If I could describe this park in one word it would be "friendly". This has got to be the most friendly park anywhere, ever! 

When we pulled up to the office we were greeted by a somewhat shy but sweet girl named Mallory. She went out of her way to take the time to consult the park regulation books for us to see if she could get us the best deal she could, and we didn't even have to ask. She confirmed that since the RV was considered a shelter and we only had one other car that and there are allowed 3 shelters per site, we did not have to pay any extra fees for the car. 

Though the office was small it had a great selection of T-shirts, ice cream, toys, games and souvenirs. In addition to that they had something I have never seen anywhere else before.....you could borrow tackle and fishing rods here!  I am pretty sure that you could borrow kids toys like soccer balls and such as well, despite the fact that I didn't see a sign indicating this.  I saw a basket of used toys near by as well as a tricycle that stayed parked on the side of the road the whole time we were there so I am pretty sure they were there for lending out too. 

Mallory asked us if we wanted an electrical site don by the lake and she assigned us one that she thought we would like. Number 20.

It was a super spot too. There was a short trail off to the side of this particular site that led down to the edge of the lake. 

 This campsite came with it's own little private beach that was big enough for maybe two or three people. This site was almost perfect . Unfortunately the electrical outlets on this site were so far in the bush that our electrical cords for the RV would not reach. Wouldn't have been a problem for me since I use a tent anyways, but it was important to my daughter and my parents. So we ended up having to move to another site near by. 

Instead we chose campsite 21 which was directly across the road. My brother went back to the office to let them know that we had to change sites and why. Mallory said that was not a problem and that if we found that the electrical cords still didn't reach, she could contact a park administrator to see if they could get us an extension cord that we could borrow to make sure that we were able to hook up to the electrical outlets. I was very impressed that they would not only lend one to us if we needed it but that they would actually go out of their way to find one and bring it to us!  

This was the second park in two days that I came across that made a rake available to borrow if you needed one. It was hanging on the outside of the bathroom. 

The bathrooms looked like your typical Ontario camp ground bathrooms with the green roof on top. This made everything inside look green.  The two notable things that made this washroom different though was the extra safety bars available. As well, the flush mechanism was a foot pedal that you stepped on, much like the kind that you would find in a motor home. It was a good compromise between an outhouse type toilet and a regular flushing system. May not have been the prettiest to look at, but meh...it's camp. 

There are a lot of poplar trees around in the park and it was neat to see the leaf  imprints left in the cement of the bathroom floor.

The comfort station was a typical comfort station sitting on top of some nicely landscaped steps. 

Even the Pepsi machine to one side had a nice looking picture panel on it. It's just a shame that it was a Pepsi machine and not a Coke machine. But I guess you can't win them all. 

Once again, Fushimi Lake Park impressed me with it's friendly customer service. Posted to the door of the comfort station was a sign that invited you to go down to the office to purchase  coffee and hot chocolate in the morning that they have ready for you. Perfect for those campers who don't eat breakfast and don't want to pull out all their cooking gear or start a fire just to get their morning coffee. I know some of you out there know exactly what I am talking about. 

Behind the comfort station was a large field with a badminton net set up. 

I took the dog for a walk down the wide quiet roads to enjoy the nature and plant life that is found here. I didn't enjoy all the black flies (.....Wait ! What? Black Flies in August? They have usually died off by the end of June. What gives?)  and  mosquitoes but they were nearly non-existent once I got down to the beach. 

From time to time I would come across some moss covered pine trees that looked like they were prematurely getting ready for Christmas. 

I started off down by the dock where you can rent boats or go fishing off the dock. Or sit on one of the benches and watch others do the fishing. 

The boat rental office was nestled off to the side along the shore line. 

Next I walked down towards the beach and crossed a little board walk path to get to it. 

The path opened up to a nice sandy beach lined with benches and an occasional picnic table. 

The beach seemed to go on and on. I continued to walk it's length for awhile to see if there was anythng interesting down at the other end. 

There were some nice mossy trees to sit under. 

The hole in this tree had my curiosity. I wonder what lives in here? 

On the walk back from the beach to the campsite there were many flowers in bloom decorating the sides of the road. 

At one point I had to stop beside one campsite and stare in wonder. They had not one  TV satellite hooked up, but two. Really??? Who needs even one TV satellite on a camping trip, let alone two? They only had one RV on this site and no other tent or trailer.  Do they have one TV in each end of their RV or something? Maybe one inside and one outside? I just don't know......

I continued on and went back to looking at the plants and trees. 

It was sad to have to leave this park but at the same time it was good to be going home. This was a fantastic park to conclude our trip out west . I will make every effort to try to come back to this one again some time and try to spend more time on both of the two  hiking trails and at the beach. It's a little piece of northern Ontario heaven here.  

We drove all day right through Manitoba and into Ontario. As the sun was beginning to set, we arrived at Aaron Provincial Park. This is an adorable little park! 

And one of the first signs we saw is one that made us the happiest...."No excessive noise at any time". 
Hooray! We will be able to sleep tonight and enjoy the park!

It was after hours and there was no staff on site but we are starting to get used to this now. It was nice to be able to pick our own site instead of being assigned one. 

They had a Pepsi machine outside the office....I suppose we could forgive them this one little faux pas. Now if it were a Coke machine we would be all set.  :)  

There was a large reminder that we were in bear country. However, we didn't see any signs of any except on this sign. 

The roads were nice with trees everywhere. There weren't many people and it was quiet but it wasn't far from the high way so you could still hear some traffic. All in all though, it wasn't too bad and was a welcome change from the previous park we had been in. 

There were plenty of pretty plants and flowers all around. 

The camp sites were big and private and the whole place was spotless. 

We chose campsite 18 because it best fit the RV and tents. The electrical units were shared between two campsites a piece. If I had been here with just a tent and no RV  I would have chosen one of a couple of other sites - 35 (which is a prime spot down by the beach), 32,  or a real nice one is number 13 (which we almost chose but there was no electricity on it).

The bathrooms were small but clean. 

