The Last Leg Homeward – Postcards from Canada, 2025

From Eastend Saskatchewan, across Alberta, and into Beautiful British Columbia

I drove the last leg homeward, over four days, largely on familiar territory. It was a quieter, reflective time, with fewer stops, that was less about seeing new vistas and more about saying hello to old friends (a highway, a town, a campground…). Each day started early, with solid sessions of driving, still mainly on secondary rural roads, and each ended in time for a campground dinner, quiet evening, and early night. My headache was still present each day, and most of me was fixated on getting home, but another part of me was feeling slightly melancholy, and did not want my journey to end.

I said goodbye to Eastend Saskatchewan, and rose up out of the Frenchman River valley and onto another perfectly straight stretch of prairie highway, empty of traffic.

Tractors and harvesting machinery were parked in the fields, ready for the day’s upcoming work,

or resting after the previous day’s work was done.

I turned to the north, from Saskatchewan Highway 13 onto Highway 21, to avoid a long stretch of gravel road travel, and the road took me down into and across a new section of the beautiful Frenchman River valley.

I turned west again, crossed the border into Alberta, and later turned south onto Highway 685. Here, the road swooped down into and across another wide flat-bottomed valley,

with distant views of the 40 Mile Reservoir. These gorgeous valleys stir up strong feelings of wanting to be a land baron!

Highway 685 ended at the tiny town of Etzikom, Alberta, a new place for me. A sign at the edge of town advertised a windmill museum so I thought that I would make a quick stop as I love windmills. All was dead still in this town as I drove down its main street at about midday. The air was heavy, and there was a sense of abandonment and disuse.

I turned down one of the side streets and passed a few tidy houses and parked cars, but there wasn’t a person in sight, including at the town’s Jubilee Park where I just had to stop because the playground equipment was all pretty much identical to the equipment that I had played on as a kid in the late sixties and early seventies in Cumberland’s Kin Park.

There was no one anywhere around – not one kid, nor any moms with toddlers, and not even a passing car. There was just this empty and deeply silent place, seemingly trapped in time, like something from a Twilight Zone episode. But, despite the slight sense of eeriness, I loved the playground memories that the equipment sparked and I felt compelled to linger. I sat on the swings to add a bit of movement and life to the park, and I wanted to try out the teeter totter but I didn’t have a partner. (One always needed a teeter totter partner that you could trust, not one of those friends who thought it was funny to jump off suddenly when they were at the bottom and you were at the top!)

I left the park and drove a couple of blocks to arrive at the Etzikom Museum and Historic Windmill Centre which was a much grander enterprise than expected! I was drawn first to the windmills, arranged to the side and behind the large museum building which was once the town’s school. There are almost twenty historic and varied windmills on display, each with a descriptive information sign that detailed the windmill’s design features and history of use on the Canadian prairies.

It was very interesting! To the left is the Beatty Pumper, which became the most widely used windmill on prairie farms, and there was even a European-style windmill which could be found at places like Fort Douglas, Manitoba, and Fort Edmonton, Alberta, in the early 1800s.

After touring the windmills I decided to skip the museum and head back out on the road, but luckily I popped in to use their washroom and this is what greeted me when I entered!

An old-fashioned soda-fountain shop selling ice cream and floats, coffee and pie! And, behind the counter were two bright-eyed, fresh-faced teenagers with big welcoming smiles. I wish that I had a photo of them! They looked very happy to have someone walk into their museum, and I couldn’t bear to disappoint them by not staying. It was an excellent museum! Like many prairie town museums, the focus was on early settlement, farming, ranching, and pioneer life. There was a replica Main Street with a boardwalk, and views into spaces such as a barber shop, post office, general store, and school room.

There were also many themed rooms, including a replica mid-1900’s kitchen where the table was set with “Rosalie”-patterned kitchenware. Edged in 22 karat gold, these dishes would have been collected as premiums in bags of Quaker Oats!

After my tour of the museum I decided to splurge on a piece of homemade pie with ice cream, and I greatly enjoyed talking to the teenage girls about their school life (favourite subjects, sports played, future plans etc.), and about their summer work at the museum. When I asked about the origin of the museum’s focus on windmills, one of the girls replied that “every prairie town museum has an old-fashioned sewing machine”, so the museum director decided to have their museum be unique by being the only windmill museum in Canada. It was a joy to talk with them – such a bright spark of life and light in the town – and the pie and ice cream was delicious!

