From Waterton Lakes National Park to Fernie, BC

The skies were still leaden as I left the Waterton Lakes area, traveling West on the Crowsnest Pass highway. I stopped at the site of a colossal disaster, when Turtle Mountain collapsed and a giant tide of boulders crushed the town of Frank.

The avalanche of moving boulders flowed hundreds of yards and killed everyone in its path. These views are from the West, then from the East showing the enormous debris field. In the first picture, the field of boulders extends far behind the ones I'm standing on. I'll show it all on my web site later:

 

Then I stopped at the memorial center which overlooks the site from the Western edge. Here you are on a high point to look out over the immense debris field:

 

The skies grew brighter after I left the grave of Frank. I stopped at Elk Creek for a soothing scenic moment:

When I stopped at my motel, the proprietress had a great idea!

 

All the other riders going up were young and hardy, and all had trail bikes with which they roared down a number of twisting trails at breakneck speed.

 

When it came time to go down, I was all alone...

 

 

Tomorrow is a very long day (especially with gasoline at $5.00 per gallon), going from Fernie to Creston to Kaslo to New Denver to Silverton, eh? Supposed to be some grand scenery...

 

There probably won't be much time to process while I'm visiting old friends the next couple of days. I'll pick up again when I get to Banff.

 

I leave you with the little ski resort town of Fernie amid the grandeur of the Canadian Rockies!