We have been back from SE Asia for quite sometime and I haven’t posted because well…we hit the ground running as soon as we landed….and its been a crazy whirlwind. We went to Nashville, bush camped on May long weekend, yachting on Island in BC with Logan, then Blind Bay, BC and Crimson Lake, AB. In between that, Todd’s oldest son got married and we had a couple small family get together’s for them and as per the norm, bus maintenance, cabin maintenance and driving to the city to pickup parts, visit family and friends in between all that oh and Stampede!
Next thing we knew, it was July and we were set to head out to Quonset Days in Seven Persons. AB. I will wait here for you, so you can click on that google link to see where it is ( Seven Persons, AB ) . Since we were headed down to “southern Alberta”, we thought it would be a good idea to also take advantage of other great locations before and after this event.
Our tour expanded to include 4 days in Drumheller prior too the music festival. Somehow with only a week’s notice, we were able to get the only power spot available at the Hoo Doo RV park, just south of town. If you have never been to the Badlands (Drumheller and area) we highly recommend it. Besides Dinosaurs, there is a lot of coal mining history with various cool pitstops, and you can take a driving tour that takes you across the Red Deer River on a free cable ferry! The bike riding trails are fantastic, the suspension bridge is pretty swingy, and the golf course was very walkable for the first 9 holes… we didn’t attempt the back 9.
We had great neighbors at the park from Ontario (Jerry and Judy) who were on their maiden voyage back home. Our last night we met a large group (20-ish) of snowbirds in the campground and they invited us over for happy hour. Turns out they are all from Alberta but met down in Mesa, AZ while snowbirding. It was lovely to meet them; we shared socials and bid them farewell and safe travels for the future.
As we headed out the next morning, it was a short 2 ½ hour trek to the Redcliff, AB municipal campground. Here we met up with 2 other friend couples that were attending Quonset Days with us. You may remember in last years blog ( Sittin-in-the-ditch ) we picked up a hitch hiker and he camped with us overnight at this location. We took and selfie and sent it to him with a cheer! It was an early departure from Redcliffe to get our convoy to the festival grounds by 10 am. Just like clockwork our entire camping party (3 buses, a skoolie and 3 trailers) arrived at the farm site at the same time, ready to check-in and form the bus stop huddle! ( Bus-stop-at-quonset-days.html ) We were here until Sunday and ready to enjoy the music, fun, family and friends. Didn’t expect it to be as hot as it was (33 C) but we survived and lived to talk about it. This event is so well run, and all proceeds go to ALS, this is a no brainer for us to attend on an annual basis. Here are a few pics: Drumheller-and-quonset-days-pics.html
As everyone packed up and headed out, we said our goodbyes and continued our Southern Alberta tour east towards Cypress Hills, SK. Since we were so far east, thought it would be a good idea to try out both sides of this Interprovincial park to see the differences. We had heard about this area for decades but for some reason neither of us had ever been. We started on the SK side first, since it was farther down the highway. Again, with about a week’s notice, we were able to get a spot at the campground which seemed so crazy that there was availability in the middle of summer. The campground and all the services within, were amazing! From the beach to the bike paths, hiking trails, drives to lookouts, the swimming pool, golf course and excessively large ice cream scoops, there is something for everyone in the family here. We enjoyed our 2 days and couldn’t believe it took us so long to get here. Before we left the area, a tour of the town of Maple Creek was recommended…a lot of history here. Believe it or not there are 2 museums, but we only toured the one and it was cool history about the area and immigrants who settled the land. A great toy store, candy shop and stuffy store to round out the walking tour before we headed for lunch at a local eatery.
The drive from Cypress Hills, SK to Cypress Hill, AB was 1.5 hours. The camping for the Alberta park side was in the town of Elkwater which is on the Elkwater lake. How we were able to get a camping spot, with power, on a lake in the middle of summer was mindblowing and the campground was never full the entire 3 days we were there. What a gem this place is. If you have never been, we highly recommend this location as well. We also decided to do the two historical self guided driving tours through the park. The first one was supposed to be a 60 km loop to Fort Walsh…but we made the mistake of following the Google instead of the government issued Cypress Hills park map and it took us a very convoluted way on all gravel roads, to our destination but we did see a flock of hawks on fence posts hunting ground animals – this was a highlight! Eventually we got to Fort Walsh, which in itself was a crazy trek for the last 15 km on pavement. This is a “living” Fort, so personnel were dressed in period clothing. The fort was from the 1870’s when the Northwest Mounted Police were bringing Canadian law to the west, as a result of the Cypress Hills Massacre: this was a violent attack in 1873, involving American wolf hunters, whisky traders, and a camp of Nakoda (Assiniboine) people in southwestern Saskatchewan. It resulted in the deaths of many Indigenous people and pushed Canada to create the police force. Who knew?!! Look at all the things we are learning on this southern Alberta tour. As we walked around, there was a guy dressed in NW police garb talking to a group of 3 men (including Todd) about the gun he was holding. For a fee of $25, you could shoot 3 rounds of blanks and asked us all if we had bought tickets. Todd didn’t want to shoot, the second guy had a ticket but the third guy wanted a ticket. In order to get a ticket, it had to be purchased at point of entry, way back at the start of the tour – so he needed a shuttle to get his ticket. At this point The NW Police dressed guy yelled at the top of his lungs to his fellow 1870’s dressed co-worker the following: “KEVIN! CALL THE SHUTTLE….WE HAVE ANOTHER SHOOTER” Definatly not something you hear everyday.
Our self-guided tour of Fort Walsh was soon over, and we headed back to the car so we could check out all the other sites, such as; Conglomerate Cliffs, Symons-Noble Cabin, Graburn Cairn, Police Point Slump and finally Reesor Lake. It was a 4 ½ hour tour of all things Cypress Hills and we enjoyed it all. The trek was almost entirely on gravel roads and the scenery was spectacular.
Day 2 driving tour was way shorter and maybe not as exciting; it included a meander through the rest of the campgrounds in the park to Tom Trott Forestry Museum, Horseshoe Canyon lookout and Head of the Mountain Viewpoint before trekking south and east to St. Margaret’s Church. Here is the picture evidence: Cypress-hills-pics.html
It was a fantastic 2-week tour through South Eastern Alberta. We learned, enjoyed, met other like minded people and had a great time!