Cypress Hills

Today's itinerary offered a direct route from Lethbridge to Regina.  But my route (and therefore the family's route) took in a loop south from Medicine Hat so we could explore the Cypress Hills.  It was the end of a long weekend and there was a steady stream of RVs heading back to Calgary and the other prairie towns as we drove in.

The prairies are powerful places for me - thanks, I suppose, to long family driving trips as a kid and a fair amount of time spent living in oil towns in these wide open grasslands that fan east from the Rockies. As much as I love the Rockies, it was reaching the prairie east of Crows Nest Pass yesterday afternoon that moved me the most.  Endless rolling late season wheat fields back lit by the low sun helped, too.

The Cypress Hills are a small remnant of an earlier higher prairie - one long since removed elsewhere by meandering rivers flowing east.  Its height left it perched above the glaciers, so the partially forested surface is an extremely old one in this part of the world where most landscapes are young (if 12,000 years is young).  One of these photos shows how flat the upper surface remains - the very fact that it is higher than its surroundings means that there are few streams to erode it, except at its margins (and there, only slowly).

I find these little bits of high country surrounded by prairie enchanting.  Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba. The Turtle Mountains on the North Dakota-Canada border.  The Rockies are full of small mountain ranges surrounded by high sage steppe, but these are lower, more remote from the mountains, and much more subtle.

These were important places for First Nations peoples.  They harbored game, provided water and refuge, offered timber for shelter and firewood.  They were strategic landmarks.  They were often the sites of skirmishes as settlers moved into the region.  They have also shaped western literature and sensibilities.  Wallace Stegner lived south of here and wrote Wolf Willow about that time.

Lethbridge

Lethbridge lies amidst the prairie about where the front range disappears from the western horizon.  It's flat, except for the valley of the Oldman River on the west edge of town. The Oldman drains the eastern front of the Rockies in both Canada and the U.S., including Saint Mary Lake in Glacier National Park and Waterton Lake.  In eastern Alberta, the Oldman joins the Bow (from Banff and Calgary) to become the South Saskatchewan River which eventually flows to Hudsons Bay via the Nelson River.

The railroad spans the 300' deep canyon on a mile-long steel trestle built in 1909 - one of the longest and highest in the world.  The valley is mainly park space with a wonderful network of trails.

Lake Louise

Years ago I looked into the cost of staying at the Chateau Lake Louise - just out of curiosity.

As we always do, we settled for a space in the big parking lot and walked to the lake to watch everyone taking pictures of their friends.  It was hazy - in part due to the big controlled burn to the west that we passed an hour or so later - and the sun was in our faces, but it was still spectacular.  We settled for coffee and ice cream back down in the village at the bottom of the hill, before turning the car towards Seattle.

Icefields Parkway

I've rarely met a road I didn't enjoy driving - except maybe I-5 through Lynnwood - but I've rarely found a drive I enjoy more than this spectacular highway between Jasper and Banff.  It only takes a few hours, if you're in a hurry, but what a shame if you can't stop for the glaciers, the waterfalls, the views, or the occasional elk or bear.  There's something about this highway's intimate relationship with the landscape that I love. Even this day, when the glare of the sun made both driving and photography challenging, was incredible. I got to ride it on my bike back in high school (with my family carrying all my gear in the car) - this trip I found myself wanting to do that again sometime.

Jasper

As a child, the answer for me to the question, "what is your favorite place?", was always Jasper.  I think maybe it's still the answer to that question!

Thanks to M's remarkable bargain hunting instincts, we are staying at the Jasper Park Lodge!  Which provides a nice deck with great views where I can drink my beer and get horribly sentimental.

Maybe it's all the family camping trips growing up.  Maybe it was Granny staying here at the lodge while the rest of us camped at Snaring River (which we visited this morning).  Maybe it was coming to Jasper with J&R to celebrate Mom and Dad's 50th Anniversary.  Maybe it was driving up here the summer of 1982 when I lived in Minot.  Or driving up with Michele a few years later on a whim on a three day weekend from Seattle.

20 years ago this summer, Michele and I came to the Canadian Rockies on our honeymoon.  Now we're traveling here on our own again.  An awful lot has happened in between.  And today was D's first day of classes!

Edmonton

We made it to Edmonton late Saturday afternoon.  We checked into the Matrix Hotel on the southwest side of downtown. I'm sure it would normally have been way out of our reach, but I had found a really good deal on Expedia before we left.

We drove across the river (the North Saskatchewan) to Old Strathcona and Whyte Avenue, which was bustling on Saturday evening.  We ate at Da-De-O.  Cajun Food.  In Edmonton.  Alberta?  It was really good.  The sweet potato fries were great.  The deep-fried pickles with the sweet chili dipping sauce were even better!

Whyte Avenue was clearly a big deal in Edmonton.  But after dinner we checked out another big deal - the West Edmonton Mall.  After all, we've already been to the Mall of America on this trip.  And WEM is even bigger.  A full blown amusement park.  A water park.  Something like 800 stores.  We didn't spend much.  I bought a pair of reading glasses at the dollar store.  I'd left mine in the car and I couldn't read the tiny print on the mall map without help.  And we played black-light mini golf.  Which set us back $12 or so.  Then we went home.