Fortified by my stop, I continued west, now on Alberta Highway 61, with a quick stop in Foremost,

and later I stopped to photograph the tail end of a very long, long, long line of black rail cars that had stretched, for multiple kilometres, roughly parallel to the highway and across a wide expanse of freshly shorn wheat.

As I continued west, dark clouds steadily built up overhead, and I decided to stop early and camp at the Lower St. Mary’s Reservoir campground where I have stayed before. I was feeling tired and headachy, and a bit woozy from the road. Luckily, the campground was not very full, considering that it was Thursday night before the Labour Day weekend, and I was happy to get a large waterfront site with no near neighbours.

It was blessedly peaceful and quiet, and after dinner I took a walk to view the spillway and then decided to walk downriver a ways until a gentle rain started to fall.

It rained through the night, and I woke often, but the rain on my roof is a comforting sound, even in a downpour. My Toyota looked a bit forlorn in the morning, though, covered in leaves and twigs from my campsite’s tall cottonwoods, and a few of those cottonwood leaves were bright yellow, signalling the coming of autumn. As I was leaving, I stopped half way up the gravel road that takes campers from the lower reservoir back up to the prairie level, for this view back down over the area.

It was definitely time to head home, and from here that thought amplified as the Rocky Mountains began to come into view as I travelled west on Alberta Highway 505.

The day brightened as I drew closer to the mountains, and I soaked in my last views of the magnificent Alberta prairie.

I turned onto Highway 6 North, with a brief stop in Pincher Creek, and then onto Highway 3 West, first passing the site of the enormous and devastating Frank Slide,

and then stopping to photograph the gorgeous Mt. Tecumseh and Crowsnest Mountain.

I crossed into B.C. at the Crowsnest Pass and was quite frankly astounded anew by my province’s incredible mountain scenery. I have driven the wonderful Highway 3 across southern B.C. several times before, but the mountains seemed to have grown in my absence! I greatly enjoyed the drive along forested slopes and river valleys, passed quickly through the towns of Sparwood, Fernie, Elko and Cranbrook, and then decided to camp at the small and well-remembered Yahk Provincial Park where I have stayed before. Inexpensive and convenient, with large and reasonably private sites, this campground is located beside a lovely section of the Moyie River where I sat and watched bats swoop and swerve over the river as dusk fell.

I woke early again, ready for my second-to-last day of driving. It was a beautiful day, with a bright blue sky, and I stopped briefly in Creston for this last photo of a grain elevator. Built in the mid 1930’s, it stored wheat, oats, and barely that were grown in the fertile and extensive agricultural lands of the Creston Valley.

As I continued westward I enjoyed the rising and falling curves of the highway as I took in more views of forested mountain slopes, sparkling river valleys, and rocky pinnacles. Unfortunately, photos do not do justice to the immensity of the mountains, but they do capture the beauty of this small alpine lake at Kootenay Pass, looking towards the west,

and then from the other side of the lake looking east.

I made a stop in Greenwood, one of my favourite B.C. small towns, to visit “my house”** (see link at the end of this post),

and later I made my first ever stop in the town of Midway, where I checked out their riverside campground for future reference. It was a nice place to stop, eat some lunch, and rest a bit while watching the lazy flow of the Kettle River, and there is a riverside trail starting from here that I might walk someday…

Here, I made the obligatory stop at the top of Anarchist Mountain for the view down into Okanagan Valley,

with a zoomed-in view of the town of Osoyoos, and yet more mountains ahead!

I followed the S-curves down to Osoyoos and considered stopping for a swim, but home was now like a magnet, pulling ever-stronger the closer I got to the coast so I zipped straight through town, rose steeply up out of the valley, and later stopped for this view as the road swooped down again.

I stopped again on the approach to Cawston and Keremeos. Look at those mountains! It was like I was seeing them for the first time. Below is the Similkameen River and nestled ahead in the narrow V of the river’s valley is the town of Keremeos with its vineyards, orchards, and roadside fruit stands.