The most remarkable thing about the bathrooms was that their lights were on a timer. You just turned the knob to what you figured would be a reasonable amount of time you would need the light and then you could leave without thinking about it and it will turn itself off. Now that is a great idea and would be wonderful to see in other parks. 

Outside the bathroom was a huge tower. I am guessing that it was a cell tower of some sort because the cell phone reception here was quite good. If it's not that then I have no idea what the tower was for. 

Another interesting thing they had was a rake and shovel that you could borrow if you needed one.

This campground was super clean and had what looked to be brand new garbage bins and recycling bins nearby. 

The hiking trails are very woodsy and the mosquitoes were out in full force which was surprising considering there usually aren't so many in August. But then again we were in the thick woods of northern Ontario so it is probably not so uncommon the farther north  you go into the bush. 

To get to the beach you have to go down a flight of steps. 

But once you are down there it opens up into a nice sandy beach area and looks like a great place to swim. 

I didn't go in swimming myself but at least my dog can vouch for the water being nice to swim in, even if he did only go into the water on the outside of the bouy lines. 

Down by the beach is a huge sports field and a covered picnic area along with a playground set for the kids.The field is huge and this picture does not do it justice since there was a whole lot more to it behind me that you don't see from this camera angle.   

Even the change room down at the beach had a rake you could use if you needed one.  You definitely knew that this park was very well taken care of. It showed in every part of the park. 

We only got to stay one night here, but I would have gladly stayed more. It may not have all the extra activities that some fancier parks have like zip lining or horse back riding or such. But those things aren't really camping anyways. If you are looking for true blue camping then this place is a hidden gem that I would recommend to anyone. 

Oh Saskatchewan, we need to talk.... You did so well with Cypress Hills. But everything else is an utter failure. I am so disappointed in you. From entering restaurants and being told to seat ourselves at dirty tables, to having little to no service as you glue your faces to the Rough Riders game on TV and ignoring your customers. Everywhere we went was complete rudeness (except Cypress Hills) and this place was no different. 

It began at the gate. My parents were in the RV in front of us and got all the information from the attendant. I like to get a map and brochure from each Provincial Park I go to so that I can post them on this blog. So we rolled up next in line at the gate and asked for a map. The girl declined to give us a map and instead said (referring to my parents who were already driving away) "They already know everything you need to know, just follow them" Really?!?  Now how do you know what we need to know and what we don't.  Sure enough, we did NOT have all the information we needed. My parents were now far enough ahead of us that we couldn't see them anymore and we did not have enough cell signal to contact them by phone. So here we were driving around trying to figure out where to find them.  We figured that they would be at the visitor center waiting for us so when we saw the sign for it we pulled in there. 

They weren't there and the visitor center was closed. So I still didn't get my map or brochure. We did see an interesting posting about there being an Artist Colony on site though. I would have liked to have checked that out, but after this visit, I don't think I would come back just for that. 

Afraid we would lose my parents all together since we had no clue where to go now,  we jumped in the car again and started driving around hoping to bump into them somewhere. Luckily they had pulled over and waited along side of the road so we were able to catch up to them. 
  The first thing we noticed as we got closer to our site was just how crowded the campsites were. It wasn't that the place was packed, it was that the sites were so small that you couldn't even fit your vehicles on them and everyone was parked on the side of the road. That meant that the roads were narrower to drive down than they should have been and you had to be extra careful not to hit something or someone. 

We found our site, M50, and started setting up. However, the rudeness here continued. We were surrounded by at least 5 campsites and each one of them had their radios on playing the Rough Riders game. We are talking, full blast so that the entire park could hear it. It's bad enough when one camper is rude enough to do that, but when you get it surround sound from every other site it becomes aggravating.  Especially since our entire family doesn't even like sports.  It wasn't long before we were all grumbly and cursing at the other campers under our breath. If you want to listen to your sports then that's fine. At least have the common courtesy to put some ear phones on or keep it way way down to a whisper. Or better yet. stay home and watch the game and let those of us who want to camp be left to the peace and quiet that is supposed to be what camping is about. What is worse is that the park rangers never once told anyone to turn the radios down like they should have. 

While the adult campers sat around listening to their radios blaring, their kids were left unattended screaming at the top of their lungs (maybe they wouldn't have to be so loud if they didn't have to compete with the radios) and having water balloon fights. There were pieces of broken balloons everywhere that never got cleaned up after they were done, despite there being a giant garbage bin for them to put them in right outside the bathroom.  You couldn't miss it. It was big and red. 

They were filling up the balloons  at the near by bathroom, which was a rather unpleasant little building. The lights didn't work right and the doors didn't shut right. The doors were constantly left open by both the kids and adults alike, despite the sign on the door asking them to close it behind them. 

The bathroom itself was dirty and had signs written in marker on the door, a chipped mirror, and a counter that had seen much better days.

The floor looked like it had been through a flood and hadn't seen as much as a coat of paint let alone repair in over 50 years. It was dirty and ugly looking. I know bathrooms, especially ones in camp grounds, are not meant to be beautiful and win any awards, but I have seen many in my time and this one was one of the worst. 

Even the comfort station at the end of the road was dirty with toilet paper and stuff all over the floor. 

Even our campsite had garbage all over it. There was old papers and wrappers, some used sparklers, old dog doo doo, and partially eaten cobs of corn. These campers obviously have no respect for the environment, nor for other people. 

The corn could have attracted  large, pesky unwanted animals.  Luckily the only animal that came around to chow down on the corn was a little grey squirrel. Sadly it was way too noisy here to see much of anything else in the way of wildlife. 

Eventually the Rough Riders game ended. I was happy that the Rough Riders lost....serves the rude Saskatchewan people right.  We all thought "Yay! Now the radios will go off and maybe we can enjoy the rest of the evening". That was not to be. As soon as the game was over, next came the country music blaring away. This was even worse because not only are we not country music fans but each camper had a different station on and were playing different country songs. This made for a mish mash of horrible noise pollution. 
   I was hoping that by walking up the road it would be quiter further down. No dice though. It was every where. I also noticed something else that was every where..... Christmas lights. 

