Gr@y & Blue Fall Road Trip 05

This was a day to stay in place and enjoy my surrounds. Grasslands is the only national park in Canada to preserve a mixed-grass prairie ecosystem with over 70 types of grasses and over 50 species of wildflowers. It preserves the native prairie. It is the only place in Canada where Black-tailed Prairie Dogs (below) exist in their native habitat.

I went for a morning walk up the hill behind the shelter. It was cold with overcast sky and lots of wind. At one point after trying to fly our one challenging pocket kite I decided to tie the tail on to the trailer so that I could align the kitchen out of the wind. In the picture below you can see one of the many holes to the Prairie Dog dens.

This was a day of seeing Bison (above bottom), White Tailed and Mule Deer in the same field, Coyote (below top), Ring-necked Pheasant, Northern Flicker, Horned Lark (below middle), Northern Harrier, Sharp-tailed Grouse (below bottom), Merlin, White Crowned Sparrow, and Burrowing Owl.

Gr@y & Blue Fall Road Trip 04

I arrived at Frenchman Valley Campground in Grasslands National Park, West Block at 7:30 pm - sundown was at 7:24 pm so I had about a half hour to get settled before dark .The site was open plains style where it was very easy to see every rig and tent in the area. Surprising to me the signage said that if you had no reservation you had to go into the overflow campsite which was proximal to the rest of the site and was closer in some ways to the very comfortable shelter with free wifi and electricity. Although my site had no power, probably had better wifi than the rest of the site at about half the rate because of their reservation/self registration system.

It was a cold windy rainy morning so I was less inclined to get going and left camp at noon. When I was in Lethbridge, Jonathan, had told me that although he loved the Grasslands area, finding regular gas that wasn't at a cardlock was an issue - southern Saskatchewan was diesel country. Armed with my GasBuddy app I was determined as I explored the Cypress Hills area to not get stuck without gas. I filled up in Shaunavon but also confirmed for GasBuddy that the Co-op in Bracken had regular gas about 67 km from Frenchman Valley.

 

Wildlife was around in the form of Pronghorn (above top), Mule Deer, Turkey Vultures (above middle), Western Meadowlark (above bottom), Northern Shovelers, Ferengous Hawk (below), and once in Grasslands many Sharp-tailed Grouse. The light quality was poor by the time I saw the Grouse.

Gr@y & Blue Fall Road Trip 03

Arrival at Elkwater found a great spot nearby with a view of the lake at Firerock Campground in Cypress Hills Provincial Park. The site had power which allows for charging the trailer battery but more importantly allows me to charge the computer so that I can edit photos. The site also has heated plumbed washrooms with showers - bonus! It is windy and overcast so it will be a cold night tonight.

This morning Dave and I went on a great walk from their place through the Sugarbowl and down to the Oldman River here in Lethbridge. Some of wildlife spotted were Downy Woodpecker (below top), Mouring Dove, Great Blue Heron, American Goldfinch, Eurasion Collared Dove, Cape May Warbler (below middle)

It would have been great to stay longer but I did get a chance to see Dave's carpentry shop - quite the enterprise.

Gr@y & Blue Fall Road Trip 02

I have arrived at Lethbridge running on empty to try to make it 0n time to the home of our good friends Dave and Johanne - we went to Yellowstone with them earlier this year on Gr@y & Blue's inaugural run. We had a great dinner with two of their children and one friend - of of their children is living with us in Victoria to go to first year university. Car Puppy (CP) returned the nalgene bottle to their oldest daughter.

This morning's road trip carried on along the Crowsnest Highway. Quite soon after leaving the campsite I was surprised to spot a group of Wild Turkey in a farmer's field. I originally thought this was just part of his livestock but soon realized these were not domestic and were free roaming. I had to double back for photos. I had a second sighting later on that morning before getting to the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Centre.

The stop at the centre was worthwhile as among other this I saw beaver, White Fronted Geese (above top), Double Crested Cormorants, Northern Harrier, Audubon's Warbler (above middle), Hooded Merganser juveniles, and a Common Yellowthroat (above bottom). Unfortunately the educational building will be closing its doors in the fall as they decided 5 years ago to not replace the building and cease its operation - I bought what is now a limited edition T-shirt.

