We made it to the moutains. Maple Creek SK to Golden BC

Huge rock cut on Trans Canada Highway 

After a really pleasant night at the Maple Creek Visitor Info parking area (no trains or traffic audible at all), we set off fairly early. Lots of kms to go yet.

 

Pretty soon we were heading into threatening skies:

Thankfully the dark clouds had moved and dissipated by the time we arrived. We did get to see a couple of nice rainbows though. Each was a double, but one was very faint: 

Approaching Calgary we ran into another stormy-looking sky. Once again managed to stay out of most of it:

  

Once the storms cleared off and we were west of Calgary, we started to see mountains:

Those "eyes" support the animal bridge above

I should explain that we stuck to the main Trans Canada Highway all the way. Usually we would depart from the TCH at Medine Hat AB, and head west on Hwy 3. 

This is very likely going to be the last time we drive out this way though, so we decided to see the TCH through Kicking Horse Pass one last time. A lot of work has been done to the highway through here over the past several years. 

We were too busy watching the views and the traffic for pictures through there today though.  

A tiring day, and pretty much my daily mileage led us to the Golden Municipal campground. Never been here before. It's very nice, if you can tolerate train noise, as there are tracks right across the Kicking Horse river from the campground.

Wild Rose, Alberta's provincial flower

A very nice walking trail runs along the river. In one direction it goes right into downtown Golden. It's a long trail and we only sampled it:

 

RR tracks run on the other side of the river. A crew is doing work on the rails with much specialized equipment and lots of noise. A couple of trains have rumbled by, relatively quietly.

 

 

 

Virden to Maple Creek SK

 

After a nice quiet night at the Virden Lions campground (the trains did not blow whistles overnight), we got ready to head west again. First we took a short tour of Virden, a pleasant prairie town.

The Home Hardware where Mona works

An apparently free level 2 EV charger

Historical notes and some well-known people from Virden

Guess I should explain who Mona is. Mona's mother Anita is Donna's deceased husband Bob's youngest sister (ie Mona is Bob's niece). Donna is Cathie's sister.

Bob grew up on his family's farm in Sakatchewan, and Anita and Mona moved to Virden later on.

Virden was and is on a main Canadian rail line, and has current rail traffic and memories of yesteryear:

An nice stone ex-rail station, now used for community functions 

 

An example of a caboose, which used to be the last car on all trains

At a rest area that seemed to be part of a highway gas station, we found an exhibit using "relics" from a CBC TV series "Little Mosque on the Prairie", following a Muslim family on their adventures adapting to their new home Canada.   

A colourful Indian head statue

Larger than it first seemed

Some neat nesting "boxes" for swallows

   

 

A Buffalo Rubbing stone, and a Red River cart replica

 

 

Things are wet enough around here this year to find sloughs (small landlocked ponds) along the highway. Lots of insect and bird life around these ponds:

Some pictures, apparently snow, but really piles from mining and refining potash, which you may have heard referenced in recent Canada-US trade talks:

  

After looking at a couple of proper campgrounds that we didn't care for, we've ended up in the parking lot of a Saskatchewan Visitor Center near Maple Creek for the night. So far nice and quiet, just far enough off the highway. We're almost into Alberta now.

An animal viewing note: We (mostly Cathie) saw 4 moose, one at a time in various locations. Today we finally saw a group of 7 antelope here in Saskatchewan.  No pictures yet though.

 

 

  

We made it out of Ontario, "only" about 4 1/2 days! Dryden ON to Virden MB

Big sky country in Manitoba (MB)

After a cool night it warmed up today. Passing clouds were welcome to reduce the heat. It only got up to about 24C, but felt warmer with the humidity. 

In spite of the look of some of the clouds we got no rain on us today. From the look of some of the fields it has rained a fair bit in the area recently though:

We got a nice surprise when we stopped for fuel at a Petro Canada station just east of Winnipeg:

When we got west of Winnipeg the prices shown were quite a bit higher, like $2.09.9 to $2.19.9. Because our Petro account is linked with our RBC credit card we get 3 cents off the posted price too.  

 

You know it's a straight drive when the next turn for the route your GPS is on is 104 km down the road:

We wanted to stop early again today, as usual, but not too early. We ended up finding a Lions Club campground in Virden MB and were parked about 4:30 pm:

It was a bonus to be able to park in some shade today. The camp is a kilometre or more from the highway, so no traffic noise. However a nearby train had to blow its own horn for a while as it left the depot. Hope that doesn't happen tonight.

 

Penn Lake to Dryden, getting back in the groove

Lots of open road today

After a good night's rest for both of us, we covered more ground today towards the west. 

We've never seen this sign on a washroom door before. There was a corresponding one for males next door:

I guess it says the washroom is female priority, but anyone in need can use it.

The pond in front of our campsite was very calm this morning. It would have been easy to see the beaver that lives around here, but we only saw the stumps of small trees it (or they) had cut down. 

The van front pointed this way, so we had this view from inside the van with our morning coffee. It was 11C outside, so we stayed inside:

I don't want to make a big deal about the construction, but it's a fact of life on these roads this time of year. Passage was quick and easy once again:

Drilling for blasting to straighten the road later

Could be a dirty job, depending on the wind

Shots of the fairly new cable-stayed bridge at Ignace: 

3 towers, off in the distance

We stopped at a marker for the Arctic Watershed today. It's about 5km east of the divide between Eastern and Central time zones:

 

 

We covered more miles today than in the earlier days this trip. Cath says I don't look like death-warmed-over now at the end of the day. 

I expect that's a good thing. :))

Actual distance was about 660 km today. We arrived at the Dryden Walmart about 4pm CDT (Central Daylight Time).