I've seen Christmas lights on one or two campsites before in other provinces, but this place was like one big Christmas light festival. Everyone had them. If I wasn't so angry and annoyed with these people I may have even thought them to be pretty. But at this point, the whole place was just like one big trailer trash block party that we couldn't escape. You couldn't even escape it by going to bed. The music kept us up most of the night and the next morning we were tired and cranky and happy to be leaving. 

The only respite we got was waking up earlier than the rest of the campground. We were still running on Ontario time so 6:30 am to them was about 8:30 am to us. And boy were we not quiet about getting up and packing up. We didn't whisper and we didn't tip toe around, that's for sure. 
    The quietness of the morning was the first time we could see the potential for what this park could have been. We could finally hear the birds in the trees. 

There was nothing much  to see in the way of animals, but there was some pretty plant life. 

There were nice little paved paths between some of the campsites and as I walked the dog down some of them I just soaked up the songs of the birds and enjoyed a brief moment of peacefulness. 

I even managed to snap a picture of a Red-Veined Darter dragonfly. 
    The moment was short lived though. By the time I got back to our site, the other campers in the park were starting to stir. And what was the first thing they did on this beautiful quiet morning?...... Turn on their radio. 

Time to go!  
But not before I got the chance to take a photo of another dragonfly. This time a female Red-Veined Darter  dragonfly (which are actually yellow in colour). 

Saskatchewan, as much as I am offended and annoyed by you, I am also sad for you. You are missing out on so much in this beautiful world, all for a stupid Rough Riders game. There's more to life. I really hope one day you all figure that out. 

Happy to leave this park and never to return, we set off on the road again to a much nicer destination.... Aaron Provincial Park in Ontario. 

It's a bit surprising when you are driving through the prairies and all of a sudden a lake seems to come up out of nowhere.  There were more of these than I would have imagined there would be along the way. 

Almost all of them had flocks of water fowl in them, like this American Coot.

Or these Green Teal ducks. 

Occasionally you would come across something interesting like an old abandoned building. I secretly hoped that when I took a picture of this I would see a ghost in the window or something. No such luck. Maybe next time. It still has some character though. 

So Saskatchewan we are giving you another chance today. We weren't so impressed with you the last time through, but here we are at Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park. Let's see what you've got. 

Well we aren't in bear country anymore. Now we have to be on the look out for Cougars! 

There were fire bans all over the west this year, with over 130 forest fires at one time in B.C. alone. Looks like Cypress Hills had a bit of a dry spell too and was keeping their newly layed sod watered with sprinklers . And keeping the guests off the grass surrounding the office  with orange tape.

The inside of the office felt like a crowded school office or something but that's OK we weren't here to see the office anyways. The table that the visitor sign in book was on was hand made and quite nice though. 

This park is quite large and spread out, so it took us a bit of a drive to get to the camp site area. Along the way we saw some deer. It was difficult to get a picture of them through the car window though and I was disappointed to find that my pictures of them turned out quite blurry. 

The more we drove around the more and more impressed I became with this place.  It was a little community, much like White Hawk Campground in Manitoba was, but this was different in that some people actually lived here and had houses along some of the road ways. It was a whole town right inside the park! As I mentioned, everything was very spread out here and you pretty much have to drive to everything. So the houses were pretty far from where the campsites were and you didn't even know they were there unless you left the campsite area and drove down to the beach. It may sound strange but the whole set up really worked very well and was far better than the White Hawk campground was. To start with it made sense that there would be snack bars here because people lived here. There was a cute little ice cream place called Dan's Little Dipper. 

There was a tiny little pizza place which seemed to be pretty popular. 

And in behind the pizza place was a little mini-putt. 

The park even had it's own gas station! 

There was much more but we didn't have time to check out everything right away. We needed to put our tents up. These were just some of the things we saw as we were driving to the camp site area. Finally we came to our campsite, number 65. 

The campsites were very large and there was plenty of space for us all on one site with room to spare. 

The trees here are very tall, much like those in BC. However, these trees are very spaced out with hardly any low growing branches or under brush which gave it a unique look compared to other campsites. It was quite pretty. 

Since there are no low growing branches it is very easy to see through the trees. Normally this might be a problem if you want privacy from the neighbouring campers. But it was no problem here because the campsites were positioned around a hill and the most you could see of the campers across the way (not including your direct neighbours to the right or left of you) was maybe the top of the roof of their RV through the trees. .

This was a squirrels paradise and you could hear them chattering happily away, above your head. Once in awhile you could make out a squirrel's nest way up high if you looked real close. 

It was so peaceful here. I loved it! You could easily hear the birds and sometimes they would come close enough to see what kind they were, like this little Nuthatch that came for a visit. 

Even the fire pit was unique. The grill could be swung away easily from the top of the fire to allow for more room for wood, and then swung back again if you wanted 

The bathrooms were tiny in that they didn't have stalls and only one person at a time could use them. (Which if you have a lot of people around could result in line ups). However, even the bathrooms were pleasantly surprising....

Not only were they flush toilets, but they were lo-flow dual flush! So you push one of two buttons on the top of the lid depending on how much water you wanted to use. I have never seen such nice flush toilets in campground bathrooms that weren't in a comfort station. This campground was classy!

Apparently they had a "dual" theme happening in the bathroom because pretty much everything came in twos in there.  

In the evening there were a couple of street lamps that would come on so that you could see your way to the bathroom. They weren't bright enough to be intrusive or bother your sleep. It was just enough so that you weren't tripping over your own feet to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

We spent the rest of the evening sitting around the campfire and enjoying the night sky before we headed off to bed. 

The next day we had a wee bit more time to look around the park but not as much as I would have liked. 
While we were busy packing up we were able to take a bit of time to enjoy the nature around us. My daughter found this little inchworm hanging out on my tent.  I love  inchworms. They are so interesting to watch. 

There is soooo much to do here and I could have happily spent many days here. The day before we had considered going horse back riding, but we just weren't up to it so we didn't go. 

There were nice paved paths lined with garden lights that led up to a nice little amphitheatre. 

The amphitheatre had a log cabin look to it and fit the woodsy feel. 

