Jen’s Journal – September 15, 2019

Day 78: Townsite Campground, Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada

Sunny, windy and cool.

We are somewhat aimlessly working our way back to Seattle and Vancouver. We haven’t decided if we want to go West through Canada or the U .S.

Driving along scenic roads is fun, though. Friday we saw the world’s largest purple wooden spoon in East Glacier. Today we saw the world’s largest truck in Sparwood, BC and the world’s oldest stand of cottonwoods nearby.

There was a trail off the highway, where the trees were protected from development and fire by a river and train track. There were as many tree trunks laying on the ground as there were standing. And most of the standing ancients only had a limb or two left. Some trunks blocked the path and the roots caused Tom to trip twice.

No one else was using this mostly forgotten trail. I suppose cottonwoods don’t rank very high in the concerns of the world. But I like trees.

We also saw where the town of Frank, Alberta, was. In 1903 a chunk of limestone over one kilometre (we’re in Canada) wide fell from a high peak and broke up, sliding down over a coal mine, rails and homes, killing 70 people. The rocks are still in piles where they landed, except for where the road and train tracks were cleared. I found it interesting that hardly any plants or trees have sprung up in over 100 years.

Driving way down this road of potholes to find a free forest service campground, we got a little discouraged. Instead, we went to another campground run by the province, but didn’t want to pay the $35 Canadian, nor did we know how. They don’t take cards and we didn’t have any more cash.

We did, however, see a little rest stop where people spend the night and stayed there.

I found a huge load of wild blueberries there but couldn’t identify them from any website. They didn’t fit the description of any poisonous berries, so I tasted one. Very bitter with a seed. No wonder the bears haven’t eaten them yet.