The Highline Trail

Today we hiked the greatest trail of our lives. We drove the Going to the Sun Road to Logan Pass at the Continental Divide where the Highline Trail starts across the road from the Visitors Center. This amazing trail follows along the edge of the continental divide and has amazing panoramic views of the mountains and deep valleys of Glacier national park. It was around 40 degrees and quite chilly in the shade when we began our five mile hike, but by the time we returned, we had peeled out of our jackets. It’s hard to say anything exceeded the scenery, but the highlight of the hike was seeing big horn sheep- up close and personal. They were actually posing for us (or so it seemed) on the cliff above the trail. They kicked some rock loose and we were almost hit by a falling rock as one of the Rams jumped off a rock. A lady we met on the trail said one of the rams came down the trail earlier head down clearing the trail. Needless to say, we took too many photos of rams! And then, as if not to be outdone, two mountain goats appeared. It was an exhilarating hike that we will always remember, though we were mighty tired at the end of the day. Click HERE to see more pictures.

Glacier NP, USA

We awoke this morning to find that our rain on Friday afternoon and evening had turned to snow on the mountains – and quite a show it made. All along the way, we stopped to take photographs of the snow topped mountains. We crossed the border at Chief Mountain Border Crossing where our one remaining Alberta steaks was confiscated. “That’s ours,” said the officer. When the customs officer began to walk into the living area of the coach with his shoes on George said, “Excuse me, sir, could you put on these shoe covers as we do?” The officer complied and George assisted him in putting them on. Other than that, we were quickly on our way, arriving at St. Mary KOA around lunch time. We went to the visitor’s center and saw the video there about the park and looked at the exhibits. Then we drove to Many Glacier Hotel to hear the ranger talk about the history of the hotel which was very interesting. Its history is closely tied to the Great Northern Railroad which built the hotel to promote its passenger rail business. Afterwards, we ate dinner at the hotel and then checked out the campground there and looked for mountain goats, visible only thru the binoculars. We reminisced about our trip to the hotel in 1980 when we were in our early thirties just before George went on dialysis.

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Waterton Lakes NP, Canada

Leaving Calgary we stopped to buy diesel which is sold by the liter ($.85/liter) – considerably less than regular gasoline ($1.05/liter) – but that equates to $3.23 per gallon – not exactly cheap. En route we passed a very large farm of electric turbine generators that were quite close to the highway – the closest we’ve seen these giant windmills. We stopped in a small town to buy a few groceries and bough some great fresh corn from a local farmer. We arrived at Waterton, “Where the mountains meet the prairies,” and checked out Waterton Town Site, a charming small village of motels, restaurants, and shops, and collected info about the park. Though a small park, as national parks go, it offers much. We took the boat cruise to Goat Haunt Ranger Station in Glacier Park, Montana, and enjoyed learning about the area from the captain’s narration. We drove to Red Rock Canyon where we took a short loop trail showing the rock formations in the canyon. Our 800 ft climb up Bear Hump Trail took us to a fantastic view of the town and Waterton Lake and the surrounding mountains. We met a man from Scotland on the trail and continued the hike with him. We also talked to a couple from Blairsville, GA. Small world, huh? When we arrived at Waterton on Wednesday, it was a warm, sunny, breezy afternoon, but by Friday afternoon the weather was chilly and rainy. Fortunately, we only had occasional drizzles on the hike.

Waterton to Mary’s Lake – Glacier National Park 9/8/07 We awoke this morning to find that our rain on Friday afternoon and evening had turned to snow on the mountains – and quite a show it made. All along the way, we stopped to take photographs of the snow topped mountains. We crossed the border at Chief Mountain Border Crossing where our one remaining Alberta steaks was confiscated. “That’s ours,” said the officer. When the customs officer began to walk into the living area of the coach with his shoes on George said, “Excuse me, sir, could you put on these shoe covers as we do?” The officer complied and George assisted him in putting them on. Other than that, we were quickly on our way, arriving at St. Mary KOA around lunch time. We went to the visitor’s center and saw the video there about the park and looked at the exhibits. Then we drove to Many Glacier Hotel to hear the ranger talk about the history of the hotel which was very interesting. Its history is closely tied to the Great Northern Railroad which built the hotel to promote its passenger rail business. Afterwards, we ate dinner at the hotel and then checked out the campground there and looked for mountain goats, visible only thru the binoculars. We reminisced about our trip to the hotel in 1980 when we were in our early thirties just before George went on dialysis.

Click HERE to see more pictures.