This place has everything.. It has a tennis court. 

It has an observatory (which we didn't see because we didn't know it was there until we were leaving).

It has zip lines!!! Again, I would have went but didn't know they were there until we had to leave. 

There was a beautiful looking pool.

Down by the pool was a little pub where you could sit out on the patio and have a drink.

The patio over looked the lake which featured a little gazebo you could go and sit in. 

They though of everything here. They even provide free doggie doo bags that are dispensed from a container mounted on the side of the wall of some of the buildings. 

There was a place to rent paddle boats and canoes.

You had to drive up the road from the pub to get to the beach.  The beach was well kept and had recently been combed. 

The beach had play structures for the little kids. 

And it had a couple of these riding , bouncy toys to sit on. 

There was this thing near by which I am presuming is an outdoor shower to wash your feet off maybe? Not quite sure what this was. 

Looking out over the lake we saw a couple of red throated loons. 

I love this park so much! It was one of my favourite parks on the whole trip! The road to the beach is one way and circles around the small lake. So we were able to see some of the houses that were along the road. Some of them were for sale. Who knows, maybe  I will come and buy a house and live here one day. A person can dream, right? 

Dinosaur Provincial Park was something we were all excited to see. My parents had been there before many years ago and were excited to show it to us and we were just as excited to visit it. As my mother said, you are just driving along the flat prairies when all of a sudden the ground opens up and there is a giant gorge of hoo doos at your feet.

 So many times along the way I sang the song from the movie Labyrinth in my head " You remind me of the babe. The babe with the power. The power of voodoo. Hoo Doo? You do! Remind me of the babe". .... OK, yes, I know....I am a bit weird. .

 As we got nearer to Dinosaur Provincial Park we started to see signs pointing the way. 

Even better than the signs though, were the painted dinosaur tracks on the road showing us the way  each time we came to an intersection. 

Finally the sign we were looking for came into view. We were here! Dinosaur Provincial Park!

We got out of the cramped car and out into a wide open prairie of grass. Off in the distance you could just make out the edge of the gorge of hoodoos. 

And what a beautiful gorge it is. The hoodoos here are are beautiful to look at and far surpass the beauty of the ones in Drumheller. 

Standing on the edge of the cliff and looking down at everything  just took my breath away. 

Way down below you could make out the tiny shapes of some people the size of ants that were walking the trails down below. 

Next we headed over to the visitor center to get maps of the park and to use the much needed bathroom. 

Inside the visitor center was a gift shop and a little mini museum area. I did n't realize that you were supposed to pay to get in to the museum section so I ended up wandering in for about a minute or so and taking a picture or two before my family told me what I had done. Ooopps!  I got out again real quick.  I had only gone a few steps inside but it looked like it might be worth while paying and  going through on a future visit. We didn't end up doing that this trip though.  

Parked outside the visitor center was about 3 or 4 tour buses that you could take at certain times of the day. 

Just along the edge of the parking lot there is a covered bench with a dinosaur sitting on the roof. It looked like it belonged there with the hilly hoodoos looming in the background.  You could almost picture in your mind what it would have been like to see dinosaurs roaming around here so many years ago. 

We headed on down to the park office to see about getting a campsite for the night. The office was a little unusual in that the registration office was just a little walk up window on the side of a building that contained a convenience store inside. 

You could tell that there is not a lot of wood here for fires because it seems that they have to have their wood shipped in from other places. 

We were crushed to find out that the park was completely booked. Once again we had come on a Friday with no reservations. So we decided that at least we would spend most of the day here and enjoy what we could of the trails and see the displays. First though, it was time for lunch and we sought out the picnic area. There were plenty of picnic tables to choose from.

We chose a spot right near the "Comfort Camping" section.  This was a first for me. I have never seen a provincial park with "comfort camping "before. 

I imagine comfort camping to be cabins or a cozy RV or something. But apparently comfort camping is sleeping in large canvas tents that are roughly 12 x 14 maybe and have a wood and shingled roof built above them. Naturally, they are located right beside the comfort station washrooms. 

The only thing we were finding uncomfortable though were some teeny tiny mosquitoes. They were like little baby mosquitoes or something. Just because they were small didn't make them any less annoying though. 

I figure they were so small because there wasn't a whole lot of habitat for them. Aside from a really  muddy creek the only water that seemed to be available to them were only large puddles in the grass for them to hatch in or a bit of a wetland area over on the other side of the park that one of the trails ran through. 

Aside from mosquitoes there were a couple other interesting insects such as this Box Elder beetle nymph. 

And what ever insect may have been living in this deformed leaf at some point. There were a bunch of these deformed leaves all over the park.  Of course I had to poke at one with a stick. There was nothing but dirt or dead vegetation inside.

Naturally where there are insects you will find birds and there were plenty of those around too.  The Northern Red Shafted Flicker was the bird most commonly seen that day . 

While I waited for the others to finish eating I wandered over the bridge to the campsite area to get an idea of what it would have been like if we had been able to spend the night here. 

It actually would have been quite nice. Despite the fact that there aren't a ton of trees, there were enough to keep that camp feeling and to feel that you aren't crowded in next to your neighbours. And if you were lucky enough to get one of the campsites along the edge of the park you were treated to a nice view of the hoodoos. 

They had some neat fire pits that functioned as both a cooking fire pit and a regular fire pit. All you had to do was flip the grill over.

There were plenty of washrooms near by that were clean and presentable. They weren't flush toilets but they did have plenty of safety bars for the elderly and disabled. 

There was even a playground area for the kids. It was a little plain jane in colour but it seemed sufficient enough to keep the kids happy. 

There was also an interesting looking cabin that you could see and read about for those interested in a little bit of history other than the history of dinosaurs. 

The tiny cabin belonged to John Ware who was an African-American cowboy best remembered for his exceptional horsemanship skills and ability to train horses as well as for bringing the first cattle to southern Alberta in 1882, helping to create that province's important ranching industry.

Dinosaur Provincial Park has plenty of interesting things to do throughout the day if you are lucky enough to get a spot. There is everything from Guided Excavations, to Family theater programs, to lab programs , to Guided hikes and tour buses.

