Day 2: to Calgary
Road trip log for 2011/08/10.
Stayed at the Three Valley Lake Chateau last night, for the first time. It’s not bad. I got a fourth-floor room with a view of the lake. Here’s a panorama of the view from my balcony:
The room was small but adequate. It was pretty hot; I could get a nice breeze going through by leaving both doors open, but obviously that couldn’t go on all night – I also had to close the balcony door because there was too much noise from the highway otherwise. Fortunately the room included a floor fan so I left that running all night.
Could have slept better but I felt OK during the day.
There’s a “Ghost Town” tourist trap attached to the resort that I had always wondered about in passing. Decided to have a look this morning since it was half price for guests. It’s actually worthwhile – I only spent an hour photographing stuff quickly, but I could spend a whole afternoon there. It’s basically an enormous antique collection, including stuff up to train cars, amassed by the founders of the resort. It covers 4 acres and includes 14 buildings.
Stopped at Revelstoke for breakfast, but my favourite breakfast place, Main Street Cafe, was closed today. Had to settle for a crappy sandwich from Timmy’s.
Stopped for a walk at the Giant Cedars boardwalk, and was shocked to discover that my memories of it are in error – the Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island is actually much more impressive.
Stopped for lunch at the Natural Bridge park near Field – basically a waterfall that flows under a rock bridge – nothing spectacular but a popular curiosity.
Lots of road construction between Golden and Banff – I’m pleased that they seem to be working of fixing that scary dangerous section just east of Golden. My dash-cam caught some young bighorn sheep beside the road on that section – a common sight there. view full size and look by the telephone pole:
Also stopped at the Spiral Tunnels to do some rephotography. Here are two old pictures of me there. The left is, I think, from when I was 12 (I was a much better dresser back then, I’m sure you’ll agree). The right was from my early 20s I think.
There was nobody with me this time to properly repro the photo, so instead I did the other kind of rephotography: picture-in-picture:
For those who don’t know, Spiral Tunnels is just that – a pair of spiral train tunnels that help trains negotiate a difficult pass. There is a viewing area where you can often see the same train going in and coming out of a tunnel at once, crossing over itself in the process. The novelty wore off after the first visit though.
Lots of construction delays up to Banff, and heavy rains in that area too, but after that an uneventful drive into Calgary.
I took about 400 pictures today but haven’t had time to go through them. Will perhaps post some another time.
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