Oh Canada!

Friday, July 12, 2014

Today we become international travelers once again.  But first, let’s finish up yesterday.  I think we left off with our intrepid travelers eating the world’s largest order of nachos at the St. Mary Lodge.  Their internet connection is wonderful and we spend three hours catching up!  By that time the only thing we feel like doing is gas and groceries, so we split up.  Marilyn spends just a couple of dollars more on gas than I do on the six items I pick up at the Supermart.  Do you want peanut butter?  Better like Jif!  And so it goes down each aisle.  Never mind, Jif is fine, as are the other choices and we head home to organize and pack.  We’re just taking our back packs for an overnighter;  everything else can stay in the trunk until we return to Rising Sun.

We check out and Julie, the manager, is working the front desk.  We go to great lengths to compliment her and her staff.  She says the kitchen is short staffed and we assure her that the customers can’t tell.  She tells us that we will adore Waterton and that she is thinking of going there for lunch today.  That’s right after she says it should only take us an hour and a half to drive there!  I guess scales are different out west.

We had planned to be out of our room around eight o’clock and it’s 8:05 when we close the door.  Yay us!  We’re on the road after just a couple of last shots of the misty morning mountains, and northward we go.

Free range cattle.  Yay!

Shortly after we turn onto Chief Mountain Highway we realize that there are cows running free along both sides of the road.  And sometimes in the road.  That’s always a treat for the driver!  It doesn’t take long for Chief Mountain to come into view.  It’s pretty hard to miss and it is no wonder that the Blackfeet consider it sacred and used to scale its peak on vision quests!  There is a pull off that leads to a slight rise and there is already one photographer there with his huge lens mounted on a tripod.  How can we resist?

 Onward and soon we cross the border into Canada, telling the border guard that we have no contraband and showing him our bear spray.  We assure him that we have no mace or pepper stray or tasers!  But bear spray is okay!  We’ve double checked that with everyone we could find because it makes no sense.  It can shoot thirty feet!  How is that less dangerous than a small container or pepper spray? 

The next hurdle is the park entrance.  The lady there is happy to take our American dollars;  but our change is, of course, in Canadian dollars and cents.  The exchange rate favors us slightly.  The fee is $7.80 in Canadian dollars but we figure out, based on our change, that it is $6.80 American.  She sends us on our way and we turn off at the sign for the Bison Paddock.  Before we arrive there is a pull off, and you know how we adore pull offs!  The meadows, or I guess maybe they’re prairies, are so completely covered with wildflowers that it is hard to just walk past them! 

Across the street there is a Columbian ground squirrel chirping his heart out.  Marilyn reminds me to take a video;  I’m so attuned to stills that I usually forget my camera even has that capacity!  I have the wide angle lens on because I was planning on scenic;  but I give it a try with that, then go back to the car for the longer lens.  You can see him better but I can’t keep him centered on the screen!

It’s good that I changed lenses, though, because when you climb the small hill you can see the bison by the lake!  There is a Japanese family up there and the father tells us that this is a better view than he got on the drive!  We’re thrilled and shoot away! 

 The paddock is an enclosed area in which a miniature herd of bison is maintained as a tribute to the vast herds that roamed the plains before the arrival of the Europeans.  There is no admission fee.  You just drive over the cattle guard (I guess bison won’t cross those things either!) and drive the loop road.  You are told to stay in your car and on the road.  Can’t you just guarantee that we’ll see a whole carload jump out of their vehicle, which is pulled off the path!

We saw nine of the huge beasts from our view point;  but they were pretty far away.  Here in the paddock we don’t see them all;  but the ones we do see are pretty darn close!  There are a couple of calves chasing one another and an adult wallowing in a dust pit.  Everyone is munching on the gorgeous flowers and grasses.  The huge bull was the farthest away from us and when he comes lumbering up he dwarfs the rest.  I suppose they must all be his harem!  We make the loop twice so as not to miss anything!  Then it’s back to the main road.

However large you think he is, he's larger!

We make a brief stop at the visitors’ center because you never know what you might find there.  We find a fun-looking musical that’s on tonight.  Maybe we’ll give that a shot.  Our lodge is supposed to be only four miles up the road;  but first we must pull into the view point parking lot to see what there is to see.  Good choice!  We had noticed a sign that said, “Slow foxes on the road”. Well, the one that crossed the parking lot by our car wasn’t all that slow!  He jumped up on the low rock wall and decided he liked the field better than the pavement.  Smart boy!

 We’re getting hungry and the map shows a picnic bench to the left; but as we’re driving we see a similar sign to the right, so we try that one.  It turns out that we are now on the Akamina Parkway, one of the two parkways we had planned drive today!  Okay, slight change in plans; we’ll do this one now! We’re nothing if not flexible! It’s bound to have a suitable picnic spot because everything here is suitable to any outdoor activity!  I just can’t get enough of the outrageous wildflowers that blanket the prairie and hillsides like multicolored snow!

Every view is spectacular!

Yes!  There’s a picnic spot!  It has a covered area with a picnic table but the family that is already there has set out a blanket next to the table in the sun.  Probably a good choice, especially since they have a two-year old who loves wandering.  Our spot is a bit chilly but we’re enjoying the view of the stream and watching the kiddo.  We’re having carrots and broccoli and blueberries and grape tomatoes and Tillamook Cheddar with whole wheat Wheat Thins.  Quite a feast!  

We’re trying to burn though the cooler food, since the seems the Styrofoam wonder has a small leak.  We’ve put all the food in a double layer of plastic bags and the ice is in another bag inside the food bag.  So far the system is working and the cooler hasn’t leaked into the trunk the way it did in the cabin.