It was still early in the day, and I had thought that I might drive all the way to Vancouver, arriving near dark, but I was feeling tired. I then considered driving as far as Manning Park, but I knew from previous experience that it might be impossible to find a campsite there on the Labour Day weekend so I checked out the Prikard Creek Recreation Site campground, located just west of Keremeos, and luckily there was a site for me, and an excellent one at that! The campground was right beside the beautiful Similkameen River, and the air was hot and dry and smelled of Ponderosa Pine.

I had a wonderful and relaxing late-afternoon swim, entering upstream, floating downstream with the current, and then walking back upriver to do it over and over again. I felt happy here, and I took a rare selfie as it was my very last night on the road. I also took a last photo of the Similkameen River as the sun lowered in the west. It was to be my last photo of my long journey across Canada and back.

The Very Last Leg of the Last Leg!

In my memory, my campout at Prikard Creek was the end of my epic roadtrip, but of course I still had the very last leg to complete, a further 320 km to reach home! I left shortly after dawn, and I had the beautiful highway through more scenic B.C. wilderness mostly to myself all the way to where Highway 3 joins Highway 1 just east of Hope. From there, the traffic began to build considerably, and soon there was a thick stream of holiday-weekend traffic, still travelling at speed, as we crossed over the Patullo Bridge and continued westward towards the city. (“It would be a shame to have an accident now!” I thought!) Finally, I exited the stress of Highway 1 and crossed Boundary Road into Vancouver. Phew! Then, after a last half hour of driving, my trusty Toyota and I were finally back home, safe and sound, having travelled 17,787 kilometres, over two and a half months, together across Canada and back. Phew indeed!

So, would I do it again? When I first returned I would have answered, “No way, once was enough!”, but now, months later, I’m not so sure!

Thank you for joining me on the journey, and I hope to see you on the next! 🙂

P.S. I have just realized that the very first and the very last photos of my trip were both of the Similikameen River, taken two and a half months apart. Here, at Bromley Rock Provincial Park in June, the river had been running fast and high with spring runoff, and it was so beautiful – deep, clear, green, and sparkling!

** This following blog post, from a previous drive across Highway 3, has some really great photos of Greenwood (including “my house”), as well as a bit of history of this former mining town. There are also photos and details of other great stops along the exceptionally wonderful B.C. Highway 3. https://christineswalkabout.com/2022/01/05/western-road-trip-a-magnificent-start-heading-east-on-highway-3/,

And, here is a link to the post which follows the one above, with great photos of sights along Highway 3 east of Yahk, (mountains!), and then south on Alberta Highway 6 to the Waterton Lakes National Park area and beyond. https://christineswalkabout.com/2022/01/07/western-road-trip-into-southwestern-alberta-mountains-and-prairie-together-oh-my/

Western Road Trip – A magnificent start, heading east on Highway 3

Well, it’s a rare, snowy Vancouver New Year and I am finally buckling down to write some posts about my wonderful summer 2021 road trip through southern B.C., Alberta, and Saskatchewan. I hit the road early on the morning of June 16th, the day after the Covid travel restrictions in B.C. were lifted. After a lovely two-hour visit with my friend Anna in Hope, I was very lucky to have beautiful Highway 3 almost all to myself. Free and easy, here we go!

Driving through Manning Park to Princeton and on to Osoyoos is always a pleasure and for the first time in my Highlander I had some CDs along with me. Paul Simon’s “Graceland” proved to be excellent driving and singing music as I cruised at speed up, down, and around mountains and alongside two of my favourite rivers, the fast-flowing Skagit and the sparkling Similkameen.

In Osoyoos, I stopped for a walk at one of my favourite places – the dikes of the Okanagan River at Road 22. On this visit, I walked northwards on the western dike.

It was late afternoon, and the air was warm and still, so the birds were not very active. Nevertheless, I was greeted almost right away by two well-remembered friends, a cedar waxwing and an eastern king bird.

And of course the tall grasses and colourful wildflowers lining the path were a delight as always.

After my peaceful walk, I drove to Haynes Point Provincial Park – a long and narrow tree-lined spit that reaches east for almost a kilometer across Osoyoos Lake. At the day use area, I had a lovely north-facing view of the lake while I cooked and ate my dinner. Later, I set up my camp chair on the southern beach, midway along the spit, to read and write for a while into the evening. This was my glorious view looking south over Osoyoos Lake.