 There is absolutely no removing or disturbing of fossils from the park since it is illegal to do so.  I over heard one of the staff members tell a guest that about 80 percent of the park is  off limits to the guests except by guided tours because the park is actually a preservation site. 

There are different kinds of hikes at the park. You can either walk them or you can tour them in a vehicle. You can even take a bicycle through them and they provide a bike rack for you. 

Since we did not have as much time as we would have liked any more, we decided to take one of the trails that you can drive your car through.  

Being down in the hoodoos has a different feeling than being up above looking down on them. You can see the caves better and the different carved out shapes up close. 

Even the colours are different when you are up close to them. Everywhere you look you see God's artwork. 

There are two pavilions on the trail that house dinosaur bone displays. The interesting thing about one of them is that the bones inside are lying exactly where they were discovered, Instead of moving the bones to a museum they built the pavilion right over top of them so you can see exactly where and how they were found. 

One thing you have to be careful of when you are walking is not to step on a cactus because they can be hidden in the grasses and some of them are able to puncture right through a shoe. I didn't even know Canada had cactus until I went on this trip.  Signs within the park also warn of things like rattle snakes, black widow spiders and scorpions. Another thing I didn't know we had in Canada...scorpions!  Apparently the black widows and scorpions mainly stay in the caves and under ground, but you still had to watch out for them. Kind of scary. 

Since we had to continue on to a new campground, we sadly  cut our visit to Dinosaur Park short. We made one more stop to the visitor center to stock up on souvenirs and then headed off to Saskatchewan's lovely Cypress Hills Provincial Park. 

Excited to be on our way to the badlands, we watched out the car window as the mountains got smaller and started to fade into the back ground. 

Occasionally we would have to go through some tunnels in the mountain side. These tunnels were not like ones you may picture in your head. These had slated sides that allowed light to come through so that you could see where you were going. I imagine these tunnels are built to protect portions of the road from snow and avalanches in the winter time. 

Along the way we stopped at a rest stop to gas up and take a break. The line ups for the bathrooms were very long but at least there was a Tim Hortons near by and a bench with some bear statues to look at while you waited. 

While I waited for my brother to gas up the car, I noticed a crow scoping out the parking lot looking for what ever snack he could get a hold of. 

Bingo! He scored a nice piece of banana from a melting sundae that someone had abandoned in the parking lot. 

It wasn't long before we were back in the car and heading out over the Alberta prairies.  If there is one thing you notice in the prairies, it's when a storm is heading right for you. 

There was some impressive lightning to be seen with this incoming storm but I wasn't able to get any pictures of it. 

The turquoise colour of the sky and prairie grasses are very pretty in the rain.  We didn't get rained on all that much since we stayed ahead of the storm mostly. 

As we got closer to Drumheller the scenery started to change from flat prairie fields to having more trees and some hilly terrain. 

It took a few moments to realize that those hills were actually my first look at hoodoos. I thought these were pretty impressive. Little did I know that the next day I would see some that were even more impressive than these. 

It was early evening, maybe about 5 pm,  when we arrived at the The Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller.  We weren't sure we were even going to be able to come here because on one of our pit stops, one of "the locals"  had told us that it would be closed by the time we got there. Luckily we looked it up online before driving and found out that it was actually open until  9 pm so we had a few hours to spend here before it closed for the day.  

Before we headed inside we stopped to eat a picnic lunch at the tables outside the building. All along the edge of the picnic area was tall grasses and shrubs. The closer you got to the grasses, the more you would hear a loud chirping sound.  I peered into the grass to see if I could locate what was making the sound. A bird perhaps? 

Then I saw it.... a prairie dog. Then I heard another one and another one. They were calling to each other, warning of impending danger, 

I don't know if the danger they were worried about was me, my dog or the flock of large birds circling above. Or maybe all three. 

After eating a quick lunch my mother stayed with the dog at the RV while the rest of us went in to the museum. The walkway up to the museum was lined with a number of dinosaur statues.  There were some really cute looking baby dinosaurs too. 

As nice as the dinosaur statues were on the outside of the building, they were only the tip of the iceberg when it came to what was inside the building. Inside the displays and lighting and backgrounds that put the finishing touches to the scenes making them that much more realistic looking. 

Some of the displays were so realistic looking that you could hardly believe that they weren't real. 

Naturally there displays of actual fossils as well.  There was so much information here. I had thought that we would only be here for maybe an hour or so but there were so many floors and so many displays including a room with live plants and some amphibians and other displays with insects and fish and other critters. We spent about 3 hours or more here. 

One of the sections that I found to be impressive was called Lord Of The Lands. 

In this section the dinosaur bones were frames in elegant frames and the lighting was set to look like a high society gallery of some sort. 

I was pleased to see that they had even set up displays so that the blind could still enjoy coming here to visit. Under many of the displays were little plaques with titles in braille as well as raised etchings of the shapes of the dinosaur bones so that they would be able to feel what the dinosaur bones would look like.

By the time we were finished touring the museum it was dark outside and the rain had started up again. We decided that we would stay in a hotel in Drumheller for the night. 

We chose an Econo Lodge to stay in and had dinner at a nice little pub called "the Vintage"  All around town you could see statues of dinosaurs on almost every street corner. There was a huge statue that you could climb up inside of and stand inside it's mouth, but we never stopped to do that on this trip. The whole town had a dinosaur theme happening there. 

In the morning we had breakfast at a great little cafe across the street from the Econo Lodge. The food, atmosphere and service was fantastic.

 It was a great way to start the morning before we headed off to our next destination... Dinosaur Provincial Park. 

The day had come to pack up and say good by to our family members as we started the second half of our journey. As I took down the tent I was fortunate enough to see a beautiful Yellow Canadian caterpillar that will one day turn into an Elm Sawfly.  

Before we headed to the next campground we decided to spend an hour or two in the near by town of Kaslo, situated on the shores of Mirror Lake, to do some shopping and see some sights. There were quite few gift shops with some really great hand made items for sale. One shop in particular that we liked was called "Your Arts Desire".  There were some bakeries and even a little internet cafe.  At one end of town was an old paddle wheel boat called the Moyie that you could go and explore. 

