Kinney Lake Trail

Up early this morning with a quick breakfast and then off to the Berg Lake Trailhead. What a delightful 4.5 km walk up to Kinney Lake! We walked along the rushing greenish Robson River full of glacial water melting from all the heat…it was 84 yesterday!

As you walk through the spruce, aspen, birch forest you get glimpses of Mt. Robson.

There are several side trails to the river and one really cool waterfall along the way.

It was actually an old road so walking was easy and you could really watch the forest for flowers and

mushrooms—hundreds of mushrooms!

The mosses were wonderful as well as the ferns.

Lots of wonderful geology!!

When we got to the Lake the trail split, one to the Picnic Area and the other up the trail to Berg Lake.
We took the Picnic one because it followed the lake and got some beautiful pictures of Mt. Robson & Mt. Resplendent.

There was a tiny island on one side of the lake with a few trees trying to survive.

Gorgeous trail.

The Lake was really high and there were several areas where we had to walk around water…
and on some logs and I slipped when I jumped—wet foot! Fortunately, I had just switched one of the lenses I was carrying to the right hand! That trail met up with the main one so didn’t have to make a return performance! We walked a little way up the trail above but it was very steep and you could only see trees so headed back down.

Awesome!

On the way back there were alot of butterflies "puddling" in the damp areas

as we walked through a wonderful cedar, hemlock forest.

Back to the campground for some lunch, some picture processing, charging of electronics and showers! As we started to head back to the Visitor’s Center for pictures the car wouldn’t start—dead battery. Seems computers really take a lot of battery to charge. There were some wonderful folks three campsites away that came right down with their jumper cables and had us going in no time! Decided it was time for the longer ride so headed to Valemount to charge the battery. There was an A&W there so we decided to eat out—great root beer! While there it poured and when we got back to the campground the tent was just a little wet so they must have had much less. Got the sleeping bags and stuff in the tent and brought in maps etc to plan for the next couple of days. A really delightful day!

Mt. Robson National Park

Sunday, Aug. 19 – Mt. Robson Provincial Park

Left early in the morning and headed west on the Yellowhead Highway toward BC. Another clear day and not very far out of the Campground that you would see gorgeous mountains and not long after that until they were all around! Drove to Hinton then

into Jasper. We made a brief stop at the visitor’s center and got some info for when we return with Gretchen then headed to Mt. Robson Provincial Park.

It was a beautiful drive.

The visitor’s center and campground are on the far side of the park and we kept wondering which mountain was Mt. Robson….highest point in the Canadian Rockies. When we made the turn going down the road I happened to look back and there it was without a doubt!

The Visitor’s Center is right in front of it.

It’s spectacular with it glaciers at the top!

The Mt. Robson Provincial Park was established in 1913 making it the second oldest park in B.C.’s park system. It was designated part of the Rocky Mountains World Heritage Site in 1990. We got some good pictures and then headed to find a campground.

We decided on the Park’s Robson River Campground, just a short drive from the Visitor’s Center in the park and it was ideal! We were a little confused as to how we registered so drove around and John asked a young guy and he said just go into any site that didn’t have a tag indicating there was someone there for the night and then someone would come by in the evening to collect the fee. He also mentioned that the best site was #10 so we headed over there and it was open…great site. We set up the tent and got a little organized and had lunch. We then took a short trail down to the river and after a little wandering

got a great view of the mountain and more pictures.

Drove up to Overlander Falls and took the short hike in--they were beautiful.

Down river too!!

Then back to the Visitor’s Center to see what was what and got some great info on the parks and then headed to the Café for ice cream—YUM!

Ice cream view...hard to beat!

Headed back to the campsite and we both had a rest while we waited for the sun to set so we could get mountain sunset pictures. But, we waited too long. Sunset and when the sun is off the mountain are two different things ;-(. However, we did find an interesting science happening—just as we got down to the river there was a tremendous temperature change. Felt quite good actually. There is an incredible amount of water rushing by. Dinner and then off to bed. Lots of beautiful mountains today!

Devonian Gardens, Hornbeck Creek Prov. Rec. Area

We’re heading for the hills today. It’s been very nice here. Broke camp and as we headed down Hwy 16 we saw---

some of the Wood Bison behind the fence—John got his picture. Then back to Edmonton and the search for the Devonian Gardens. We finally did have success but were about to give up when we happened to pass by the exit we needed. It was a very nice Botanical Garden, part of the University of Alberta. It’s 80 acres of cultivated gardens and 110 of natural area.

