July 2025 - Saskatchewan and Alberta road trip
July 21 to 23 - Edmonton to North Battleford SK, then Saskatoon to Grandview MB
We have a friend in North Battleford that we have only seen via ZOOM for over a year so we stopped in for a 3 hour visit with him. It was a great visit. We travelled to Saskatoon for the night sleeping at quite a snazzy hotel, the Sandman Signature. The next morning we headed out to Grandview, Manitoba, which is located between Riding Mountain National Park and Duck Mountain Provincial Park. My brother and his wife recently moved there and. as it so happened, my parents were there visiting as well. We had a great visit. They hosted us in their amazing home. We will be home on the 23th.
Travelling through these prairies, we saw much of the same landscapes, low rolling hills, some river valleys, lots of fields, some bison pastures, and lots and lots of smoke. I snapped some photos of our Manitoba Mountain sign and view from a distance as well as a couple of odd sights: vehicles on top of things…
July 18 - 20: Sunwapta Falls to Hinton then Edmonton
Travelling rest of the Icefields Parkway, we passed many more impressively massive mountains, and then stopped, just outside of Jasper, at a trail for a short hike. I had chosen this hike mostly because it was named for a friend who was to undergo an operation to remove a tumour. She had just discovered this cancerous mass after she admitted to the hospital on the night of the 16th and word was passed along to her friends on the 18th about the discovery. We hiked therefore around Annette Lake, on my part, as a prayer for a successful operation. We witnessed some of the burned forests in which wild flowers were beginning the regrowth process, as well as quite a few elk and an area of quicksand. We did not go through the downtown part of Jasper, where we were told that rebuilding was just beginning. As we arrived in Hinton, I took a photo of the impressive cloud. We stayed at Norbert’s cousin and wife’s home in Hinton, Alberta. What a wonderful, lovely couple. They were very gracious hosts. We went hiking many places, having a picnic on Jarvis Lake. I did an experiment at Jarvis Lake. I thought that the colours in the photos I was taking, especially of the water and sky, seemed washed out, or paler, than what I was seeing. I then realized that I was always wearing sunglasses and seeing these vistas through them. My experiment was to test that theory and it was confirmed. See if you can see the difference in the two ‘identical’ photos below - one was taken through my sunglasses’ lens.
We went to Mass on Saturday at 5 pm during which there was a big downpour outside. I got an email that evening that our friend’s surgery went very well and the entire mass was removed, with no cancer invading surrounding tissues - good news. Sunday morning we left Hinton and drove to Edmonton. West Edmonton Mall’s parking lot was a zoo, so we headed to another mall to stretch out our legs until we could check into our hotel in southern Edmonton.
July 17 - Calgary to Banff and Sunwapta Falls
It was raining this morning when we left Calgary, and it rained all the way to Banff. The National Parks of Canada have free admission to the parks this summer so it only cost us the parking for 2 hours in the town of Banff ($14!). We had never been to this iconically Canadian, world-famous park so I just wanted to at least see it and be there for a bit. It had stopped raining for us, praise God, and we walked around the extremely busy streets, catching bits of conversations in a multitude of international languages. We then drove out towards the Icefield Parkway and stopped at a very pretty wayside park to eat some food we had for lunch. Making our way to Sunwapta Falls Rocky Mountain Lodge for the night, I was, like every time I am in the mountains, gawking at every peak and vista we passed, snapping photos left and right. At the Lodge, since the only restaurant within at least 30 miles was in the Lodge, no matter the cost, that’s where we would have to have supper. I chose a bison burger and Norbert had bison meatballs and spaghetti. We then walked to the namesake of the place, Sunwapta Falls and took some cool videos and photos. That’s where Norbert realized that his digestive system thinks bison is pork… hmmm. He’s ok now.
July 15 and 16 - Moose Jaw to Calgary
July 15 - Moose Jaw to Lethbridge
Having taught Canadian Geography for 17.5 years, I did know that the prairies stepped up in three general elevations but driving straight west from Winnipeg to Moose Jaw the Lethbridge, I noticed that again. Also, contrary to popular belief, Saskatchewan is not all flat. Even though I have seen, first hand, many countries with large areas of field crops, none match the expanses driven through these past two days. Like the skit on the show ‘Corner Gas’ where someone comments that Saskatchewan has nothing to see, I agree with the character who disagrees, saying: you can see everything… miles and miles of fields and sky. I found it actually quite beautiful, the way the sky meets the fields on the horizon.
This was my first time in Lethbridge and I was surprised that it has a huge ‘canyon’ separating one side to the other. It seems to be the area where the elevation starts to change. In Lethbridge, we had supper at the home of our nephew and his wife, where she made an extraordinary scrumptious meal. Our other nephew also switched his work shift to join us. We felt very blessed. After supper, we enjoyed a cooperative game of Scrabble - my favorite game and my favorite way to play. We used all the letters and only needed to make use of three two-letter French words and one two-letter Russian word. The entire evening was very enjoyable.
July 16 - Lethbridge to Calgary
Crossing the chasm in Lethbridge, I took a photo of classic slumping of a hillside. It could be used as a textbook photo. I also took a photo of the rail bridge that crosses the canyon as we were on the bridge crossing the same Old Man River through Lethbridge. It gives a little bit of perspective on the depth of the valley. The land on the way to Calgary to me was surprisingly flat, with a lot of irrigation and hay bales. We spent the better part of the day in Calgary at the Heritage Park which is located right in Calgary on 127 acres surrounded by a reservoir, boasting a 65-acre of Historic Village as well as a farm, fort and encampment. We walked about 11,000 steps exploring as much as our energy allowed, then, 4 hours later, retreated to our hotel room, exhausted. I then realized that I was so enthralled with it all that I had not taken many photos. Oh well, we’ll have to go back again on our next trip west. We did take some photos for the family like the one below where Norbert’s caption read: spot the Memere.
We met up with Norbert’s cousin and his wife from his dad’s side of the family as well as his cousin from his mother’s side. We all ate at a Lebanese restaurant called Aladdin’s. At first I was hesitant since I can’t handle spicy food well, and the only thing I recognized on the menu was a falafel, but the Albertans all assured me that it would not be spicy so Norbert’s cousin took care of the ordering and we had a great feast of new-to-me tastes. I am glad I trusted them and tried it.
July 14, 2025 - Winnipeg to Moose Jaw
Leaving Winnipeg at 6 am was, as we discovered, not necessary in order to arrive in Moose Jaw for 2 pm. It was a 6 hour drive not including stops for gas and coffee, but I had totally not remembered to account for the time difference that Manitoba has with Saskatchewan in the summer. Oh well, I am not a geography teacher anymore and glad of it. We arrived in Moose Jaw at around 12:30! I had booked all three Tunnels of Moose Jaw tours starting at 3 pm so we had about 2 hours to kill. We ate my pasta salad in the parking lot of Superstore and made several trips to various stores to buy what we had forgotten to pack and still had time. I had planned to take all kinds of photos and videos on the tunnels tour but, alas, it was forbidden. I can only divulge the information that is contained on the website. The Chicago Connection tour was all about the era of prohibition and Al Capone. It is a dramatized tour where we are treated as if we want to be bootleggers. The Passage to Fortune tour was in the era Chinese immigration to Canada and how they they lived and worked in the tunnels in laundries. The third tour was Bunker 24 about Moose Jaw and Canada in WWII and the Cold War. In this tour we were treated like new recruits to fight communism. All the tours were excellent! I learned a lot more about these eras and how life was for regular Canadians as well as immigrants. We then checked into our hotel and has the bar/restaurant to ourselves. The hotel was excellent.