Beside the boat was a little building that made me chuckle. It was a white shed like structure that was labeled "Post Office".  

Soon though we were on our way again  and watching the mountain scenery fly by. At one point we passed a really interesting looking building that had round roofs. My brother was driving and I had just woken up from a nap in the car so I didn't find out what town this building was in and only managed to click a quick picture of it, but it was so much bigger than the picture shows. I am really still curious as to what this building was for. Maybe it was just someone's house. 

As the light of day started showing signs of fading into evening we came to our campground for the night. Oh, B.C. how I love you!!  This campground was my most favourite campground of the whole trip! It was so amazingly nice!  The campground I am talking about is Loop Branch camp ground in Glacier Provincial Park.

From the moment you drive in the majesty of the tallest trees you have ever seen combined with the beauty of the mountains just hits you and holds you.  This...this strikes an awe in you that says "My God is an awesome God". 

The further in you go the more you felt so wonderfully small. To add a bit of mystery to the wonder of it, you pass by some huge, huge stone pillars that seem to stand there for no reason but to make you wonder why they are there. 

Even further still and you are all of a sudden met with an unexpected sight of some gorgeous log cabin like structures.  All the buildings are purely for camper use including a cute little cabin structure that has both a back door and a front door on it. Each of the beams supporting the roof on this building  have got to be about 4 or 5 feet in diameter. 

Inside the building are about 6 picnic tables and a wood stove so that you can keep warm on cold fall (or perhaps winter) nights.  I have never seen any provincial campground like this! 

We got out of the car to stretch our legs and to look around to choose a couple of sites to set up our tents on.

Everything seemed so huge here. The trees, the mountains, the logs the cabin was made from, the stump, even the picnic tables! The thickness of the boards that the tables were made of had to have been about 4 or 5 inches thick. In Ontario all the other provincial parks and other campgrounds I have ever been to the tables were only ever made of 2 x 4's.  It was like we had entered a world made for a giant.

We chose sites 11 and 12 which were close to the bathrooms. There is no park office nor are there any staff to be seen, but in this place it just seemed to make sense. You paid using an envelope and self pay drop off box and then clipped the stub to the post. It felt comfortable and everything was so spotless and well maintained that it was hard to believe that there was no full time staff here. All the campers were quiet and respectful and kept to themselves mostly, but were not unfriendly to talk to. One of the campers that I spoke to told me that this was the most beautiful campground in all of Glacier National Park, and I believe him. 

There were no outhouses for bathrooms here. Instead there was a huge structure that was made of logs and ran on solar power. The architecture matched the surrounding buildings and it looked like it belonged there. It had sinks inside for washing hands but it also had an additional sink outside for washing dishes and things as well. 

Even the stalls inside were done in wood. And the bathroom was absolutely spotless and had flush toilets. 

The ceiling had rows of LED lights that gave off enough light but was not too over powering. The only downfall with the lights being solar powered is that on overcast days like that one there is not quite enough energy to keep the lights running. Eventually the women's side was in darkness while the men's side still had some light. 

On the wall outside of the bathroom there are maps posted as well as some information on geocaching. I can imagine this would be a pretty popular place to do some geocaching. I have never done geocaching myself but I have an uncle that does and the idea interests me but I have just never gotten around to trying it. A place like this would be a great place to start.  (Want to know more about it, you can find out more here: http://www.geocaching.com/guide/)

The sites themselves were large and nestled in among the trees. When you looked up the trees just seemed to go on forever. 

All this beauty and peace and quiet for the low, low price of $21.50 per day. (Yeah, Ontario... your prices suck. Ontario charges about twice that amount and pales in comparison to this park. It's sad really). On top of the camping fee, if you want to have a fire you must pay an additional amount of $8.80 for a fire permit. 

And to top it all off, there is none of this buying bags of wood at the camp office or local store. They have this convenient little wood shed full of free wood! Well, not exactly free because you are paying for a fire permit which you don't pay for in the other provinces, but I think this is a much better way to do it. Pay for the permit and then take as much or as little as you need. 

In behind the wood storage area were some storage bins, presumably to store things like food items so that they don't attract bears to your site. You don't have to pay to use them and they are quite large (like everything else in the park). There were a few signs posted around the camp warning about potential bears in the area. We never saw any though. I figure that there must be other campgrounds in B.C. with storage containers like this in them considering how many bear stories you hear about in B.C. and Alberta. But I have nothing to compare it to so I don't know for sure. All I know is, I have never seen these in any of the other camps I have gone to so far but it's a great idea.  

I could hear the nearby rushing of water so once the tents were up I took the dog and went exploring a little more. There was no beach or anything but if you took a very short trail in behind the washrooms there was some rapids running close by. The water was the colour of clay and you couldn't see the bottom very clearly but it was nice to listen to and to see just the same. To my surprise as I got to the water's edge I came across something unexpected. Someone (or perhaps multiple people) had built a number of small inukshuks out of the river stones. It was so peaceful and made you stop to think of all the people who may have came here before us. 

I decided to explore more down by the stone pillar that I saw when we first drove in. Where at first I thought there was only one pillar it turns out that there were many more and they lined up like wide spread dominoes right through the trees.  I was kind of curious as to who built them and what they were for. 

It didn't take long to find out because as I neared the entrance of a trail there was a huge sign posted that told what they were. They were the ruins of an old train trestle that used run through Roger's Pass. The sign showed a drawing of what the train on the trestles would have looked like as well as the path the train would have taken (which was a loop shape as the train came to this point and then looped back around in the direction in which it came from. Mystery solved!

All evening we relaxed and enjoyed the view. I can never get enough of that mountain view. I kept looking up hoping to catch a glimpse of a mountain goat. But we never saw one the whole trip.  Later in the evening we went into the cabin and played cards until we were to tired to do so any more. 

This place was so relaxing that even my dog approved and felt right at home, napping between two rocks. 