A car pulls up with kayaks on top and we watch two young men donning lots of protective gear before setting on in that ice-cold water!

While we’re at the water’s edge we see swarms of butterflies on the rocks, getting a drink just like the other animals!  The little blues that tantalized me before are here in abundance, as well as some brown and orange ones.  This trip is the first time I’ve seen this behavior.

Our food stowed and our area clean, we’re ready for more adventures!  The road ends up at Cameron Lake and it’s perfect.  You can rent boats, powered by oars or peddles, and fish and swim (if you’re a polar bear!).  There is a small shop where you can rent boats and buy ice cream.  We didn’t get dessert with our lunch, so we pop in, only to discover that it is another shopping opportunity!  We buy a couple of handmade gifts and it is a bonus that the young artist, Michael Cassidy, is on hand! before getting our Double Up ice cream bars.  They are ice-cream sandwiches on one end and chocolate-coated ice cream on the other.  They’re a new thing so we MUST have it!  And they are yummy.

 On the drive back to Canada 5 we stop to read about Oil City, which was supposed to be a community housing all the oil workers for the first oil field in western Canada.  Unfortunately only a few of the lots were sold and the cabins which had been built, slowly decayed away.  There is only one foundation left today.

The other point of interest on the parkway is the site of the first oil well drilled in western Canada.  Beset by problems, including the well casing failing, allowing rock and gravel to trap the drill bit, the well eventually was abandoned.  It is now an historical site.  Interestingly enough, oil was first discovered in what was then called Oil Creek, now Cameron Creek.  The aboriginal peoples found it by watching the bears who were attracted to the smell of the oil.

 Crandell Mountain Lodge is our home for tonight.  It looks fairly rustic from the outside.  Jimmy checks us in and gives us the keys to a spacious and beautifully appointed room.  We are thrilled!  And the fridge, coffee maker and microwave are pretty nice, too! There’s a TV but it doesn’t really get any channels.  We don’t care very much; we were just hoping to catch some news and make sure the outside world is still there!  Speaking of outside, right across the street is a pocket park with two deer who seem to live there.  And on the other side from the park is the nature trail which follows the water and eventually comes to Cameron Falls, right in town.  We’ll check that, and the stores, tomorrow.  The whole town is only five blocks square, so we should have plenty of time.  Now we want some wine and stop at the all-purpose store.  They have lots of fun things, like Waterton hat pins which we must have, but no wine.  When I pay in US dollars, the clerk treats them as the same value as Canadian dollars.  That’s not quite fair;  but it’s not worth arguing over twenty cents or so!

I'm just fascinated by these large puff balls!  Like dandelions on steroids!

We get directions to the liquor store and after a slight false start, and passing the chocolate shop, we decide that maybe we would be just as well off with diet Coke and some hard stuff.  We can’t finish a whole bottle of wine tonight, as tired as we will be after another parkway, and we don’t want to transport it back with us.  It seems only fair to drink Canadian whisky and we choose a small bottle of Chinook.  We ask the clerk if we will hate ourselves since we’ve never heard of it and he says we probably will and suggests Royal Reserve rye whisky which about the same price.

We bring our purchases back to the room, stash all our cool things in the fridge and set off once more, this time for the Red Rock Parkway.

Our first stop is for more wildflowers but as we are pulling into one of the several parking spots Marilyn sees a small child sitting on top of a bear and nearly has a heart attack!  It’s a wooden bear;  but quite realistic!  There are people walking on the flowers and it’s all we can do to keep from hollering at them!  “Don’t be a meadow stomper!”

Next we stop at a sign for an historic campsite, “Akaitapi” , which means good campsite.  There’s a splendid view of the braided Red Rock River in the Red Rock Canyon. We’re snapping away when I see A BEAR!  He’s walking along the shore, just ambling from west to east, and must have crossed the river before we saw him because the bottom half of his body is wet!  We’re both shooting when Marilyn says, “video” and I switch gears.  I sure hope I figure out how to show all these videos because they are such fun to watch!  I just can’t believe we’re this close to him and yet are safely above him!  What a thrill!!

Look at the tracks in the wed sand.  Lots of critters come along this path!

This is the braided stream by which he was walking.

At the end of the road we discover the amazing rocks which give Red Rock Canyon its name!  Check out the tilted layers and the cascades.  People are actually swimming in the little pools!  We take a short hike that loops downstream, over a bridge, and back up on the parking lot side so we are ready to head back to town.

We are well content with our fox and bear and the captive bison and deer when we see cars stopped ahead of us on both sides of the road!.  They are leaving as we arrive but one man points out his window, up the hillside.  There is no one behind us, so we sit and wait to see what happens.  In about a minute Marilyn spots a brown bear way up the hillside!  There is just time for a couple of shots before he disappears into the trees!  TWO bears today!  What a rush!

He is SO far away!  I think he is a black bear that just happens to be brown.

It’s getting chilly and we are in shorts, and a little worn out, so we drive to Vinny’s for dinner instead of changing into jeans and walking.  The place is pretty and our waitress is gorgeous.  We decide not to hold that, or the lengthy time it takes for our food to appear, against her!  Marilyn gets the bison burger.  I have the beef burger, only because they put lots of spice things on hers and mine comes with applewood bacon and smoked gouda!  Good grief!  They’re huge!  And I ordered New England clam chowder as my side, instead of the fries! I don’t think I can finish, and I probably shouldn’t, but I do!!  No dessert for us!  Just a little drinkie and bed!  Marilyn is down for the count at eleven and I just have to see my pictures first, so I make it into my very comfortable bed by midnight.

And for those of you who need visual proof that I'm really here in Glacier, here I am trying to reach the top of the drift at Logan Pass and riding the wild spruce tree!  YeeHaw!