Leg 2 into Canada

We left early a.m. (before 8a) with the thought to get to the border early.  It is Monday 5/24 which also is a big Holiday in Canada, Victoria Day. We arrived at the border about 8:40 and were delighted to find no line at all. But quickly undelighted to find out we were selected for a detailed inspection. Out of all 4 rigs, and a few behind us, we were singled out.  Some of the group thought it had to do with wearing a cowboy hat (don’t cowboys always have six shooters), some thought it had to do with facial hair. The group consensus was the beard! We were directed to drive into a bay or a big barn. The doors were shut and we were directed to get out and wait while the inspection went on, this after being asked every which way they could think of about where we hid our weapons. (Shoot, we remembered a sling shot on board and visions of the Canadian Hoosegow jumped into our heads.)  It really feels invasive to have some foreign officials searching all the nooks and crannies of your home with you not being there. At any rate about 45 minutes later we passed and were allowed to proceed.

We arrived Fort Macleod, Daisy May CG about 11:30, just in time to see a huge throng of “Victoria Day” campers heading home.  Very nice CG on the Oldman River, yep just like the song.

Looked better the next day in some sun light.

Here are all our rigs lined up:

and below getting ready to go, looks like a Le Mans start!

One of the attractions of Fort Macleod is the Head-Smashed-in buffalo jump.  This is not the only buffalo jump around, but certainly one of the better known and better displays. The museum on the site is excellent including a very well done movie. Definitely gets into the Canadian Indian culture and history.  The Indians figured a way to drive the buffalo, in a stampede mode, off a cliff and consequently harvest the meat, bones and hide. Sounds a little brutal but when you think about it no worse than McDonalds harvesting beef for a quarter pounder.  And, by the way, it was no simple task and definitely not without plenty of risk.  Here is a depiction of the cliff inside the museum.

  and here is the actual cliff they used.

We spied this marmot, actually not the first one of our trip.

And on our way back to camp we actually found a legitimate herd of buffalo (all below the cliffs – expect their relatives might have clued them in, eh?)

Our plan was to proceed to Sundre, Alberta the next day to visit with our good HitchHiker friends Jan and Al Wagner (Trap to the HH folks).  Fortunately, we decided to call and touch bass with Trap.  We discovered that somewhere along the line the dates of our arrival had been confused. Al and Jan were on holiday, their spring camping shake down trip, and camped about 40 minutes from us. They came over for a great visit, albeit not quite as long as planned originally, but certainly enjoyable.

Our journey, at the great suggestion of the Wagner's, took us along the old “cowboy trail”, highway 22.  The vast majority of travelers take the major route highway 2 up to Edmonton.  The 22 adds maybe an hour or so overall but what a great way to go.  Rather than flat farm land you travel in the foothills and ranch land close to the base of the Rockies. Very picturesque, much more interesting and tons of beautiful horse and/or cattle ranches.

Another “view from the cockpit” of the drive.

In the town of Sundre, a great little town, we stayed at Greenwood RV park, a city run park with nice trees and next to the Red Deer River. Beautiful park, nice spaces and a stones throw, short walk to the local cowboy bar (where amongst other pleasures we were able to watch the final “American Idol” show!).

While we were at Sundre and the others had stopped at the Bar U Ranch we decided to drive out and peek at Trap’s place, a great decision.  Very pretty countryside, close to town but definitely in the country. The Wagner’s have a wonderful place with great looking horses and a marvelous view.  The day was far from perfect for pictures but you will get the feel.

Wagner’s home (Roxy wishing she could go talk to the horses).

View out the front!

From the road coming in.

And couple of horse shots, sorry non of the animals would reveal their names.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Sundre, Alberta we travelled on to a small town called Entwistle. More scenic travel up the “Cowboy Trail”.  We stayed at our first Provincial Park (like a State Park) in the woods near the Pembina River.  We are discovering that Alberta, and soon British Columbia and the Yukon Territory, have a huge abundance of water – rivers, streams, lakes everywhere. When we arrived the poplars were seeding, shedding their seeds in cotton tufts (much like Cotton Wood trees do) so much it looked like it was snowing. Beautiful wooded sights, poplars, aspen, and conifers. Sites are a little tight and sometimes tricky to get into, but certainly worth it.

