Thanksgiving Weekend

I decided to pack up our trailer for the season a couple weeks ago, and reluctantly gave up on any further camping trips this year.  Perhaps in consolation, and somewhat on a whim, I booked a two-bedroom cabin at Castle Mountain for the Thanksgiving long weekend.  I booked off work a little early on Friday, and right after the girls got out of school, we hit the road.  It was getting dark as we bypassed Calgary and headed west on the Trans Canada for Banff.  By the time we got to the Canmore area, we ran into some light showers.  A quick stop for some take out food and we were on our way again.  We arrived at Castle Mountain around 9:00PM.  We eventually got the girls settled down to bed, despite all the excitement.  The next morning, after sleeping in a bit and some breakfast, we headed out on a day trip.  After a couple of stops at Baker Creek and along the Bow Valley Parkway we eventually decided to cross over the divide into British Columbia and see if the Yoho Valley Road was still open for the season.  We were pleased to find that it was, so we made the drive up the valley to Takkawkaw falls.  We wandered around there for a while, and stopped briefly along the Kicking Horse River before eventually heading back to Banff.  Back in Banff we wandered along Main Street back in town for a while and eventually went out for dinner.

The next morning was Thanksgiving Sunday.  We slept in... eventually getting up to make a big breakfast of bacon and eggs.  We had already decided that this day was going to be spent hanging around our rented cabin.  Hailey and I wandered down to the Bow River in the afternoon so that I could take some photographs of Castle Mountain with my view camera.  The cabins are situated mere yards from the CPR main line and we quickly remembered that freight trains rumble by about every half hour, all day and all night.  Eventually we became immune to the train whistles and the clatter of freight cars.  The girls thought it was great, and were excited to put out coins on the tracks to be flattened by the train wheels.  They never had to wait for long for a trail to roll by and the opportunity to go and retrieve their treasures.

We brought along a turkey and all the fixings for a big Thanksgiving feast.  We enjoyed the evening in our cabin together before eventually turning in, very full and content.  The next morning we had to pack up for that dreaded trip home.  The girls hoped to make one last visit to the resort hot tub only to find, to their dismay, that it was closed for weekly cleaning.  But they were in and out of it a number of times the day before so probably had their fill.  After packing up and checking out we hit the road, in the general direction of home.  This time we did not return the way that we had come.  Rather we headed north up the Icefields Parkway to Saskatchewan Crossing, and then east on the David Thompson Highway to Rocky Mountain House.  The weather had been cool but sunny for most of the weekend but this day was more overcast, with little spits of rain.  We stopped briefly at Bow Lake so that I could make a couple photographs with my view camera.  There was a brisk wind and the temperature was only up to about +4C, so we didn't stay that long.  We continued on up the parkway, passing by Waterfowl Lakes, and reminisced about the four days we had spent there in August.  Shortly after leaving Banff National Park we came upon a big Grizzly Bear on the side of the road.  She was fattening up on greens before the long nap to come.  We spent quite a while watching her and taking photographs from the truck as she seemed content to wander along and keep eating.  We made a couple of brief stops for breaks and to photograph the fall colors before eventually taking the side road up to Crescent Falls on the Bighorn River.  The girls really enjoyed this stop and had a lot of fun playing along the riverbank and collecting rocks.  As we left the high country and traveled east into the front ranges, the skies cleared and the temperature rose up into double digits.  By this time is was about 4:30PM and we still had a long drive back home.  We reluctantly piled back into the truck and hit the road.  A brief stop for something to eat in Rocky Mountain House and we carried on, eventually rolling in back home shortly before 9:00PM.  A very busy but enjoyable long weekend!