Week ending May 26, 2016 Claresholme to Waterton

On Friday, we didn't do much. It was cool and windy, but by Saturday we decided we needed to go for a walk.   At Home Hardware, we picked up a water tank filler with extension, which should work better than just putting the end of the hose in the water intake.  Then we carried on to the north end of town, to the Buffalo Hills Art Gallery.  Gordon Zahursky has a great selection of bronzes featuring kids and horses, some really good photographs, and paintings.   We had a long chat with him.   He used to be a bull rider until he went legally blind.  He created a lens for his better eye using lenses from binoculars that enabled him to do some sculpting, which he started using wax.  Since then, he had surgery on the better eye.   He opened a gallery just south of Arrowwood, where he had grown up.  Later on, he moved the gallery to a house at 315 55 Ave W in Claresholm.

On our way back to the RV, we walked along the west side of town, with views of the Porcupine Hills.  There was a coyote hunting for mice in the field.   In the evening, watched the NASCAR all-star race.

Trev, Taylor and James came out for lunch and the afternoon on Sunday.    Sue had to work, and Anthony was camping with friends.

Monday was another overcast day.    We headed for Waterton, stopping in Pincher Creek at WM for groceries,  a trailer wash at Sudsy's and lunch at Tim's.  Karen called around 12:30 to see if we planned on a day trip across the border and they should bring their passports. We told her we like to save our US time for the winter.   South of Pincher, we saw a moose and calf cross the highway.  The cow stepped over the barbed wire fence, but the calf struggled a bit getting through the fence.  We couldn't get a focus before we passed them. About 10k further south, a deer crossed ahead of us, then the usual second deer froze in the middle of the road for a sec, and then, fortunately, darted back off the road.   The tops of the mountains are hiding in the clouds, but we can still see above the snow line on some of them.

Waterton Lake from campground

Set up in Waterton, got good satellite. Nice long site, so we checked if Karen could park on our site. No problem, as long as the car isn't on the grass.  Her tent can be either on the grass or gravel.  A few minutes of heating blew the 30 amp fuse at the utility post, so we switched to our 50amp adapter (which only gives us 30 amps anyway through our internal main breaker) but this setup should get us the full 30 amps when we need it. 

Karen and Dominique arrived around 8. We got their tent set up.  They had some of the exercise floor 'jigsaw' panels to put on the floor under the air matresses.  They found this keeps the floor much warmer. They had lots of blankets to keep warm.

Tuesday around noon, we headed to do a hike from the Red Rock Parkway, only to find the Parkway  is still closed for the winter.  We did the Linnette Lake loop.

Then we drove to the Prince of Wales hotel, which is also still closed (it opens on June 3). After viewing the scenery from the top of the hill, we found a little trail that angled down toward the lake coming out at the picnic area below the hotel.  Dominique and John went all the way down and back, while Karen and Joan decided that the views wouldn't get any better after coming part way down.

Village from Prince of Wales

 On the way back through town, we saw a herd of deer, and a couple of mountain sheep.

Wednesday, we walked across the campground to Cameron Falls. 

A herd of mountain sheep crossed the road ahead of us. 

We walked downtown and checked out the gift shops. Dominique picked up a few souvenirs. We stopped at Zum's Eatery where we had a good lunch.  Joan picked up a bear Christmas ornament from the attached gift shop.  We got back to the trailer just in time to beat a thunder shower.


Thursday morning, we drove to Cardston.  On the way we stopped in at Payne Lake Rec Area.  It was a nice little spot, with fishing, but they charge $24/night for pit toilets.

Once in Cardston, we stopped at the Alberta Temple, the first LDS temple built in Canada.

While we were at the Guest Services, another fellow came in.  He was looking for the location of Caldwell, where a Mormon had homesteaded, and created a small town between the Belly River and Fish Creek near Cardston.  Now, according a book he had, there are only a couple of houses left.  We brought in the backroads Alberta Back Road Atlas, but it didn't have Caldwell or the Fish Creek marked.

Then we went to the Remington Carriage Museum.  This is an extremely extensive collection.   After looking at over 250 horse drawn vehicles in the museum, we chatted with one of the two fellows in the Restoration area of the museum.  They keep the science of carriage restoration alive by restoring vehicles that people want done.  Don Remington, a local rancher had created a collection of 50 carriages.  He talked to his local MLA to arrange for the province to create a museum in Cardston, with a condition that it would have a restoration function.  Another 200 vehicles were added to the collection from other museums and collections around the province.   With many of the carriages there are explanations of how they were used, what their specific benefits are for their specific tasks, and archival pictures of them in use.  

This was a good way to spend a drizzly day.

On the way back, we took the long route to Waterton Reservoir Rec Area.  It is similar to Payne Lake in term of facilities, but only $16.  Not sure why the difference.    Along  SR505, we came across a herd of cows being guided by a few cowboys and a dog.

Chief Mountain

Back at Waterton, we saw several buffalo in the paddock.  One of them was kind enough to be close to the road.