We made it to Donna's! Golden BC to Okanagan Falls BC via Rogers Pass

 

It was a good night camped at the Golden Municipal campground. No train noise overnight, at least none we heard. Before heading out we took a few pics around the campground:

The Kicking Horse river was running high and hard

Log debris in the river

Construction work going on at the town bridge

 

A lot of the travelling pictures today are from the Rogers Pass area. The area offers great mountain views, easier to take pictures than the Kicking Horse pass was:

 

Lots of trucks out today

 

  

  

 

One of several snow sheds on Rogers Pass (we think 7)

You can see the side of the snow shed curving with the road

 

Of course there was construction, one of life's certainties when travelling this time of year. These sites had several little waterfalls cascading down the mountainside into the sites:

The waterfalls originate as meltwater from places like this

 The roads get interesting sometimes in the lower elevations:

I haven't been sending out daily post reminders, as some people thought that wasn't necessary. We likely will only post every few days while we're at Donna's. I'll send a reminder periodically. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maple Creek SK to Golden BC. Were in the mountains now.

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.