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Willow Rock Campground, Kananaskis Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada. Odometer – 6212

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Boy was it a mistake to leave the windows closed at the hotel room last night. They must have had the heat on, because we were all just sweltering all night long. The children woke us up for water several times. We didn’t open the windows to much though, fearing it may get too cold later on at night.

When I got up at 4:45 for a quick morning hike, it was still very hot in the room. Outside it wasn’t very cold, but the wind would sometimes gust and chill my bones. I went on an 11km (7 mile) hike to Bertha Lake. It’s a nice hike that start in town and climbs up about 400 meters, passes through 2 waterfalls and then reaches a nice lake surrounded by somewhat snowy peaks. I continued practicing my singing voice during the duration of the hike, just in case any bear was in the area. When the wind blew or when I was close to roaring water, I also puffed a bit into a whistle that I had. All that it helped was to frighten a moose/elk that was in the valley below me.

The hike was nice and uneventful, not particularly challenging, and not extraordinary. I tried to think if it was because I have an overload from being on the road for two months now, or is it really just a mediocre hike.

The two highlights were good light for about one hour at the onset of the hike and a bear sighting towards the end of the hike near town. I was walking along the path when I heard some rustling in the trees ahead to my left. I took a look and saw a black bear, not very big, staring right at me from about 10 meters. We were both pretty surprised, and since the bear was so close, I decided against trying to photograph it. A single load shout from me was enough to send the bear off running away. Wimp. And the bear too.

At the hotel we had a nice breakfast, although the main highlight, espresso and cappuccino were unavailable. After checking out we began a long day of driving north towards Banff.

The first part of the drive on rout 6 and then west on route 3 was very pretty. The Waterton mountains connected to the rockies and created a nice long chain of jagged peaks to break the monotony of the plains to the east. Everything is green and blooming, so it is really a beautiful time of year to be out here.

We passed by the town of Frank, known as Frank Slide. It was a boring mining town until one morning in 1906 a huge chunk of the mountain overlooking the village decided to fall off, creating a massive rockslide that killed 60 people. Driving west on highway 3 we could see the mountain and the rock rubble spread for about a mile.

I then made a mistake and drove into route 940, which was supposed to be a forest road leading us north for 100km. Why mistake? The road was unpaved. Why did we stay on it? Because we hate to turn back. And the views were great. And it wasn’t too bad driving. We averaged about 70kph. About a third of the way in we stopped for lunch. Along the drive we saw many campers parked in the forest and along the streams. There were handmade signs that we guessed were created for groups of friends coming in to camp for the long weekend. I bet none of the tourist books mention this road. Happy that we experienced it, and happier when we finished it and got back on a paved road.

Route 40 continued to take us North, on one of the most beautiful drives I have seen so far this trip. It is all part of Kananaskis Country, some sort of a natural park that is overshadowed by Banff. Go ahead, try to pronounce Kananaskis. Ron can!

The mountains are still patched with snow, some are bare, others covered with trees, and still others just a green coat of grass. With a partly cloudy sky, it was a photo bonanza. I stopped several times to take pictures. Ron and Shir also enjoyed seeing a bunch of mountain goats that were licking the roadside. Are there any vital minerals in asphalt?

We tried to get a site at what is considered the best campsite in Canada (Mount Kidd RV Park), but they were full months in advance. The folks there were nice enough to show me a map with some other campsites that may be available and a rest stop on the highway if all else fails. We thankfully used their dump station to replenish the RV water system.

We reached this campground at 6pm, knowing that the chances of finding a site were minimal. It is a self registration site, so we drove through all the loops searching for a spot. In vain. Until we tried the central and most crowded area. Lo and behold, spot 23 was empty. So here we are. And to top it all off, they have a playground which the kids enjoyed very much. The only hookup is electrical, but that’s fine, we got a full tank of water just an hour earlier.

Tomorrow is Canada Day, and we expect all sort of fun festivities in Banff , our next destination. And yes, we do have reservations for their campground.

Good night,

-Hemi

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Alberta, Big Trip, Canada, North America RV 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.