OK, after some very relaxing baths in Ainsworth Hot Springs, we loaded our car and went back along Kootenay Lake to Balfour, where we wanted to catch the Kootenay Lake Ferry to Kootenay Bay. This is the longest free ferry ride in the world (according wikipedia). Sadly, we were quite bad in reading the schedule, and swapped the departure times from Balfour and Kootenay Bay. So we were very early, which gave us time for a nice breakfast.
After some waiting time, we boarded the ferry and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.
About 40 minutes later, we arrived in Balfour and drove along the lake towards Creston. A beautiful drive and, when we are able to convince our bosses that our physical presence at work is not necessary, a place that we can imagine ourself to be for quite some time. The sunny weather helped just a little bit ...
In Creston, we went along the Crowsnest Highway till Cranbrook, where we interject our drive to Calgary for a night in a very basic motel (but with, surprisingly, a german women running it) and to visit the Cranbrook Canadian Museum of Rail Travel.
The museum itself consists of many cars in different states of restauration. The cars include the Soo-Spokane Train Deluxe from 1907 or the Trans-Canada Limited from 1929.
A detail, which I found interesting, is the work needed to restaurate the cars. Most of the cars were turned in something else - mostly "normal" CN cars with a very ugly grey-blue colour. It takes several months to carfully scrape the newer paint off and get to the wooden interior from the beginning of the last century.
A lot of work, since most of the cars are not finished. A lot of work still to do.
Also part of the exhibition is the Royal Alexandra Hall which gave us an idea about, what train travel used to be like.
Very interesting, although it focused a lot on the very old trains and did not cover any of the "newer" cars or locomotives. But for a train buff like me, it was very interesting.
The rest of the night was uninteresting as Cranbrook is a very dead town. We needed quite some time to find an open restaurant. Not much entertainment in Cranbrook ...
The next morning we drove to Calgary with a couple of stops along the way. The first stop was at the border between British Columbia and Alberta at a tourist information to ask for some ideas along the way.
First touristy stop was Franks Slide - an enormous rockslide that buried part of the mining town of Frank on the morning of April 29, 1903 under 90 million tons of rock. Very impressive.
Here a panorama shot, click on it to see it in full. The rocks went as far as the trees on the left.
276_Franks_Slide von
derSatan auf Flickr
The next stop was at the Lundbreck Falls, nice falls, where one can actually get almost to the falls.
The scenery changed from "mountains" to "flat land", a reminder that we now really arrived in Alberta.
From there we went to the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a place used for 5.500 years to kill buffalo by driving them off the 11 m high cliff. A "must-see", if you are nearby!
The museum tells the story of the natives and their way of living. The name origins in the legend, that a young guy wanted to watch the buffalos falling off the cliff from below, but was buried underneath the falling buffalo. He was later found dead under the pile of carcasses, where he had his head smashed in - hence the name. May be the first entry in the "Darwin Award", if you ask me ...
Two hours (and two Buffalo burger - when in Rome, eat Rome ... or something like that) later, we were on our way to Calgary. One advantage of the flat land is, that you are able to see the weather far ahead. So we were able to drive around it.
And since we had some time, we detoured a bit to satisfy the Star Trak fanatic in me.
Yes - we went to Vulcan! Well, the one on earth ...
Funny little town that makes the most of its name. The Enterprise-shaped tourist information is full of memorabilia and autographs from visiting actors.
Enough stuff to wait until the rain was over and we were ready to dive the last kilometers to Calgary.
We stayed in a suite at the Coast Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, which turned out as a good choice, because it was right next to the trans-Canada Highway and to the LRT Station. And the hotel bar had excellent nachos and some good ales (Stanlay Park) - not the worst way to end this long dive that day.
