Golden Scenery

What a beautiful drive! Saturday was a travel day - from Waterton NP in Alberta, Canada to Golden, BC. The drive was about 300 miles taking us about 8 hours. We have discovered that we like to take what we refer to as the ‘green dot roads’. (In our atlas, the scenic drives are noted by green dots along the indicated highways - thus the green dot roads.) These tend to be other than the main highways - and are therefore usually less travelled;-)

We had planned to leave the camp in Waterton about 8AM - BUT, Gary slept in!! For all those who know him pretty well - he is almost always up anywhere from 4:30 - 6. So, we rarely set an alarm as one is almost never needed. This Saturday morning, however, all the fresh air, hikes, wayward golf and internet hunting had worn him down and he did not get up until 7!#**! No matter - in this world of retirement we just left a little later;-)

After being in the NP’s for about a week, we were in need of a few supply items and figured we would stop at the WalMart Super Center in the first little town outside Waterton (we remembered this store from our fall trip;-)). An hour later our cupboards and freezer were full again and we were on our way.

Canadian Highway 3 to Highway 95 were our targets. We travelled along the western base of the Rockies - along the Columbia River. The scenery went from pines to high farm/ranch lands to little towns. There was the little town of Fernie at the base of the Fernie ski resort, which made us feel like we were back in Park City. We passed through Skookumchuck, Invermere and Spillimacheen. We skirted the Kootenay NP on our way to the Yoho NP. Lunch was on the side of the road next to one of the many lakes along the way. Each bend of the road presented a beautiful new picture out our front window. And, before we knew it - 8 hours was gone and we were in Golden!

Hmmmmmm. Our new campground was quite interesting?!?!?! BUT, it had an internet connection as fast as home - so, no matter what it might look like. We were in contact with the world again (pick up email, do our needed banking, etc.) - AND we could get a couple of blog postings out;-) We were happy campers. After a quick dinner, we took a walk about town - down Main Street, across the bridge, over the river and through the forrest.

You can almost see the wooden bridge over the river

Sunday brought an early tee time at the Golden Golf Club. No chancing Gary’s automatic waker-upper - we set the alarm. The course was beautiful - much like the PC Muni course - and in great shape. There were bear warnings everywhere - but, we only saw deer;-(

Beautiful vistas from many of the tee boxes

Gary's ball found the water between here and the green. Thank goodness the scenery was spectacular.

After a quick 3 1/2 hour round, we were in the bar just in time to see “O” (I’d spell it but I can’t) get the claret jug. Then off to the Kicking Horse Ski Resort (which is just above the golf course), a car wash, ice cream cone and a visit to the local hardware store (one of our favorite activities in a small town - as you never know what all you will find there). Finally back at Magic to take advantage of our internet connection one more time and to do a few loads of laundry. Very mundane stuff today.

Off to Jasper tomorrow;-) More later - E & G