Lions and Tigers and Bears

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Geo: 50.9343, -115.141

The three of us were up early -- still not adjusted to the time -- so I ran over to the airport to swap our one-way car rental from Montana for the minivan that would be home to the seven of us for the coming week. By the time I got back, everyone was up and we were off to the quintessential Canadian breakfast spot -- Denny's! It was David and the girls' first time at one, so I would deem the trip an immediate success from the get-go.

We wanted to at least see a little of Calgary proper before we left, so we visited the Calgary Tower. It was not far, traffic was very light, and it was a crystal-clear day. The tower has a "glass ledge" similar to the Sears Tower in Chicago, out onto which you can walk and look straight down. As you can see, some were braver than others. Still, it did give us a glimpse out to the mountains, to where we immediately headed. Leaving Calgary we encountered horrific traffic, which really surprised us. With such a short summer, they must have been trying to do all possible road construction during the months of July and August. After it cleared, though, traffic was never a problem again.

We headed out on the trans-Canada highway toward Banff, and turned south toward Kanaskis Country Provincial Park. Our wildlife sightings increased with our first up-close look at some bighorn sheep after a short stop for lunch. We went as far south as Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, before we turned around to head back north, toward Canmore and Banff. Rather than take the same road out of the park, we elected to take a "provincial road," which ended up being about 50 miles of wide gravel. There were few other cars on the road, but you could always tell they were in front or behind you from the huge plumes of dust they kicked up. Our hopes of seeing wildlife along this stretch, which was touted as good moose habitat, were low, but those fears were unsubstantiated. In fact, we saw more and a greater variety of wildlife along this stretch of road than any other during our trip, to include a wolverine (very rare to see), coyote, grey fox, moose, and a good-sized grizzly bear. None too shabby.

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