We left Great Falls on Thursday, May 4th and headed north into Alberta. Our plan was to avoid Calgary and the traffic and take the slower and more scenic route west and spent the night at the Wal Mart in Pincher Creek. Their municipal campground was not open yet. It was a 259 mile day and traveled 8 hours and 7 minutes. Gas was 99 cents per litre in the area. By far the cheapest we will see in the rest of Canada.
We headed out bright and early on 5/5 with our destination being Lake Louise and then Jasper and the Icefields Parkway. We all had our first Tim Horton's for breakfast (think delicious donuts and pastries). We got a call from our friend Wallace Lewis, about mid day, that there was an avalanche that had shut down the road to Lake Louise and Jasper! We found a bypass with the help of a service officer (pic) that took us back east and north through Banff and Kootenay National Park which was a beautiful drive! We saw mule deer, Big horn sheep, wild turkey, a bald eagle and many ravens. Cochrane, AB was our final destination for the night after a long day of 364 miles and over 9 hours of driving. We stayed at Spring Hill RV Park. 30 amp FHU was $35.70 CN with our 15% SKP discount. We had the most delicious Greek food at My Greek Plate for dinner. Highly recommend!
Saturday, May 6th was a pure driving day, straight north, with rolling hills and a lot of rural farm land. Our wildlife for the day was a bonanza of 3 moose standing in an open field! We arrived in Grand Prairie, AB, catching up with Wanda and Wallace Lewis and their friend Eloise. We had a fun evening visiting and catching up with each other and our travels! We all stayed at Camp Tamarack, a Good Sam park. Very woodsy but nice at $40.00 CN which equates to $29.15 US.
With the Dollar being so strong, our money is worth 30 per cent more. A nice change! We covered 450 miles and 10 hours and 40 minutes of driving.
Sunday, May 7th was a special day as it was our friend Mickey Waite's Birthday! They had spent the night at Wal Mart so we left our RV park very early and parked next to them. I made Mickey a special birthday breakfast that was enjoyed by all! Every day so far we have been hitting the road between 7 and 7:30 but today we took our time and enjoyed an extra cup of coffee after breakfast and left at 10:25 a.m. It was a very short travel day of only 89 miles to Dawson Creek, BC and the Northern Lights RV Park. Today was our staging day to get ready to hit the Alcan on Monday at MM 0. We did some grocery shopping, got the car washed (it took off the top layer of dirt anyway) and we saw elk and deer off the roadsides. Lynn made homemade pork tenderloins for everyone for Mick's birthday dinner. They were SO delicious! It was my brother Al's first and he loved them!
Monday, May 8th, I awoke at 6 a.m. so I could get a lot of work done and we were able to finally head out about 11 a.m. We fueled up at Safeway and saved 10 cents per litre since we had bought groceries there the day before! So it only cost us 94 cents per litre. We all met at Mile Marker "0" and took pictures all around! The drive was beautiful and a bonanza of a day for wildlife sightings! We saw a hawk, mule deer, wolf, black bear, caribou, and 2 white swans. We overnighted at Prophet River (boondocked) and Lynn made a big fire and we cooked dinner of hamburger patties and veggies in foil packets. They were yummy but parts were a bit "crispy" but enjoyed by all! We covered 310 miles of good road in 5 hours and 33 minutes. It was early to bed and early to rise, as almost all days have been! Not something we are used to but it makes sense up here for some reason.