The next morning as we packed up the tents I noticed that even though it hadn't rained the whole time we were there, under the tent was quite wet, but not the ground around the tent. It only goes to show why you need to have a good roll mat under you at night to keep a barrier between you and the ground. Moisture collects even when you don't realize it. 

I was sad to have to leave Loop Brook so soon. This campground has been the best campground I have ever gone to yet and by far is my favourite. I love this place and I love B.C. and I will have to come back one day and spend more time here. I really want to do the hiking trail here and just get away from it all here in this little piece of heaven. It was hard to see the mountains getting farther away as we headed out of B.C. but I was very much looking forward to our next major destination, since we didn't stop on our way through the first time. Next stop.... Alberta!

By this day I was not feeling up to much at all and it hurt just to walk. It made it difficult to enjoy the beautiful scenery around me but I still took pictures anyways so that I could look at them later. Since I was not well (as well as very tired) and needed to lie down I decided to switch vehicles and rode lying down in the RV. 

Eventually we came to Kootenay Bay where we needed to cross on the ferry. The line up for the ferry was not very long by the time we got there but we were told that we would have to wait about a half an hour before one of the 2 ferries were ready to take us across. 

While we waited there was a nice little snack bar near by called Mojos where you could get ice cream and coffee and other snacks, so we waited near there for a bit. 

Aside from Mojos there was some very beautiful scenery to take in. On the opposite side was the mountains and Kootenay Bay. The water was clear and beautiful but very cold because it is a glacier lake. 

The ferry we were on was called the Osprey and was quite a nice boat. You could get out of your car  and walk around the deck or head on up the stairs to the upper deck where there were tables and benches to sit at. 

As we were crossing to the other side we could see the second ferry, the Balfour, on it's way back to where we had just left. 

Once on the other side of the bay we continued on to our final destination, Woodbury Campground, just past Ainsworth , B.C.  
   Arriving at Woodbury was a welcome thing for us by this point because we had driven for so many days and we were going to be able to spend 4 nights here without having to take down the tents and put them back up every evening. We were able to visit my grandmother, aunt, cousin and my cousin's daughter. 
  Woodbury is not a provincial park, but it does have places for campers and RVs and tents as well as cabins to rent out. We set up camp and started to relax for a bit. Woodbury also had it's fair share of beautiful scenery. Down by the lake had the best views. 

By the time evening rolled around I was feeling so ill that my family started to worry. My grandmother had almost died once from a gall bladder problem and this appeared to have some similar symptoms. After a bit of indecision we finally made the decision that maybe I should go to the hospital about 20 minutes away in the town of  Creston. That way we would know for sure and if nothing else at least have some peace of mind. So my aunt, my mom and I loaded into a car and headed to Creston at about 10 pm at night. We finally get there only to find that there isn't really a hospital there, just a medical clinic. By this time I am throwing up again and I am sure I was looking like death warmed over. So they decide to call an ambulance to take me to the hospital in the town of Nelson, about another 45 minutes away. I must say that the ambulance attendants (Larry and Monica) were fantastic and so were all the hospital staff. They ran x-rays, urine tests, and blood tests. End result was that there was no major blockage or anything life threatening, but they didn't know what it was for sure. "Could be a bug or could be something that you ate that didn't agree with you".  They gave me two different kinds of medications and then we waited for them to take effect.  They figured I had crossed the worst of it and should be on the path to feeling better now, but that it would still take a few days. I was allowed to go home later that night. We got back and crawled into bed at about 4 a.m. 
   So I was on a strict liquid diet for a day and then worked my way up to bland foods and was to stay completely away from dairy. I visited with the family and played dominoes over the next few days. 
   Finally on the Monday I felt well enough that we could take some time to go to the hot springs in near by Ainsworth. 

The hot springs were great. There were 3 different temperatures to choose from. The main pool was like a swimming pool and the temperature was like a very warm heated pool. There was a tiny pool with cold glacier water running into it. It was only about 14 degrees Celsius in the cold pool. Then there was the hot pool that was in the grotto that was about as hot as a sauna. 

As I started to feel better each day I started to enjoy the scenery again more and more.  I would take my dog down to the Woodbury beach for a swim once in awhile. 

And on one of the last nights we were there some of us went to see the creek where it joins up with the bay. 

We watched as some young people did some yoga along the shore line as the sun was going down. 

It was so nice to listen to the water and smell the mountain air and enjoy the view with no bugs to bother us. It was a perfect moment and a great last evening with the family before we headed back towards home the next day.  

The next morning we packed up and headed out. My stomach was feeling a little better so I was happy about that but I was disappointed to hear that we wouldn't actually be staying in Alberta at all today, but instead would be driving right through and straight to British Columbia. That was OK though because at least the plan was to stop in Alberta on the way back. I was still looking forward to seeing the mountains and wondered if you could see them off in the distance before you actually got to them. 
   Both Saskatchewan and Alberta had fields of wind turbines in them. 

The terrain started to go from flat farm fields to larger rolling hills in the distance at first.

Soon the rolling hills got closer and larger. Still looks something like southern Ontario though. Will we ever see mountains or is this just a bedtime story someone made up? 

Finally the hills started to look like mountains. 

But these mountains did not compare to the British Columbia mountains that eventually could be seen in the distance. 

By the time we passed through and made it to British Columbia I was feeling pretty sick and was having a difficult time enjoying the scenery. My stomach felt like someone poured hot coals in it and I was feeling pretty lethargic. 
   We were supposed to have camped in BC at the Sparwood Provincial Park, unfortunately when we arrived there the entire campground was full, including the over flow area. Apparently they had been booked up since Wednesday. Lesson learned... don't try to go camping in BC without a reservation on a Friday evening. We went to the nearest town of Fernie in hopes of getting a hotel room instead. No such luck. Everywhere we went we were met with "sorry, we are all booked up". We had no choice but to press on to the next town. 
   My brother finally was able to call ahead and book a hotel room in the town of Cranbrook. By this time I was pretty sick. My stomach pains went to being severe enough to cause me to want to vomit. I would be so happy just to get into a room and lie down. We got two adjoining rooms but we had wanted a third one for my parents (for an additional fee we would be allowed to have the dog in the room with us) . However, we were told the same line we had been hearing for hours now "sorry, we are all booked up". So my mother decided to stay in the RV with the dog while my daughter shared a bed with me and my dad had the other bed in the room and my brother and his girlfriend were in the next room.  
     As soon as we got to the rooms I headed to the bathroom to throw up. I was in there for only about a minute when the power went out in the room. So there I was in a windowless room in the pitch black, sicker than a dog. But I didn't care. I just stayed put. The power came back on but then it went off again only a couple minutes later. Eventually we had to switch rooms, which was good but also made us angry because we had been told that there were no more rooms. Strange that they could come up with not just one room at a moments notice, but they could actually come up with two! Yeah right "we're booked". my butt!!  
   In the new rooms everyone finally went to sleep, exhausted from way more travelling than we had intended to do that day. Everyone but me that is. I was up in pain pretty much all night long. It was a long night. 

