I've been terribly remiss at keeping up to date with these blog posts from the road so I'm trying a new approach - blogging from my sleeping bag. We'll see how this goes.
Anyhoo, when last I wrote it was day 5 of our journey and we were thoroughly enjoying hiking the scenic alpine trails in Glacier National Park I've since learned the hikes in Glacier, while every bit as fabulous as I initially reported, pale in comparison to the even more fabulous hikes in Lake Louise, Banff and Jasper (days 6 to 9 of our trip). I posted galleries on Flickr if you'd like to see some pics (see link below).
I should also mention that we had the pleasure of sharing our campsite in Lake Louise with a super cool young family from Washington that we ran into at the campsite registration hut who were about to be turned away due to lack of space at the campground. We couldn't have that! A shout to our new friends, Shaun and April and their two awesome and adorable kids!
Days 10 to 13 we took a bit of a departure from the usual outdoorsy theme of our journey to experience the cowboy charms of the 2013 Calgary Stampede, a.k.a. "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth". Though we only had time to enjoy 3 of the 10 days of the city-wide extravaganza, we packed in most of the highlights including a pancake breakfast, watching one of the afternoon rodeos, attending a ceremonial event at the Indian Village and checking out the exhibits at the Stampede grounds. A great big thank you to our fantastic host, Baasje's little cousin Matty (who sometime in the past few years went from being a gawky teen to a hotshot corporate lawyer). Thanks for letting us stay in your swanky, new downtown pad, Matty!
The last couple of days we're been exploring the museums and sites that feature Alberta's other big tourist draw, dinosaur remains! In my humble opinion, the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller was one of the best museum exhibits I've ever experienced. I mean, everybody knows the big dinosaur skeleton is the best part of the museum tour and this museum is chock-a-block full of 'em! Gobsmacked, I tell you!
We also made a stop at Dinosaur Provincial Park to snap a few pics of the scenic Alberta Badlands landscape, do a few of the short hikes, all the while doing our best to dodge the mosquitos.
And that pretty much takes us up to where we are today, super clean and friendly Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park in southwestern Saskatchewan. When it comes to amenities, this park has it all - mini-golf, horseback riding, brand new showers, even a pizzeria!
Check out my Flickr galleries if you'd like to see pics of our Banff, Jasper and Lake Louise hikes. I'm also hoping to get a blog post up about the Plains of Six Glaciers and Sentinel Pass hikes we did near Lake Louise. Definite contenders for my favourite Canadian Day hike of all time!
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