Granny and Grandpa
Uncle johny's site
Sheila's road trip notes
2007 Road Trip Notes
Tuesday, July 24th, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007 We got up at 6:30 and the kids at 7:00. We left the hotel at 7:39. It started raining as we were getting breakfast out of the Suburban. It was 63 degrees with grey clouds, white clouds, and blue sky. We had breakfast of muffins and donut holes. We took Highway 1 at 7:41 and entered the park at 7:46. It had stopped raining. We took Highway 1A at 8:02. In Canada, they call cattle guards Texas Gates. There is some sunshine. At 8:09 we saw our first elk. Ok, Grandpa spotted it first. It had big giant antlers. I think he might have what you would call a “big rack”. At 9:00 we saw our first black bear right beside the road. We reached Lake Louise at 9:11. It was 56 degrees and sunny with clouds. We took our 43 ˝ BB. The lake was very pretty and the sun was at times shining on the mountains. The top of the mountain was in the clouds. We left at 9:39 and had a pack of peanut butter and crackers for snack. We took Highway 1 at 9:49. We took Highway 93 at 9:50 to the ice fields. We stopped to look at Crowfoot Glacier at 10:20. It was 53 degrees and windy and cool. We crossed a river that was from a glacier. It was yuck. The water was a muddy brown. We stopped at 10:54 at a pit toilet for our 44 ˝ BB. We walked down and looked at the yuck glacier water. We left at 11:11. At 11:34 it started sprinkling. There were lots of grey clouds. At 11:43, we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls. It was just sprinkling. The fall was very pretty. At 11:54 it was raining again. It was 48 degrees with lots of grey clouds, but you could still see some blue sky. We stopped at the Columbia Ice Field’s and drove down close to the glacier. It was raining and cold and we did not get out. We saw a man peeing next to the parking area. We went to the visitor center for the 45 ˝ BB. Sarah and Granny looked for charms, but they did not have. We stopped in the parking lot and made peanut butter sandwiches and Tillamook cheese and crackers. We left at 1:02. It had stopped raining while we were in the visitor center. At 1:10 we saw a Caribou crossing sign. Zach did the caribou call: Caribouuuuuuuuuuuuu! At 1:30 we saw someone ridding a unicycle with a giant wheel. Sarah said maybe he was running away from the circus. We saw several emergency vehicles going southeast and we were going northwest. We stopped at Athabasca Falls at 2:15. We had to wait for another ambulance to pass before we could turn in to the parking lot. It was 60 degrees. We walked down to the falls. It was very pretty with lots and lots of fast moving yucky water. It was cool, especially by the water. We took pictures of the pit toilet we used for our 46 ˝ BB. We left at 2:58 and went back toward Canmore. At 3:11 we saw an ambulance going the other way. At 3:14 we saw another ambulance, both had lights flashing, but no sirens. We stopped at Sunwapta Falls. It was also a very pretty falls. The trail was very close to the falls. At 3:49 we were beginning to get into grey clouds and it started sprinkling. We passed the scene of an accident at 4:11. It looked like a car and a truck pulling a travel trailer were involved. We were able to drive around the accident and did not have to stop. At 4:44 we saw our second bear at this park. He/she was beside the road eating berries. We decided to go back on Highway 1A in case there were any animals out beside the road. We got on Highway 1A at 5:49. It was 69 degrees and sunny with some white clouds. We have had sunny, cloudy, rainy, cold, and cool weather. We returned to Highway 1 at 6:41. Granny saw a deer under the overpass as we were getting on Highway 1. We did not see any other animals on Highway 1A. We saw an unknown splash, a big splash in a lake. We left the park at 6:56. It was 76 degrees, sunny with light blue sky and big white fluffy clouds. We decided to go back to Boston Pizza, the best pizza in North America. We got there at 7:00. We had yummy pizza (The Meateor, lots of meat), Zach had a cheese pizza and Sarah had fettuccini. It was really good again. We left at 8:21 We dropped everyone off at the hotel and went to a Safeway to restock supplies. We found the Safeway and Ron dropped me off and went to get gas. You had to pay $.25 to get a shopping cart. I did not have an American quarter, much less a Canadian $.25. I just got a basket and thought that when Ron got back we would get a cart. He got back and helped me get the rest of our stuff. We just used the basket and did not get a shopping cart. We left the Safeway at 9:11 and went back to the hotel. We got to the hotel at 9:14. Ron found gas for a $1.09 a liter. We had been 528.9 miles. 3,384.2 total miles. He put 90.99 liters in the Suburban. It cost $100.00 American dollars, but it did not fill up the Suburban. That was the pump limit.