ALBERTA, CANADA 2023

Sheep River Hikes: 25 km west of Turner Valley along Hwy. 546 runs the Sheep River, in the foothills of the Rockies. Along the road there are many nice places to get out and do little hikes, like Big Horn and Sheep Falls. The short trail at the end of the road at Junction Creek along the river was particularly beautiful!

Kananaskis Lakes: This was a beautiful drive along Hwy 40 to Peter Laugheed PP ad the Kananaskis Lakes. We spent a fair bit of time at Upper lake where I did a nice hike to the peninsula, getting views from its other side, from a beautiful, rocky beach. We stopped at the information center on the way back where we saw very cute prairie dogs running around.

Royal Tyrrell Museum: The museum, in Drumheller, is a must see for anyone interested in dinosaurs and fossil in general. There are tons of amazing dinosaur fossils that were found locally, and casts of several very important skeletons found in the US. I have learned a few things while there and was probably most impressed by the "Black Beauty", a black T-Rex skeleton found in Alberta. There are some fossils that you can touch. The place is large (took good 2h to go through) and wasn't very crowded when we visited. It's sure worth the $20 to get in (although I have later learned that it used to be free when it was built, a gift to the Province...).

Horse Thief Canyon: Only about 10min away (north-west) of the Royal Tyrrell Museum is the little-known Horse Thief Canyon. This is a great place to stop by to check out some pretty colours and do some hiking. You can get into the canyon to explore it. I was amazed to find cacti growing there! I guess they like the winter snow after all... It would be amazing to spend more time here and do some fossil hunting.

The Hoodoos: Another amazing place about 15min East of the Royal Tyrrell Museum are the Drumheller Hoodoos. This place was just amazing with all the colourful layers of rocks like in the Horse Thief canyon above, but more sculpted by the elements. I spent a fair bit of time exploring this site and got many great shots with the beautiful blue sky.

Athabasca River and Hwy 93: We drove along this beautiful road on our way to our cottage. Our first quick stop was at Lake Minnewanka, followed by a great hike along the Silverhorn Creek (loved the wooden bridge there!) that flows into Waterfoul Lake - the campground was still closed to the place was not busy at all but I imagine it would be once they open it up for the summer... After passing by the Columbia Icefiled, I was very glad to see the beautiful Athabasca River and hike around the waterfalls.

The Cottage: After a quick stop at Hinton to get some gas and beer, we headed west on Hwy 40 and then south for at least half an hour on a gravel road that goes to Rock Lake. We stayed at a great cabin in the mountains which was surrounded by fields that the elks seemed to frequent! I counted 35 at one time. I got to sleep outside with them in a tent as the cabin was a bit too small for all of us.

Heading Home: On our way home we took a different rout a couple of times, one being through Kakabeka Falls as we stayed outside of Fort Frances. The waterfalls were nicer than I expected and worth stopping by. The following night we stayed in Wawa and woke up to a beautiful foggy day. The last three pics are from a rocky beach we found on the north shore of Huron on Hwy 538 in Algoma Mills.