Canada uses the metric system so all the signs are in kilometers, not miles. Trying to figure out how many miles are in 100 kilometers isn’t easy so out came my phone to use the handy metric-to-US conversions.

The US to Canadian Dollar is a one-to-one exchange now so American dollars are accepted everywhere. The change comes back in Canadian dollars so I now have a separate wallet for Canadian money. Canada no longer use pennies and instead of one dollar bills there is a dollar coin called a loonie and a two dollar coin called a toonie.

We got set up at our campground and drove a few miles to the Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site. The Interpretive Site is very interesting and informative with an excellent film which reenacts a hunt and many exhibits. For thousands of years, natives of the North American plains depended on buffalo as their main source of food. Nothing went to waste. After butchering the buffalo, the hides were used for the skins of their tipis, the bones used for tools, and even the horns were used to carry coals from fires when they moved to a new location.

Before horses and guns were introduced, hunting buffalo was done on foot. The people observed the buffalo and learned ways to get them to stampede toward a cliff. The herd would be running so fast that the animals in the lead wouldn’t see the edge of the cliff until it was too late. They would all tumble to the bottom of the cliff to their death for the tribe to butcher.

This buffalo jump was named Head Smashed-In because according to Blackfoot legend, a young boy hid under a ledge in order to watch the buffalo plunge by. As the boy watched the bodies pile up, he became trapped between the animals and the cliff. His body was found with a crushed skull.