In between the evenings spent exploring old hotels for the Beer Parlour Project, we went out for an afternoon hike near Frank Slide. Frank Slide is the largest rockslide that ever occurred in Canada, and in 90 seconds part of the town of Frank was wiped away, and the valley was clogged with millions of tons of rock. This occurred over a century ago, in the early 1900's. Some say that mining activity under Turtle Mountain triggered the slide, but the mine itself remained intact, so to me that theory seems unlikely. In any event, it is a spectacular site to visit.
We hiked up onto the edge of the slide at the east side. There was a nice view of the Crowsnest River, with Crowsnest Mountain in the background. Obviously a pathway had to be cleared back in the day, through all of the rock debris for the rail line and for the highway. This was clearly evident from our high vantage point.
It had been much drier in southern Alberta than it had back home in our neck of the woods. As a result the leaves were turning color a little earlier. Some of the aspens groves looked really nice against the clear blue sky.
We also saw a very large Mormom Cricket, with a body length of at least 1-1/2". He seemed very lethargic and was not at all bothered by us hovering closely over him. I suspect that these critters don't taste very good to birds otherwise it would have either evolved a flight instinct, or been eaten...?
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