It’s the middle of June and we have 7 days to make it to Drumheller Alberta for the start of the Caravan. There will be 20 trailers meeting up and lots of people to get to know.
We had been to the Canadian Rockies but, it’s been over 30 years when our girls were young and sat in the back seat taking notes of every animal we came across. Elk, Moose, Bear, and even a Porcupine. They filled their pages and gaped at the beauty of the mountains. We camped by tent and hit all the touristy sites. It was the end of June but it was bitterly cold with occasional rain. By the time we arrived in Jasper, the family finally rebelled and demanded I rent a cabin. The girls weren’t impressed with the open beamed ceiling, the view of the river, the big kitchen. What they were impressed with is…a bathtub! They said the bath never felt so good.
On the trip this year, however, we are traveling with adults, in trailers, with hot showers, kitchens and real mattresses. We are bringing wine, gin, bourbon and ice. All the comforts of a well-stocked holiday resort, rolling along through the vistas.
The caravan will take us to places that locals know and sights we never would have found had we not been on this caravan. Our Oregon friends, Jim and Cheryl, will be joining us for the trip up, during, and back. We had met them on a previous caravan, Kentucky Bourbon and Beyond. We are also meeting another couple we met on the same caravan, from Georgia, Babs and Jim. This will fun!
Jim, Cheryl met us at my brother’s place, north of Spokane. A good base to start our exploration. We checked and torqued our tires, made sure we had plenty of water and our batteries were topped off, got a good night rest then we headed NE to Sand Point and north to the border.
Long trips always brings out the nerves in me. But add that we will be crossing the border with ever-changing COVID requirements, and my nervousness got amped up. We knew we didn’t need to take a COVID test prior to crossing but we had to fill out the Canadian forms for COVID. We were all set with our passports, copies of our Canadian forms, Phones with the appropriate forms and QR codes. But our passage through Kingsgate was a non-event. We were at the boarder crossing by 11:00am and handed over our passports. They scanned them in then handed them back. They had all our information on their screen including the previously uploaded forms. They asked us how long we will be in Canadian and if we were bringing any fresh chicken, eggs, or other fresh meats. They didn’t ask about my collection of wine…good thing! In all, it took us about 3 minutes.
We continued north to our first stop, Will-o-Bend Golf and RV in Jaffery BC. Jaffery was about 215 miles from our start. The Will-O-Bend RV park is alongside the golf course and we took advantage of its walking paths and the restaurant. It was typical pub/golf club food but good. Another diner was located across the street, so we had a couple of places to choose from. We prefer to eat out when we are driving toward a destination. We settled in for a good night rest and watched a little TV.
The next morning, we left around 9:00 to travel over the Crowsnest Pass at 4,400 ft. Prior to the trip, I kept checking road and pass conditions because I was not familiar with Crowsnest Pass and if it was susceptible to snows…even late in the year. But it was a gentle climb and descent with a few small towns and services if needed. On the Alberta side of the pass, just past Blairmore is the Frank Slide with an interpretation center. A large portion of the mountain broke off around 5:00am and slid down during most of the town of Frank. This was a mining town and a stop on the railroad. It was devastating.
This is a great stop for lunch and to stretch our legs. We visited the center again on way to Fairmont Hotsprings. On this day, we just pulled into the parking area to the right of the road which had a couple of kiosks showing the before and after of the slide. We were parked off the road but there were boulders and rocks strewn across the landscape for miles.
We continued to Waterton, our next destination. Waterton lies on the north (Canadian) side of our Glacier National Park. It has an impressive lodge, beautiful lakes, and lots of hiking trails. We saw black bear, grizzly bear, elk and even bighorn sheep. We camped a couple miles down the road, but we should have reserved in the park itself. We took high tea in the lodge and drove up to Bertha Lake with its lakeside pavilions, boat rentals and picnic sites. But the lake was still frozen in places and everything was still closed for use. The lakes and mountains gave us our first taste of the Rockies and we are so glad we chose to visit. This was not a stop on the organized caravan.
We spent 3 nights in Waterton, then headed north to our next stop, High River AB. Our trip plan has us arriving in Drumheller a day early, had some flex in our schedule. I like to plan flex into the trip just in case we have truck or trailer issues. But everything was working great on our two rigs so onto High River we headed. The stop was a Harvest Host site at the local brewery. And it was good!
Prince of Wales Hotel, Waterton
We got a little lost heading NE to Drumheller the next morning. I wanted to take a route through the farmlands and not up the highway. The roads were all paved but just 2 lanes. We came upon a couple of harvesters on the road but the main problem was road closures that rerouted us. In all, I think we added an hour to our expected travel time. The distance was only 115 mile (if we took the highway) but we must have added another 80 miles to the trip.
High Tea at Prince of Wales Hotel
We found Drumheller, down a windy road, through the plains. Drumheller is known as the dinosaur capital of … Canada?…Alberta?… the world? I don’t know but they had dinosaur sculptures all over town. The Dinosaur RV Park was difficult to find…there were 2 of them. One near town, which we drove into but found that wasn’t the one we wanted. The other was 5 miles out of town, past the golf course. After several back-and-forth trips through town, we found our destination and set up camp. A day early but a good start to the caravan and fun.
Arrival – Dinosaur Campground, Drumheller AB
Next: Drumheller to Lake Louise
