An Aussie in Canada: Rockies and Prairies

An Aussie in Canada: Rockies and Prairies
Canada, North America
I survived the Wild Wild West!

The Calgary Stampede – “the world’s greatest outdoor show” – was a blast. Courtesy of my job as a lunchroom concession supervisor I had a free full access pass to explore the whole shebang.

The main attraction was of course the rodeo – bucking broncos, bareback riding, calf roping, the works. Lots of cowboys in tight jeans and colourful shirts! Also, there was sheep shearing, tractor pulling, strong men and super dog competitions. Lots of fun to be had!

When the Stampede was over Bec and I headed up to Banff in the stupendous Rocky Mountains. Fulfills every superlative you have ever heard. Inspired by all the cowboy atmosphere of Calgary, we went horseriding for a day in the beautiful, green Kananaskis Valley. Our trail wove in and out of pine forests, along cliff edges, over fallen logs and across creeks. The next couple of days were wet and grey so the full splendour of the mountains around Lake Louise and Morraine Lake was not revealed to us. There was fresh snow on the tops of the mountains and I was wearing as many layers of clothes as when I went skiing in January!

We drove up the Icefields Parkway which lived up to its famous scenic reputation with gem-like lakes scattered under precariously balanced glaciers high up on rocky cliffs. The walk on the Athabascan glacier was underwhelming but the humorous patter of the busdriver made it worthwhile! Jasper was a nicer, less blatantly touristy town than Banff but even harder to find accommodation.

Bec dropped me back in Banff and returned to Calgary while I called in the sunshine for a couple of days of lovely hiking – Sundance Canyon, Sulfur Mountain as well as some trails around Lake Louise and Morraine Lake. Also took a trail up to the far less visited Consolation Lakes and it was definitely worth the climb. Almost round in shape, the lake was backed by a cradle shaped mountain, half glacier and half green meadows.

After gathering all our stuff up in Calgary, Bec and I headed east to the little town of Drumheller. After checking out the largest dinosaur in the world (oh so cheesy!) we drove out through the Hoodoos to the Royal Tyrell Museum, nestled in the Badlands – dramatic domes of earth and rocks, striped red and black. It was too wet to go on the dinosaur dig that we had booked on so instead we were offered a behind the scenes tour of the museum. We spent an hour or so in the main storeroom – long metal shelves stacked with skulls, femurs, claws, teeth and trackways (footprints preserved in the rocks) of T-Rex, Albertosaurus and many others. David, our dino geek for the day, was an enthusiastic fountain of knowledge. Did you know that dinos such as T-Rex have a back up supply of fully grown teeth (all serrated for extra damage!) which would drop down to replace ones lost after a vicious meal. Pretty cool eh?

We then spent several hours preparing fossils (from an Edmotosauraus which lived 60 million years ago!!) for research, painstakingly scratching off the dirt with a toothbrush and a scalpel. It was actually lots of fun. We also made some plaster casts of some fossils then explored the museum itself, overflowing our already crammed minds. Definitely one of the most interesting days I have spent in a long time!

The next couple of days have blurred into each other. We drove across the rest of Alberta, Sasketchewan, Manitoba and northern Ontario. Fields of bright yellow canola and green, green wheat stretching out to the horizon, old wooden grain storage towers the only thing breaking up the distances. Each town along the highway had a ‘Welcome’ sign, proclaiming the hockey players who came from there, the prairie provinces being renowned hockey farms.

We put our little red truck on a ferry across Lake Huron to the little village of Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula. A neat little harbour, “The Tub” edged with interesting craft shops and a cute little pub called The Crow’s Nest, with a fine fiddling house band. We took a boat out to Flowerpot Island and I braved the icy waters for a swim, determined to do it at least once this summer! I lasted about two minutes!!!

We made it to Toronto, spending an hour or so sitting in rush hour traffic to get to a friend of a friends’ place in Oakville. That and the heat pretty much did poor old Jamie in and she hasn’t worked since! The whole clutch has gone! So at least we made it to our destination in one piece! They had the worst heatwave in memory happening so I took the chance to sleep and do nothing in a nice air conditioned house. Such bliss.

So stay tuned for the next installment of my solo travels in the Maritimes. No, I never stop, I know!!!

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