Alberta, Canada

We spent our first night in Canada in Pincher Creek, Alberta, at a campground on the banks of a river with beautiful flower gardens scattered throughout. This is just one of the patches of irises blooming.

The river running behind the campground

We drove up Highway 22 to Highway 40, a beautiful drive of rolling hills, plains, and meadows. The beginnings of the Rocky Mountain foothills are off in the distance.

One of the scenic meadows

We just happened upon a place called the Bar U Ranch, a National Historic Site, so we decided to stop and check it out. (Having spent so much of his childhood playing cowboy with his brother, Ernie just couldn't pass up the chance to visit a ranch!) It turned out to be a fascinating place, at one time one of the largest ranches in Canada which had the largest herd of Percheron horses in North America. We had a fantastic lunch of Alberta beef in their restaurant, but because of time, decided not to tour the entire ranch (they have lots of activities, but we just read the displays and walked around a bit). The statue below portrays an experience by the original owner of the ranch.

A view of part of the ranch

As we continued driving north, we slowed down because of the Rocky Mountain sheep grazing along the side of the road

Highway 40, the highest paved road in Canada, took us through the Highwood Valley, which is closed during the winter in order to protect the plentiful wildlife in the area. Below is Fitzsimmons Creek in Highwood Valley.

More shots of Highwood Valley, a stunning area of the Canadian Rockies, which caused us to fall in love with Canada!

Grizzly Creek, which we had to hike a little ways to reach. We wouldn't have known it was there a little ways off the highway, except that we started talking with a Canadian man at the pull-off, and he told us about it. So glad he did!

Some shots of the Rockies from the path to Grizzly Creek

Looking back down at the pull-off and the highway from the path on our way back down

Another Rocky Mountain view (several others disappeared after I imported them)

A female elk grazing by the side of the road

The Bow River in Banff National Park

Banff National Park with the Bow River

We spent the night at the Lake Louise Campground in Banff National Park. Of course, Ernie built another fire to keep us toasty, since the weather was cold and rainy.

Ernie tending the campfire at our campsite--it was a peaceful, lovely spot, but I did worry a little about bears, since it was surrounded by a bear fence (as well as for other wildlife like wolves, coyotes, sheep, elk, etc.), and there were warnings everywhere. But no problems!

The next morning we drove to Lake Louise, but I just realized that all of the pictures I imported showing those images have disappeared . . . not sure what happened--I'm getting quite frustrated with Blogger and posting pictures. It's too late, and I'm too tired to try to remedy it tonight, so I'll just label the ones that did show up after I imported about 55 pictures!

After leaving Lake Louise, we drove up the Columbia Icefields Parkway, with snow, freezing rain (or some kind of mix) and clouds. COLD!! The white specks you see are snowflakes!

Columbia Ice Fields (basically a glacier)

Some bighorn sheep along the side of the road right after leaving the icefields center

More bighorn sheep on the other side of the road

Jasper National Park

The Athabasca River, which ran right behind the Wabasso campground in Jasper National Park, where we spent the night. We could listen to the river running behind our campsite all night . . . very peaceful!

We took a walk along the river the next morning, too, and I just sat there enjoying the river for a little while.

Ernie on the banks of the Athabasca River

River and the mountains in the morning light

Another morning, another fire . . . Ernie sipping his coffee that he heated on the fire

Another river and mountain view

River and path where we walked

After we left the campground, we had breakfast with the guy who had camped next to us who we had talked with quite a bit--he offered to buy us breakfast since it was "Canada Day" (a Canadian national holiday similar to our July 4). Although we had already eaten at the campsite, we sat down and had a muffin and cinnamon roll with him and visited--more about that later. He told us about a tramway that goes to the top of a mountain in Jasper, so after driving around Jasper for a little bit, we decided to take the tramway to the top of Whistler's Mountain. This is a view of Jasper and the surrounding area from the lower platform where we had to drive to get to the tramway.

When we got to the top, we could look down and see some mountain goats napping--note the little baby in the middle. So cute! After a little while, his mommy went over and woke him up--it was so cute!

View of the mountains from the top

In front of the snow on the mountain--waving my Canadian flag for Canada Day :)

The gondola that took us to the top and back down

Views from the top

Ernie admiring the view

After we left Jasper headed toward Prince George, Ernie pulled off the road at a pull-off area and asked me to hand him the camera. I saw the signs for Yellowhead Pass and thought he was taking a picture of the scenery. But no, he headed to a truck parked there with this big transformer on it and just had to talk with the driver. So for all you GE guys out there: this one's for you :) Ernie and the driver had quite an extended conversation about transformers . . .

You can take Ernie away from GE, but you can't get transformers out of his blood, I guess. He thought this was better than any of the pictures with him in scenic spots :)

On Highway 16 between Jasper and Prince George

Well, I'm a little upset that so many of the pictures I imported disappeared--some of the best ones just went away. But you can still get an idea of the beauty and majesty of the Canadian Rockies and spectacular scenery in Alberta!