There was a beautiful Japanese garden.

The view from the tea house entrance.

One of about a dozen bonzai found in a shaded corner of the garden.

A gong for all to ring..it had a beautiful tone and resonance.

They also had a butterfly house that was nice, but too many plants and not very many butterflies (no bias there), and a lot of specialty areas, herbs, alpine, lilacs,

and a particularly nice trials area of the garden.

Very nice visit. Six different weddings going on there today at 6 different locations—all very beautiful. A quick stop at Costco for gas and a couple of items and then west on 16 toward the mountains. Very baren, particularly around Kamloops and parts of the afternoon ride kind of reminded of us Ft. Collins. We stopped for lunch at a rest stop and then for the night at oHornbeck Creek Provincial Recreation Area….a fishing creek. We were right beside the creek so had the wonderful sound of water all night. Nice travel day!

Wood Bison Trail

We did 16+km today on a lovely trail of soft grasses and mosquitoes in search of the famed Wood Bison! Tired feet and tired bodies! And we had a grand total mammal count of 2 squirrels that ran across the road in front of us. We seem to do much better car hunting than trail hunting!

The trail went through beautiful aspen groves – very high trees here. There were also birch and a few larch trees today. However, we did see some other interesting things.

Saw lots of these cute little tree frogs...

and these mushrooms.

Following the hike, we headed to the Golf Course Café for a beer and chatted with some nice folks who live in Japan. We headed back to the campground and John downloaded pictures and I tried to organize the travel info we had. Cleaned up and drove out to see if we could find any Wood Bison across the road toward the Ukrainian Village but alas, none. We also did one short road we hadn't been on yet. We saw both jackrabbits and bunnies so the wildlife count goes on! Back home and we tried to draw out bedtime until 9 but didn’t quite make it!! Very quiet tonight. One note for John W: The elk in the Smokies came from this park.

Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village

No rush to get to a campsite today so we had a more leisurely breakfast got things a little better organized before heading out this morning.

At the pond we saw this cute family through the morning fog.

There were a number of these huge single male bison feeding along the road...

and these trumpeter swans and signets were on one
of the lakes way back from the road.

Then on to the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village. East central Alberta used to be home to the largest settlement of Ukrainian pioneers in Canada. They have replicated houses and farmsteads of the Ukrainian pioneers in Alberta in 1892-1930. They have costumed role-players in the buildings actually living as they did then. This wagon was just going by as we were leaving the parking lot.

This sod house was one of the original dwellings.

One of the early barns.

This couple was about to sit down to a lunch of bulgar wheat and vegetables. They were delightful and answered all our questions about how they got there, about their family, about the crops etc.

We had a lunch of pyrogies, sausage, cucumber salad, stuffed cabbage rolls and borst. Very tasty and very Ukrainian!
John caught a picture of this church as we were heading out of the Village. The site was very interesting and well done. From there we went back to the Park and decided to take the Beaver Pond Trail, but no action there so headed back to the campground for a nap. After dinner we went back to the Lake to follow the Lake trail.
John got this great picture of a beaver coming on shore to dine on some reeds. We walked to the end of the trail and then came back to the car and then home to the tent and another quiet night.

Elk Island National Park

We had good flights to Edmonton to begin this new adventure in Canada! We got our luggage and caught a taxi to the Budget office in town. Got an upgrade and ended up with to Ford Flex that gives us a lot of room in the back for our stuff! We stopped at the Kmart that was just down the road to stock up on groceries and pick up some supplies we couldn't bring with us, then to the Outdoor store for fuel for the stove, the liquor store for a little wine and boxes to put the food in and then hit the road east to Elk Island National Park. It's only 30 miles east of Edmonton so it was a quick trip. The weather was perfect as we drove in the gate.
As we headed up the Parkway to the campground we saw a herd of Plains Bison. Caught this little guy nursing.
and this big guy just hanging out. He was HUGE! This Park is a protection area for the Plains Bison and the Wood Bison. There is a fence around the whole Park to keep predators out and the two breeds of bison separate. The Wood Bison are across the road in a separate section of the Park.

After we got camp set up we wandered up the road a short way to Lake Astotin.

Saw this Lesser Yellow Legs there.

On the road below our Campground is a small pond. We saw this Coot and baby feeding there.

As well as this beaver who had a very impressive lodge going on!

After dinner we headed back to the lake for Sunset. Nice end to a very long day but a great start to this adventure!