I will do my best to recreate our trip for you over the next two weeks. We landed in Calgary last night. So today we stocked up on essentials at Safeway and Mountain Equipment Co-Op after a quick trip to the Calgary Zoo. Now you might think why stop at the zoo, just head to the mountains and see the animals in their proper habitat. Well I have two reasons...one...there is no guarantee in nature...two...I am married to a zookeeper so visiting any city means stopping at the zoo.
So here are two animals we hope to see elsewhere on this trip, a big horn sheep and a mountain goat.
I'm pretty sure that Canada doesn't have any bison herds in the wild anymore. But there is a Bison Paddock at Waterton Lakes we plan on visiting.
The temperature in Calgary today was a near record high of 29 degrees Celsius. This elephant kept dusting herself to keep cool.
Now that is a face only a mother could love. I'm pretty sure we won't run across a hippo while hiking in the Rockies...
...nor will we see any giraffes.
Like I said earlier, we stopped at the Bison Paddock near Waterton Lakes National Park...
...it is a huge fenced area that has a herd of bison so you can see how they once roamed by the millions in this area.
We checked into the Bayshore Inn in Waterton and took an evening stroll along Upper Waterton Lake. This is one of my favorite pictures of Chrissy who only decided to come on this trip yesterday at noon. Her father was recently diagnosed with leukemia and is still in the hospital. So Chrissy probably needed this trip as much as I did.
I didn't realize this until much later in the trip but Canada has a lot of very strange signs. This is the first one we saw while hiking along the lake. To a New Yorker this looks like a warning to be aware of deer that might mug you. I read later that many people think the local deer are docile and approach them only to find out that they are WILD ANIMALS. And wild animals will become aggressive if they feel endangered.
We hiked over to Cameron Falls on the edge of town...
...and found another funny sign showing a man falling off a cliff and right below it is a sign showing you which way to hike up that cliff.
That Cameron Falls picture is an awe inspiring example of plate tectonics. The way the rocks are just JUTTING our of the earth against each other to create that dizzying combination of angles. Great picture Gregg.
ReplyDeleteAdam, we saw tons of incredible examples of the force of nature that created the Rocky Mountains.
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