Today we had an earlier start, waking at 6:30. We had a small bite to eat at the hotel before heading out. Since we didn’t have a Timmy’s close to the hotel, we drove to get our coffees and then pointed the car west.
We drove back through Fort Macleod, where we noticed a Subway with a drive-thru. Neither of us had ever seen one with a drive-thru, but while typing this blog I decided to research it and it turns out that there are several across Canada. I am pretty sure that my daughter, who used to work at Subway, is very glad that her restaurant didn’t have one.
We continued past the turnoff for Hwy 2 and Buffalo Jump, and on to Pincher Creek. There, we caught our first glimpse of mountains in almost a week.
We decided to stop at the Frank Slide to take some pictures. On our trip in 2010, it was so foggy that we could barely see the boulders piled on either side of the road. Thankfully it was much nicer today and I was able to get some good pictures. It was the deadliest landslide in Canadian history – killing between 70 and 90 people when over 82 million tonnes of limestone slide down Turtle Mountain within 100 seconds. The section of rock that broke off was 1,000m wide, 425m high and 150m deep travelled 112 km/h down the mountain and reached the opposing hills, burying the eastern side of Frank, the CPR rail line and the coal mine.
We carried on, over the Crowsnest Pass, and stopped for a picnic lunch at a rest area, just east of Cranbrook. Just west of Creston, on the Kootenay Pass, we drove through the Blaze Creek Fire. Although it was mainly just smoke that we saw, Mum said that she also saw some flames, close to the road. We were just thankful that the road wasn’t closed as it is still considered an active fire zone.
Other than a couple of construction zones with single-lane, alternating traffic, the rest of the day was fairly uneventful and we arrived at the hotel around four. We spent an hour or so relaxing at the hotel before going out to dinner.
We decided on the Lions Head Pub as it had Moules Frites (mussels and fries) – one of Mum’s favourites. When we got there and looked at the menu, we noticed that several things that we had seen on the menu (as per Trip Advisor) were no longer being offered. Thankfully, they still had PEI mussels – just served differently – and Mum was happy. I had a Lions Head Burger (with Swiss and blue cheese and bacon) and fries. This way, Mum was still able to have her “frites”. We also had Dilly Chips (deep-fried pickles) as an appy.
After dinner, we returned to the hotel and did our wiki-research before Mum turned in and I started my blog. Tomorrow, we are heading north through the Okanagon to Summerland.
Thank you for sharing our adventures and I will talk to you soon.
L
