Alberta

Even as I left Glacier National Park for Alberta, there was more to see.

Driving by Chief Mountain, I felt like I’d fallen into a painting.

As I neared the Canada border, free ranging cows roamed the sides of the road.  One cow saw me coming, calmly walked out in front of me and stood, staring me down.  I think he would’ve won that contest had he not decided he was done delaying me.

Once past the cow, I was on my way and soon crossed into Canada.  Alberta is a gorgeous place, the Wild West of Canada.  I had hoped to spend some time at Waterton Lakes National Park just over the border, but it was a very busy weekend and campgrounds were full for miles around, so I continued on.  I found the small town of Pincher Creek where the town’s information center was happy to recommend a campground to me.

I spent a fairly comfortable night in Beauvair Provincial Park, followed by a gorgeous sunrise over Pincher Creek.

After that, it was on to Banff National Park and to meet up with my friend Dani (from the previous year’s Glacier National Park visit).  I found a great campground in the park and spent several hours catching up with Dani before she had to head to work.  I spent a few more hours talking with a wonderful woman (and a fellow solo-traveler!), Inge, from The Netherlands.  Dani had told me before she left that there was a possibility of Northern Lights during the night, so I hit the sack at 9:30, setting my alarm for 1.  At 1, I looked through the moon roof of my Element, saw clouds and decided to continue sleeping.  An hour later nature called and on my way to the restrooms I ran into my new friend from  The Netherlands, who pointed to the sky.  And, so, at 2 am, Inge and I drove to the nearby Lake Minnewanka to view the Northern Lights.  In the midst of taking one of my photographs, a shooting star passed our view, making just a wonderful first Northern Lights experience.

We were back to camp around 3 and both headed back to sleep.  I was still very excited from the experience, so it was an hour or before I fell back asleep.  Which gave me about an hour’s sleep before I was up at 5 am to go meet up with Dani to photograph Moraine Lake and Lake Louise:

I’m holed up in Canmore, Alberta, getting some work done on my laptop and looking forward to a good nights sleep so I can be up and out of here at 5 am again.