Calgary - The big City

We drove to Calgary Monday (Labor Day in Canada as well as the US), arriving at our RV park shortly after lunch. We took a break from the camera so as to be more nimble walking around the city. The remainder of the day was, in fact, labor day as we bought groceries, did laundry, and washed the RV. Tuesday we took the light-rail, called the C-train, to downtown Calgary where we visited the indoor gardens on the 4th floor of a shopping building which was like a little mall. We ate lunch at Eau Claire Market and enjoyed walking in the adjacent Prince’s Island Park, a lovely urban park much enjoyed on the warm sunny day. The Heart and Stroke Assoc. was having an event in which different groups pedaled a long chassis frame thru the park with much fanfare. There were about 20+ bicycle seats and pedals, two abreast, down the length of the chassis with a steering wheel at the front. We stopped at a farmer’s market and Wal-Mart on the way home, and with construction and many new roads which the GPS maps didn’t know about, it was not an easy trip back to the RV park. Calgary is an oil boom town that is growing very fast and has a lot of highway construction.

Yoho NP, Canada

At Yoho we camped at Chancellor Peak Campground, a newly renovated national park campground with no hookups in a beautiful setting with a branch of the Kicking Horse River on either side. We were very close to the river and also had a view of the towering mountains. We really loved this spot – it was beautiful in all directions and very peaceful. We hiked the Hoodoo Trail in the afternoon – about a 2 mile trail plus another half mile on the road to reach the trail which was very steep climbing 1,100 ft. The views were great and the hoodoos were unbelievable – almost eerie! The capped pillars of glacial debris looked as though someone had placed the stones on top of them. It was an exhilarating hike – the amazing hoodoos, beautiful views, and gratifying that we could still do a hike like that. We enjoyed walking around the campground after dinner at the coach. 9/2/07 Sunday we drove through Yoho N.P. and went to the visitor’s center at Field and then ate lunch. We continued to be awed by the amazingly rugged and beautiful mountains. We went to Takkakaw Falls, the 2nd highest waterfall in Canada, to Natural Bridge, Emerald Lake and Emerald Lake Lodge, and also to the Spiral Loop Tunnels viewing area where we saw a long freight train going thru the tunnels which were built to make a gentler climb for trains over the kicking horse pass. The long train was still going in the first tunnel when the locomotives emerged from second tunnel.

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Glacier NP, Canada

We stopped at Giant Cedars trail on the east side of Revelstoke NP today as we drove toward Glacier National Park. It’s a short boardwalk-and-stairs trail through an old growth giant cedar forest. In the afternoon we hiked the Loop Brook Trail which features railroad history and is a National Historic Site. The trail follows the giant stone trestle supports of a pair of curved trestles forming two switch backs that were designed to gradually climb Rogers Pass. The section of track was abandoned by the Canadian Pacific RR when they built the Connaught tunnel under Mt. Rogers to avoid frequent avalanches in the area. It was an enjoyable hike that crosses a rushing stream, goes through a mixed forest, and had info along the way about railroad history.

8/31/07 We drove through Glacier N.P. to Rogers Pass Visitor’s Center where we really enjoyed the displays and videos. The building itself is designed to resemble a snow shed, and exhibits there focus on the role of the railroads in opening up this rugged area of Canada. Incidentally, A. B. Rogers, who discovered the pass, was an American with an engineering degree from Yale. George especially enjoyed the video of railroading in the area in the 1950’s. There were also displays of animals native to Glacier Park including grizzly bears, caribou, and elk. We stopped at the Rogers Pass marker which commemorates the completion of the Trans-Canada highway thru the pass in 1962 and drove past the Stony Creek Bridge, a much photographed railroad bridge.

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Revelstoke, BC

8/28/07

Today we continued up TC 1 passing by Lake Shuswap which is a big resort area. The CP railroad again was our constant companion. We stopped for lunch at Craigallachie which is the “golden spike” location for the Canadian Pacific Railway. George bought a map of the western Canada railroads at the gift store. We spent the afternoon at the Revelstoke Railway Museum. Soon after our arrival, we had the pleasure of seeing the Rocky Mountaineer pass by. We rode this train two years ago with our friends Jim and Hope Tarpley. We went through a 1928 parlor-sleeper car that had seen service on the “Trans-Canadian,” the crack passenger train across Canada in the 20’s and 30’s. George drove a diesel locomotive in the locomotive simulator and spoke at length with a retired CP engineer from the steam era who was a museum docent. We enjoyed the information about the engineering challenges faced by RR pioneers as they considered how to build a RR through the Canadian Rockies. The history of the railroad is very much an integral part of the history and present lives of the people of this area of B.C.

8/29/07 Today was spent exploring Revelstoke National Park which is just right outside the town of Revelstoke. We drove the 12 mile Meadows in the Sky Parkway which goes almost to the top of Mt. Revelstoke (steep, curvy, many switchbacks). Then we took the shuttle to the top where we did some short hikes, one of which took us to the peak. The views are marvelous, and neither words nor photographs quite capture it – but we tried! The wild flowers which bloom in July and August are beautiful. Here we realized why people come to the Canadian Rockies.

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