Another day of driving. The thing that is most noticible while you are driving through Manitoba and Saskatchewan are the hundreds and hundreds of dragonflies flying all over the highway. Sadly it is impossible not to hit them. They are just everywhere! 
    Sometimes we take the lead in my brother's car and sometimes my parents take the lead in the RV. It's great that we had multiple drivers so that we can switch off every few hours. Eventually we cross the border into Saskatchewan and to our surprise we crossed another time zone. We didn't think that  the time zone change was supposed to take place until much further into the province but apparently they have moved the time zones. Someone said that Saskatchewan does not change their clocks and that they have the same time year round. This means that clocks in most of the province match clocks in Winnipeg during the winter and Calgary and Edmonton during the summer. 

Once we got into Saskatchewan we stopped at the Tourist information center. Everyone headed inside and I had the dog so I stayed behind. That's when I noticed that there was smoke coming from the back seat of my brother's car!  I shouted to my daughter (who hadn't quite made it inside yet) to run and get my brother. My dog was on a fairly long leash so I was able to fling open the car doors and started pulling out all the luggage and various items in the back seat to see what was burning. When I lifted the cushion of one of the seats I could see that the foam in it that was normally yellow was now charred black. There were no flames but the smoke was still pouring out and it smelled horrible. 
   By this time my family came back out and my daughter took the dog. My brother started emptying bottles of water onto the back seat and then started pulling things out of the trunk to see if we could get at the back seat from that direction to pour more water on it from that direction. The smoke started to dissipate and eventually stopped all together. 
  I looked under the car and could tell almost right away what the problem was. Before we had left on the trip, my uncle and brother had bought a patch kit from Canadian Tire to patch up the crack in the muffler pipe in an attempt to make the car quieter. They figured it would hold until we got back and then my brother would have the muffler fixed properly. Well, it didn't hold. Instead the cracked pipe broke completely off and separated. The patch had moved and worked it's way up the pipe and past the part where the heat shield was. The muffler pipe can get very hot, and instead of the patch melting and bonding to the pipe like it was supposed to, the patch instead dried up and started burning. That heated up the seat so hot that it started to smoulder from the inside. Had we traveled too much farther it was possible that we could have ended up with flames. The solution....take the patch off. So I crawled under the car and armed with a pair of scissors and some oven mitts, I proceeded to remove what was left of the patch. Worried that this might not quite fix the problem my brother took a case of bottled water and placed it on the seat. The thought was that if the seat heated up again and started burning, it would melt the plastic bottles which would release the water inside and douse the fire. Luckily we didn't have another problem with it the rest of the way. We were concerned about it for a bit though and my parents took the fire extinguisher from the RV and we carried it with us in the car. 
   This Tourist Information Center must have been the "hot spot" for fires because just as we were pulling out along came another car and their car was on fire too! The difference being that theirs had flames licking out from under the bottom of the front of the car and you could see that a broken hose of some sort was dragging on the ground from underneath it. The people jumped out of the car and one of them ran in to call 911.  We drove up to them and offered the use of our fire extinguisher but they refused it and just shouted "Get away! Get away!" in a total panic. They didn't figure that a fire extinguisher was going to help the situation. Since my parents had already left a minute or two before us we decided to just leave since there was nothing more we could do anyways. As we traveled down the highway a couple of fire trucks passed us by heading in that direction. We knew exactly where they were going. 

Travelling down the highway again we remarked about how the prairies were not how we had pictured them in our minds as people had described them. In all honesty they just looked like the farmer's fields in southern Ontario. One difference though was the pretty fields of all yellow Canola or all blue Flax. Then there was the hay fields. 

Now Ontario has it's fair share of hay fields and you can often see the rolls of hay left drying in the fields at certain times of the year. .... but not like this. These fields of hay were huge and stretched on for miles. As far as the eye could see there were rolls and rolls of hay.

At one point we drove past a field that at first glance seemed to look like there were piles of snow in it. Later my mom told me that it was actually potash (sylvite). 

 Approximately 95% of world potash production is used as fertilizer. Potash was first discovered in Saskatchewan during the early 1940s while drilling for oil. Underground, the vast deposit of this mineral lies diagonally across the southern plains of Saskatchewan along a north-west line through Rocanville, Esterhazy and Saskatoon all the way to  Northeastern Montana and North Dakota. 


The rest of the trip through Saskatchewan was rather uneventful. We stopped and set up  camp for the night at a little privately owned campground called Prairie Oasis near Moose Jaw. It was really not that great a place but the staff were fairly friendly. We had to laugh about the bathrooms because they were so tiny (and dirty) that when you sat down your knees almost stuck out of the stall underneath the door. No really! They did!  I took the dog down to the pond only to find a sign saying "no dogs allowed" There was a swim area for people to swim but it was so gross and weedy looking (more like a marsh pond) that no human would ever want to swim there. We had a good laugh over that....It's OK for people to swim in grossness but hey, keep your dog out. The dog might make it.....more gross! 

My stomach started to bother me by the time evening rolled around and since we were tired anyways, we didn't stay up long. I was hoping all my stomach needed was a good night rest and that I would feel better in the morning. 

I wasn't all that impressed with Saskatchewan and was looking forward to getting to Alberta the next day.