Blogging Across Canada (sort of) part 5

Alberta is a cool province. It's got prairies, mountains and everything in between.

Dinosaur Provincial Park is a very cool place. Loads of fossils have been found there and there are many cool land features. I spent the day there hiking ad seeing everything I could.

Hoo doos in Dinosaur Provincial Park
 

I spent some time in Calgary, where I stayed with family. I went to a concert at the Olympic site, went to the stampede and Heritage Park Historical Village. Then I headed north with my mom to Edmonton. We went to the West Edmonton Mall because I wanted to be able to say I'd been to the biggest mall in the world. It took us four hours to walk through it and that didn't include any shopping. It has an NHL sized rink, two hotels, an amusement park, a water park and a number of food courts. It's a pretty cool mall.

From Edmonton we headed to Jasper National Park and Banff National Park along the Columbia Icefield Parkway. One thing I really wanted to do was go to the Columbia Icefield before it melts. It was so exciting to see a real glacier. The temperature difference between the parking lot and near the icefield was nuts. Here's a picture of people walking on the glacier.

One thing I really wanted to see on this trip was a grizzly bear. My uncle didn't think it was going to happen, but as we were driving on the highway between Jasper and Banff one ran across the highway. It made my day!!

In Banff, my mom and I took the gondola to the top of the mountain. It was worth it for the view.

When I went back in 2010 I actually stayed in Banff NP. There was a huge lineup to get in and when we finally got to the desk to register they told us that a bear had been spotted in the campground the night before. I was really excited :)


Lake Louise

 On the way home, I went to Franktown. When I was in high school my geography teacher told us about the Franktown slide, and I wanted to see what he had been talking about. It was in the early 1900s, when, in the middle of the night, the side of Turtle mountain gave out and slid into the town. Luckily the slide did not completely cover the town, and only a few people died. There is no longer a town there, but there is a visitor centre and the slide debris has been left in place. It was only cleared where the highway goes through.

I would highly recommend touring Alberta. It's got a lot to offer!