 

Sally standing on a big aspen, pretending to have knocked it down.  Like I said sites can be tight to get into, this tree was knocked down by someone (?) trying to get into a site, if you look close you can see tire tracks on the sign post too. (It was not Mike who knocked it down, in case you made the wrong connection. Nor, for the record, was it your author!) Here is our camp site, awesome!

 

And here is a view of the Pembina River.

Muddy with snow and rain run off, we will find clearer rivers as we travel north. Still great sights.

On May 26 we head for the town of Valleyview, Alberta. Not a very big town, just a stopping place.  Everyone but us stayed in town at a place called Sherk’s while we pushed on a little out of town to stay at another Provincial park on Lake Sturgeon, Williams Park. Turned out to be a great park with great wooded sites. This park even had free fire wood, really like these Prov parks.

And Lake Sturgeon:

Even had a nice park area for kids and I liked the color impact of the slide:

Then in the evening we enjoy a cocktail and free firewood.  (It definitely is starting to stay light quite late.)

Next stop and next post is Dawson City, the official start of the Alaska or Alcan Highway and mile marker “0”.

Leg 1 1/2 Great Falls and Shelby

 

We arrived in Great Falls Thursday 5/20 and stayed at Dick’s RV.  Great Falls is full of history, most notably Lewis and Clark and Charles M Russell the artist.  Of course there are the “Great Falls”, which I didn’t realize are a series of falls, most of them now dammed for electric power, in fact Great Falls is called the “electric city” due to all the hydro-electric plants. Below are pictures of Rainbow Falls.

  and more:

 

We did not have the correct lighting for a full rainbow, but above you see some effect.  Imagine the words Lewis and Clark’s crew had when they saw these insurmountable hurdles, to them it meant days of super hard portage labor.

And just below Rainbow Falls is Crooked Falls, one of the few falls that remains today pretty much as it was when the expedition came through.

Above looking down the Missouri, Crooked Falls in about the middle of the picture.  Did you know, or realize; the Missouri River is the longest river in the United States?

Here is Black Eagle Falls, the uppermost of the Great Falls.

Interestingly, right in Great Falls, the shortest river/stream in the United States flows into the Missouri.  It is a river/stream that results from a pure springs, forms a little pool and then flows 200 feet to the Missouri. Beautiful little springs, some pics below:

At this site is also a fish hatchery where rainbow trout are raised.  They keep a few old timers around just for display.  I couldn’t resist showing these to some of  the fisher people, wow these were some mega trout!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right by our camp site was a river that fed the Missouri.  The town has beautiful parks and walk way paths, well maintained and very clean. Here is Roxy checking out the river.

And one more shot of the day dwindling by the river.

 

Had to check out Charles Russell’s house and museum, what a great artist. Here is his house, right in town.

And this gorgeous lilac (the town was full of rich, wonderfully colored lilac).

And immediately next to the house, his studio (I mean how cool is that!  Bet his wife didn’t yell at him for playing the ukulele in the house! :-) )

Lots of stuff to see inside the museum, but if you are even a casual fan you have seen at least copies.  One exhibit that caught my eye was about black and white photos of women in ranching, very informative, artistic and mind capturing.  Included, and further capturing my hat loving eye, were these old authentic cowboy hats:

and I had to fix this one up a little:

(Oh, did I mention I had to buy a new cowboy hat in Great Falls, shoot fire, how could you not buy a cowboy hat in Montana!)

Next, the small town of Shelby, where our rowdy crew finally gather as one.  Nice little camp right below a small reservoir, very enjoyable gathering. This is our last U.S. stop for quite some time.

 

We arrived first and set up camp.  This shot was taken from the earthen dam forming the reservoir behind it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roxy getting some fresh air.

 

Some shots around the little reservoir:

And there must be a “before” picture so here is our rowdy little band of gypsies, ready to tackle the Alcan highway and go north to Alaska.

From left to right; Joan and Rich Walter, Murray and Shelle McDole, Jeff and Susan Collingwood, and Mike and Sally Theroux. Oh, and of course Ms. Roxy front center!

Tomorrow we cross the border into Alberta Canada.