There is a fresh influence in Fernie due to the high number of residents under the age of 30. Outdoor enthusiasts abound in this town. There are no shortage of trails for biking and walking or Frisbee golf!
Another perfect day in temperature. We had breakfast at the Blue Toque in the the old railway station. It was organic home grown food and coffee. We sat at a table on what would have been the old passenger platform with a view of the mountain and the railroad track less than 50 feet away. A train even came by loaded with coal.
We took a walk along a section of old track, took a lot of pictures and we didn't seem to want to leave.
Back on Highway 3 we head towards the Crowsnest Pass on our way to Waterton National Park. In Sparwood, BC we say the world's largest truck. Remember those tires from day one? They might not have been big enough. Sparwood is also still a large coal mining town, you can see the stripped hills from both mining and logging operations. Note Roanna by the front wheel.
A little further up the road we entered Alberta, we began our climb over Crowsnest Pass from an open valley in a bowl. We stopped at the Crowsnest Travel Alberta Information Centre where we got a wealth of information about southern Alberta from an extremely helpful employee. Armed with a bag of booklets and catalogs we moved on and made our way down from the pass area to Pincher Creek. Along the way we passed the site of the Frank Slide where on April 29, 1903, at 4:10 a.m., 74 million tonnes (30 million cubic metres) of limestone crashed from the east face of Turtle Mountain and covered approximately three square kilometres of the valley floor and is the greatest landslide in North American history.
As we enter Pincher Creek after winding down from the pass, the mountains where only an image in the rearview mirror. We were now on the edge of the plains. We headed south towards Waterton with the Rocky Mountains paralleling our travel. Ahead of us snowy peaks and 600 million year old rocks. Heading into Waterton, the park was eerily empty of visitors except for mountain goat and bighorn sheep that linger about the town like lawn ornaments. They are very accustomed to park visitors thus allowing for some very intimate photographs. While taking pictures of these majestic animals we stuck up a conversation with a woman who happened to work for Travel Alberta who was full of information and enthusiastic to share it with us. We shopped around for a room with a view and chose one with a view of Lower Waterton Lake.
This town is the most scenic place we have been to on the trip thus far. With the town in the foreground, lake behind and mountains framing the view.
No comments:
Post a Comment