Along the Road–Alberta, Canada

Aug 28, 29, 30th- These days were mostly spent driving….and getting some miles behind us. We had a long way to go to get to Yellowknife, NWT!

We saw lots of Prong- horned antelope beside the road along our drive through Wyoming and Montana. With our new camera, we were able to really get zoomed in for a good picture.

We crossed the Canadian border 120 miles north of Great Falls, MT and stopped at the first tourist info center we came to - 12 miles past Canadian border at Milk River. What should greet us but a BIG T- Rex! Actually, dinosaur eggs and fossilized fish and reptiles were discovered in this area in 1987.

Next stop, Lethbridge, Alberta. We were following the “Milepost” Alaskan Travel Planner which gives details of all the stops and attractions along the routes. And, since we were trying to get the most out of these driving days, we timed our stops to include any number of somewhat obscure attractions.   : )  This train wheel is outside the Gault Railroad museum in Lethbridge, Alberta…….

With the High Level Bridge in the background. This bridge, with its mile long span and 300 foot elevation is still the longest and highest bridge of its kind in the world.

We spent Sunday night in Red Deer, Alberta. Red Deer is a sizable town of about 90,000 people (so kind of like Monroe/West Monroe) and we stayed at the Lion’s Municipal campground in the city. it was nice, and the town has wonderful paved biking/hiking trails that we took a good walk on that evening.

We were amazed at the number of people floating down the river on all manner of tubes and floats…….taking full advantage of the long daylight hours and beautiful weather on this Sunday evening.

Monday’s driving - We stopped by the little community of Sangudo, (population 398) to see their unique 21- foot-high sundial – shaped like a grain elevator with boulders from the region marking the positions of the sun.

And pulled of the road to get a picture of the CNR Rochfort Bridge trestle – built in 1914. At 2,414 feet long, it is the second longest wooden railroad trestle in the world.

We drove on past Edmonton, and spent Monday night in Valley View, Alberta, Canada at Sherk’s RV Park. We got out for a drive that afternoon to look around Valley View and to check out a nearby Provincial park. As we drove through William’s Provincial Park, we realized that we had stayed there on our trip last year, heading up to Dawson Creek and the beginning of the Alaskan Hwy. Coincidence!

Most of our driving, so far has been in the plains areas, so much like South Dakota, with wheat fields and prairies. Nothing too remote, so far.... Valley View marks the start of the Deh Cho Route, and looked, on the map, to be pretty far north, so we had hopes, on Tuesday, of finally getting into that feeling of ‘remoteness’ that we had been searching for. It was not to be had ……but we continued stopping at the unusual and looking for what was unique to this area……taking what we could get (or could find), because some of the noted ‘attractions’ had no signs or maps to locate them!

The town of Fahler is the largest honey producer in Alberta – and has a giant honey bee to prove it!  And 12 foot Davis….so named, not for his height (he actually was a short fellow), but for striking it rich with a gold claim on a 12 foot wide strip of land.

We drove an extra loop on our way to High level, crossing a ferry at the Peace River and going through the communities of La Crete and Fort Vermilion in, in search of interesting things (and trying to get our Deh Cho Route "’passport’ stamped the require number of times to be entered into a drawing to win a prize). It was not to be……one of the Tourist info places was closed and another was not to be located.  : (

We did, however, discover the Mennonite Heritage Village at La Crete and had a wonderful tour.

The old General Store sold snowshoes and animal pelts along with the usual wares.

And this was an old school bus/ sled!

The only thing ‘wild’ that we saw were a couple of deer……