Had an obligatory stop in Sparwood to photo CP with the world's largest truck and then carried on to Lethbridge.

Gr@y & Blue Fall Road Trip 01

I've arrived at Champion Lake Park near Fruitvale BC in the dark, it is hard to orient oneself at thid point in time. Not even sure where the washrooms are. I think I know but I don't feel like wandering around with a flashlight to find my way around. There are very few people here. Best just to tuck into bed and figure out things in the morning.

Wally is on a road trip with Car Puppy tagging along. Maggie will be joining the trip once we get to Toronto. Car Puppy (CP) is a Pound Puppy stuffy that has been in our cars since a young now 3 year 10 month old friend was 5 months old. CP keeps him company in the child seat of our car. CP started this saga when we found a nalgene bottle, belong to another friend of ours, left behind at the curbside. CP's mission is to return the bottle to its owner in Lethbridge. Wally's mission is to do some wild life viewing through to Quebec. Maggie and Wally will carry on together to also explore some Canadian shield canoeing and fall colours. Maggie equally if not more than helpfully got things prepped for this trip.

It was amazing going over the same roads that we went on when we rode our bikes from Regina to Victoria this year, finishing our three summer bicycle journey across Canada. Some pretty epic elevation gains. Caught 9am sailing this morning. Drove to Osoyoos for first long break at the Oxbow Nature Walk. The first sign of smoke from the BC Wildfires, after Princeton, made for an eerie landscape.

Gr@y & Blue Inaugural 08

After our camp breakfast, we repositioned from the Madison campground in Yellowstone to Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve in Idaho. We had a late camp lunch and then we went up to see the interpretive centre and learned about the early exploration of the craters and lava beds and then out to hike about 8Kms to see inside extinct cones and along patterns of lava flows.

 

 

We looked at maps in the evening as we would be going separate ways in the morning time, with the Reids moving south to Moab and Arches monuments and us going back towards Victoria. We will stay in the Tsawwaasen RV Park overnight and take the Sunday 7am ferry to the Island.

 

Gr@y & Blue Inaugural 07

5am rise. 5:45am commenced our return drive north to Lamar Valley. En route, just south of Mammoth Hot Spring and west of Bunsen Peak, we spotted and photographed 2 wolves.

Once at Lamar Valley, we saw a pack of 7. On our way back we saw another black bear (now 2) and three more coyote (one of which we had seen before). In Lamar Valley we also saw mountain goats, mountain sheep (male & female) and another grizzly bear.

Just before getting back to the campground, we saw another sow and 2yo cub, bringing out total grizzly bear sightings to 7! We had Lunch in Mammoth and we drove back to our Madison camp, stopping to see Obsidian Cliffs, and the Sheepeater Cliffs where we saw our first Yellow-bellied Marmot.

  

We also stopped at the boiling, gushing, steaming Norris Geyser Basin. For dinner, Johanne made delicious stuffed chicken breast, which we cooked over the fire in foil and enjoyed with quinoa and slaw. The day ended with fun fireside banter and stories with Reids.

 

 

Gr@y & Blue Inaugural 06

After a late start and poached eggs on toast, we went down to see the peaceful river by the camp site. We then drove to three sights that are en route between Madison campground and Old Faithful: Fountain Paint Pots, Grand Prismatic Spring (from Picture Hill) and another prismatic spring area, Biscuit Basin, which, in the 1950s exploded and sent biscuit shaped stones flying around.

 

There we saw the very beautiful Sapphire prismatic spring. We did some video tape to share, as it would be difficult to find enough words to describe the burping, steaming mud, and rainbow of coloured steam wafting from boiling pools.

Our super day of touring ended in West Yellowstone at an RV park that fairly charged us for just showers (there were none at the campsite) and Wifi (the campsite does not have Internet access), and then all cleaned up we went for dinner at Slippery Otter (for local fun). We didn't have a campfire as we arrived back at Madison camp quite late.