travel

The middle of nowhere

/ Greg / Leave a comment

When we left Banff National Park driving east into central Alberta, the sun was shining, the sky got bluer as the mountains receded, and my wife and I, while sad to leave the Rockies behind, were looking forward to a few days of serious down time at a cabin about twenty kilometres south of Rocky Mountain House. For all intents and purposes, we were going to the middle of nowhere to simply relax.

On a fortunate tip from a co-worker of my wife, we rented a gorgeous cabin at the Prairie Creek Inn that was the perfect mix of seclusion and luxurious comfort. For three nights this was our corner of the universe and both of us couldn’t have been happier with where we were.

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Looking back on 2020

/ Greg / Leave a comment

For the first time since 1992 I didn’t take a single flight in a calendar year. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and 2020 has me looking ahead with excitement to eight hour layovers, canceled flights, middle seats at the back of the plane by the washrooms… seriously. Travel took a back seat this year, but with safety and my natural restlessness pushing me, I managed to have a few adventures “on the road” to keep my spirits high. In no particular order, here is a list of my favourite travel experiences from 2020 – a year of making the best of it.

(1) The smell of salt water – I hit the road for the 90 minute drive to Manitou Beach and shortly after arriving took a walk along the water’s edge. Standing at this point, the breeze in my face, I could smell salt water. I closed my eyes and it felt like I could be standing along the water in Halifax on a peaceful morning. In a turbulent year, it was a true moment of feeling centred.

Manitou Beach
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Journey as the destination

/ Greg / 2 Comments

Our last day in the mountains in Alberta marked the midway point of our short, late summer vacation. We only had loose plans for the day – check out of our Banff hotel, pick up coffees for the road, then explore the Icefields Parkway before heading east toward a cabin we had booked for the rest of our vacation near Rocky Mountain House. This would be my second time driving the parkway, and I don’t think this drive will ever fail to wow me.

Having already explored Lake Louise a couple of days earlier, we passed that by on the highway and headed straight for the parkway. The post Labour Day roads were fairly deserted, the Tim’s coffee was tasting good (obviously helped out by the scenery), and our driving day was off to a great start. It would be a day of a lot of pulling off the road, including this first stop where the highway is elevated above Bow Lake.

Icefields Parkway
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When Banff empties out

/ Greg / 1 Comment

Labour Day 2020 started out as a rainy day so our plans were fairly modest. My wife and I had a lovely breakfast just outside the Banff townsite and over huevos rancheros decided on a drive to Canmore to visit an independent bookstore – a decision that both provided us our first chance to see snow this season on the highway into town and also helped me get an early jump on my xmas shopping. After a lazy middle of the day at our hotel, I got a bit restless. The clouds cleared, the temperatures rose and the town of Banff emptied out as most people headed home for a return to jobs and for the start of the school year.

There aren’t many lovely summer-like days in this part of the world where you get the sights mostly to yourself, so I took the opportunity to head to Lake Minnewanka. I had no plans other than to simply spend some time at the edge of the water. No plans never looked so good!

Lake Minnewanka
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Making the most of it

/ Greg / 3 Comments

Our “big trip” in 2020 was in many respects not as big as previous years. The ongoing pandemic narrowed our travel radius to driving distance of home rather than flight distance. Luckily for us, there are some amazing sights to see if you entertain a few eight hour road trip days. We planned a week away in Alberta split between its mountains and its prairie, and for everything that 2020 has thrown at us, I think we engineered a pretty impressive and needed vacation away.

After driving from Saskatoon to Banff where we made our home for three nights, an ominous longer-range forecast offered a glimmer of hope that we pounced on for a driving exploration of the Rocky Mountains. We started from Banff early in the morning and made our first stop at Lake Louise. I had been here a couple of times before, once with my Dad and another time with my wife, but never with the lake unencumbered by snow and ice. There is a reason many, including me, consider this the most beautiful place in Canada.

Lake Louise
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Saskatchewan Summer: Sand Dunes

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Most people know the prairie stereotype of Saskatchewan and imagine farmers fields stretching to the horizon and beyond. There’s a lot of that here, but there is also a significant diversity of landscapes if you go looking for it. On a Friday vacation day in August, I took off on a road trip ninety minutes south of Saskatoon and headed for a hike on sand dunes in Douglas Provincial Park. You heard me correctly… sand dunes.

Before there could be sand dunes there was a hike from the trailhead through a typical prairie landscape.

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