Lake Louise, AB to Green Ford Provincial Park, AB – 156 Miles
(Sorry for the delay in getting the last four days posted. We finally found wi-fi at the Library in Pincher Creek, AB, just a few miles north of Waterton National Park.)
Driving east from Lake Louise you’re on Highway 1, the Trans-Canada Highway. This four-lane equivalent of the Interstate Highways in the U.S. is the primary road link from Canada’s east coast to the west coast. Because of our extensive Interstate system with its multiple major, limited-access highways linking our east and west coasts, it would be hard to say what the equivalent would be south of the border. I suppose the closest example would be U.S. 50, the main east-west highway across our country back in the pre-Interstate days.
The first town of note heading east from Lake Louise is Banff, home of the Olympics several years ago. This is a pseudo-Alpine ski town which I’m assuming might be on the level of Vail or perhaps even Aspen. It’s a beautiful location, set in the valley between the same range of peaks that run along the east side of the Icefield Parkway; in other words, massive uplifted blocks of layered sedimentary stone. The continental divide runs along the ridges on the west side of the Icefield Parkway, and these capture the bulk of the winter’s snow – the eastern peaks get their share for sure, but for the most part lack the year-round snow caps of the western range. They do get enough, however, to create some of North America’s finest ski slopes.
Just down the road from Banff is the town of Canmore, which looks like a smaller version of Banff. It impresses me as being like Beaver Creek is to Vail, or maybe Frisco is to Breckenridge. If anyone is planning a ski vacation to Banff, it may be worthwhile to compare costs for accommodations in the two towns.
East of Canmore you make the transition into foothills terrain, leaving the mountains behind. But as it turns out, not for long, in our case. Rather than continuing down the Trans-Canada to Calgary and back-tracking down the same route on which we traveled northward seven weeks ago, we left the four lane at Exit 118, which is Highway 40. This two-lane highway leads south through what’s known as “Kanananski Country.” Don’t ask me what that means, perhaps it’s an Indian name or word. The road swings back southwest for a few miles, once more into the foothills and then into the mountains again. This road winds through beautiful mountain terrain which almost, but not quite, rivals the Icefield Parkway. These mountains are just as steep, just as jagged as those we drove through for the past two days. But there’s something about the snow, the glaciers, and the lakes that make that particular roadway so special. The high point, elevation-wise, on this highway is Highgood Pass, which is just over 7200 feet. This is actually almost a thousand feet higher than the two passes on the Icefield Parkway, making it the new record elevation for our Alaska journey – at least until we get back into Colorado. Then our planned route will take us over the familiar 11K passes along I-70 or U.S. 40, depending on which route variation we opt for. At one point along this stretch of highway we were stopped by a small herd of ten Bighorn sheep sauntering down the middle of the road. The group consisted of all ewes and a couple of lambs. Then, a mile or so farther on, there was a single ewe, perhaps lost from the rest of the herd. Other than that, we saw plenty of free-range cattle along the sides of the road. This is ranch country, and the grazing allotments are separated by “Texas gates” across the road, with warning signs posted that you are approaching these strange, exotic highway barriers. Down in Texas we call them cattle guards.
After about 70 miles or so, the highway emerges from the mountains and winds through the foothills for a few more miles before the terrain transitions into rolling ranchland. Somewhere in this stretch the highway inexplicably changes its number from 40 to 541 – go figure.
We are now camped at a quiet little Provincial Campground called Green Ford, right beside the Highgood River. This clear stream originates up on the pass we crossed a few miles back. Right now there are a couple of fly fishermen wading in the river, hunting the elusive Dolly Varden trout which they say are the main inhabitants of this stream. We speculated on the name of the campground – was it because there was an old green Ford sitting out here by the river before the campground was established? Or was it was a ford (crossing) of the river here on land owned by a man named Green? It’s probably something else entirely, but it’s fun to speculate.
Tomorrow we continue to Waterton National Park, the Canadian twin to Glacier National Park. The two make up an International Peace Park, which I guess reflects our long-standing good relations with our neighbors to the north. From there we cross the border and are back in the U.S.A. for good (at least on this trip).
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