May 27th, it had poured all night and continued to pour as we made breakfast and packed up….the temperature had dropped to 4 degrees and the snow line was creeping down the mountains. All night, every time the pounding rain had woke me up (being thankful I could still hear it because as long as it made noise it was ‘wet’ and not ‘white’), I’d been thinking about all those poor kids in their tents!
This was the uninviting view of the campsite….
another deer on the road as we made our way out to the main entrance….
and more looks of the soggy scene….showing the creeping snowline…
one final look back – don’t let these pictures deter you – Waterton really is a beautiful place….just not right then!
Headed north to Pincher Creek and then turned west on the Yellowhead highway, heading for the B.C. border as fast as we could go….
a brief stop at the site of the ‘Frank Slide’ to give the dogs a break and to allow for a ‘pit stop’ and then on we went, breathing a huge sigh of relief when we were through the mountains and watched the thermometer climb up into the low ‘double digits’. It was now a case of where to? We thought about traveling up the west side of the Rockies, something we hadn’t done in years, or maybe ‘doing’ the Kootneys….one thing for sure, we thought we should check out some of the provincial parks in this area, where we had never stayed before….so found, according to the map, a Norbury Lake P.P. and decided to give it a try. Now to be fair, the weather was having a ‘hissy’ fit at the time, as we climbed to the park, the temperature dipped down to 5 degrees and it was pouring….found the campground, which turned out to be one of those parks I hate….where the ‘lake’ is on the opposite side of the road from the campground and the ‘park’ part of the lake is just a small strip of beach on a lake that is otherwise completely surrounded in private cabins….so you feel like you are in somebody's back yard all the time. The campground itself was OK, heavily treed, no doubt pleasant on a hot sunny day, pretty dismal, and totally deserted on this rainy day. We looked at each other and said ‘no way’. The road continued on, coming out in the vicinity of Fort Steele where I think there is a private campground but we carried on a little further to Wasa Lake P. P.
and here, again, was another campground on one side of the road, with the ‘lake’ on the other side, completely surrounded (as was the campground) with private cabins. The campground itself, was very nice, large level sites, clean, with efficient friendly staff….and because of the Ponderosa Pine habitat, more open, and not quite so dismal….so we elected to spend the night.
This shows one of the several roads within the campground. Park staff told us not to be alarmed if we noticed a fairly heavy police presence in the campground….apparently, the night before there had been a ‘streaker’ in the park. For several years, this streaker has been seen, once in the spring and again, once in the fall. So far, they have no pictures of him and haven’t been able to catch him in mid-‘streak’.
Didn’t see any streakers….but there were Mule Deer…..
The campground is ‘tiered’ as it is on a hillside. At the back of the campground there was a trail that went further up the hillside, so since there was a break in the showers, and felt in need of some fresh air, headed up the trail….
as it climbed, came to this more open area….
Creeping Phlox was growing up here….
and also, Balsam Root….
Petal shape is a bit different from the ones seen the day before in Waterton.
As for birds….there weren’t many. Did catch sight on this Red Breasted Nuthatch…..that was about it.
Tomorrow is another day.
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