Since this is the third time we have driven across the prairies and the middle of Canada, it was done as quick as possible! With a one night stop in Oak Lake, Manitoba and then one night in Swift Current, Saskatchewan we arrived the next day in Lethbridge, Alberta.
We spent 2 nights in Lethbridge and had part 2 of our Cuba reunion. We stopped here to visit Pat, who was on the same Cuba trip as Dave, Claire and Jenny. It was a short stop but a good one. We went for a nice hike in Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park that sits on the border of Alberta, Canada and Montana, USA. This park contains the greatest concentration of rock art on the North American Great Plains.
There are over 50 petroglyph sites and thousands of works. The sandstone outcrops in the park belong to the Milk River Formation, which was deposited along the edge of a large inland sea about 84 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period. Meltwater from the retreating glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age carved the present Milk River valley, and water, ice and wind eroded the sandstone to produce the hoodoos and cliffs that are part of the park today.
At one point there was a small rattle snake absorbing some the late season heat from the sun in the middle of the path. That evening we enjoyed the play, Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story at the local theatre. It was a long and wonderful day and it was great catching up with Pat!
Arriving at the KOA in St. Eugene just outside Cranbrook, BC for the night meant that in 5 days we have seen 5 provinces and drove 1800kms!!! This was just a one night stop as we continued deeper into the Rocky Mountains, over the Kootenay Pass and into Castlegar.
Here we were staying for 2 nights at the Kootenay River RV Park nestled along the Kootenay River, a quaint little adult only RV Park that is an old drive in theatre, so cool! Rain had moved so the 2 days were mostly rained out, but we did manage a nice little hike along the river during a break in the weather. No bears were spotted, but we did come across some fresh bear tracks in the sand along the banks.
Since the drive into the Okanogan Valley did not take all day, we decided to drive up to Holiday Hills RV Park in Penticton and visit with Dave and Sue for a couple hours in the afternoon.
We arrived in Cawston at the winery where we were spending the night just in time to do a tasting and get some cider! Other then more rain the drive was nice and uneventful.
One last drive over the final mountain pass before we hit the Fraser Valley where we made it to Peace Arch RV Park, which is to be home for the next month. We had finished another ( and hopefully last, for a while ) drive out West!!
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