From Waterton to Winnipeg

After living in such a beautiful little spot in a valley (Fernie), you do get used to it. In the fall everything changes quickly, the feelings of a fresh start and new beginnings set in as the town lights up with fiery colours. Winter which usually forces people inside does the opposite. Everybody is outside enjoying the snow and air that hurts to breath sometimes. Of course, spring reminds you what sunshine feels like on your skin, all the wildflowers seem to come out of nowhere. All the trees come back to life, everything is alive. I got used to it all. Although, every time I leave, and particularly this time. I seemed to say goodbye with longing, not knowing the next time I get to experience all the things, you sometimes take for granted.  So as I drove through the Crowsnest Pass, I made sure I remembered to take time to smell the roses, take some photo’s of a drive that I have sped along more times that I can count. 

 A mini series of Ollie losing the odds game.( A betting man's game)  Not even an hour into the lake and ollie had to jump into some freezing waters.

 I have yet to learn this Mr. Mountains name, but he always catches my eye.

 Frank Slide. A sad story of a landslide that happened in the night that took out the whole town, minus an old man and a baby somehow. It happened a long time ago, but the vastness of it never ceases to amaze.

Where the prairies meet the mountains. 

What I leave behind though fuels me for what’s forward. My heart wants more than a little town can offer sometimes and adventure was calling my name. First stop, a spot so close to home but somehow, I have never had the pleasure of making, Waterton National Park. After all the amazing stories of what this park down in the little corner of Alberta had to offer, my expectations were way up. Boy oh boy did it ever deliver. The highlight was the much talked about Crypt Lake hike. You must pay a whopping $25 to take a 15-minute ferry ride to the other side of the lake. The cool part about that was you and about 100 people all ascend together, making it a unique experience as well as a bit less freaked out about bears. Buuuut A group still had a run in with a mama and some cubs. On your first class ferry ride they tell you that this hike was voted top 10 in National Geographic’s adventure hikes, and back in the 70’s was named Canada’s best hike.  It was an easier climb, that takes you past 4 waterfalls, a ladder to climb into a tunnel that you crawl through to the other side. A bolted wire to hang onto as you climb around a cliff face and up to the lake and top of the last waterfall head. The end view for me wasn’t the show stopper, it was the change of scenery that you see the higher you got. In the words of Miley cyrus, “It’s the climb.” When everything was said and done and we finished our 8hr hike, we jumped into the lake clothes and all. 

 All views you are pleasantly bombarded with on the way into the park.

 Red Rock Canyon and loop trail. Some of my favorite photos i have ever taken are here.

 

 All photos from the Crypt lake hike, the ones with me in them by yoshiko zenz-mccarthy. He would be so mad if i didnt copyright his work

We drove into the buffalo sanctuary and were much rewarded. \

Then it was back to the motherland, Saskatoon. Were I died of sickness and cried into my grandmother’s bread. Neither of those things happened but grandma cooked me and the Aussie blokes some beautiful meals and some of her nation famous homemade bread. Seriously her breads so good that her email is “hazelsyummybread@” I’m not going to put her full email or all my friends are going to email her for a loaf.  (Hi grandma and grandpa!) We got to see some great people, eat some finger licking soul food, went to the farmers markets on the wrong day, and the boys got lots of skating in.  We headed from there onto Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba. Where we stayed in my best friend Natalie’s (who was featured many a times in my South East Asia blog posts) family’s cute as a button baby pink cabin. Where we got to see the only of its kind Vans promo, they were giving away free white shoes and shirts that you got to tie dye anyway you want. Yoshi who had met the Vans rep earlier this year somehow sneaked his way in there and got to do a pair. From there we headed to Winnipeg and stayed in Birds Hill provincial park, and Camp Morton north of Gimli. Manitoba sometimes has a bad rep, but all these parks were beautiful, they had so much to offer for all sorts of people and different camping experiences. The main highlight for me was when we planned to wake up for sunrise in Camp Morton, our site was right off the beach and we knew the sunrise would be one for the books. It made us a bit tired and short for the first day touring around Winnipeg, but worth it just the same. Our second day we spent walking around The Forks and the different districts in Winnipeg, I loved the old architecture mixed in with the newer buildings, it brought me some nostalgia for Melbourne. Yosh and i also spent the rainy day in the Museum of Human Rights. It was special, i would recommend checking it out to anybody, and that you have a full day because everything seemed to draw us in. If we would have had a snack we could have been there all day.  

 The Gimli "seawall." Cool paintings that are still added on every year of the wharf of this "Icelandic" village.

Somehow the only photo i took in Winnipeg. I forgot to take the photos on my camera apparently, i honestly thought i had a ton. 

Now its time to see how long we get sucked into Ontario and spit out the other side, this was and continues to be the hardest province to research seeing that its just so damn big, we keep struggling to figure out where we want to go most! What a beautiful struggle it is to have.