The campsite at Haynes Point was full (as expected) and I had already resolved to camp “stealth” in town in order to get over my fear of doing so. As darkness started to fall, I headed into town, drove to a hotel that I am familiar with, and then backed into one of the spaces in its crowded parking lot. I set up my privacy window covers and curtain and then organized everything I would need for the night. It was still a little early for sleep so I visited the hotel lobby with my ipad to do email and some googling to review details of the road ahead on the morrow. What a great first day I had!

I slept well and without incident, rose early the next morning, and enjoyed a simple breakfast while sitting on the bench in the photo below, overlooking another glorious view of Osoyoos Lake. Bonus, I saw a beaver swimming close to shore!

What a great day to travel! So, off I drove east on Highway 3 but I didn’t get very far before stopping to photograph the curving sweep of the road heading up Anarchist Mountain, and then from the top a beautiful view looking down onto Osoyoos and the south Okanagan valley.

I made a brief stop in Rock Creek to stretch my legs and I took a few photos of this tiny and charming small town.

From Rock Creek, I greatly enjoyed the beautiful drive through the Kettle Valley. Soon, Highway 3 said goodbye to the Kettle River at the neat and tidy town of Midway and then headed northeast through Boundary country. My next stop was in the historic mining town of Greenwood, the “smallest incorporated city in Canada.” Copper mined in the surrounding hills was smelted at Greenwood in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s but when the ore was exhausted the smelter closed and this once thriving town of 3000 almost became a ghost town. The town has seen a resurgence in recent years, and many of its more than sixty heritage buildings have been beautifully restored. Unfortunately, the town was very quiet and seemed a little depressed when I visited, likely due to the absence of tourist traffic because of Covid.

I started my visit to Greenwood with a walk along a short section of the Kettle Valley Rail Trail that parallels Boundary Creek. It’s difficult to see in the picture below (right), but great dark heaps of slag bordered the creek for some distance.

Next, I walked along the main street (which is Highway 3), lined with beautiful and historic buildings. In the photo below, the Windsor Hotel (center, blue windows) was built in 1896 and houses the longest operating pub in B.C.. To its right, the Pacific Hotel was built and rebuilt twice due to fires, first in 1899 and again in 1907. During the second world war, the hotel became a designated Internment Building and housed over 200 interned Japanese Canadians.

Below are several more scenes from Greenwood’s main street. If I lived here, I would join the Kettle River Art Club and the Women’s Institute, and I might occasionally participate in the Legion’s Saturday Meat Draw!

After touring the few short blocks of the main street, I walked uphill and past the historic fire hall, post office, city hall, and several beautifully restored homes.

One street higher up I reached the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic church, built in 1897 as “a mission by Fr. Palmer”, and right beside the church was an old beauty of a home, empty and not yet restored but in fine shape, with a large grassy yard and backed by a forested hillside. I sat on its front porch steps for awhile, enjoying the peaceful morning and the mesmerizing sound of crickets, and I imagined that it was mine. It would be a fine house to restore to its former glory.

I carried on through Boundary Country and made a short stop in Grand Forks. Before leaving home, I had read that Grand Forks recently had high case counts of Covid so I avoided a stop in the historic downtown but I visited the large riverside park and municipal campground for a pleasant walk in the shade of huge cottonwoods. Also, I had wanted to see why the town was named “Grand Forks” so I found my way to a small, unnamed pocket park where the Granby River (on the left) and the Kettle River (on the right) meet. I stood right on the edge of the sandy point that was being inexorably eroded on both sides. There was such a powerful feeling of movement, energy, impermanence, and change here!

It was time for me to keep on moving as well so I returned to my Highlander but as I was leaving town I just had to stop and take a photo of this very groovy VW van. 🙂

After leaving Grand Forks and later Christina Lake, Highway 3 traversed the forested slopes of the Rossland Range, rising to an elevation of 1535 meters at Bonanza Pass. It was wonderful driving, and I was compelled to stop yet again when I saw this view of Nancy Greene Lake with Old Glory Mountain off in the distance. I wish that I had known of the five kilometer trail that loops around this beautiful lake.

I continued eastwards on Highway 3 which soon made its descent into Castlegar and then rose up again steeply to a viewpoint with views back down to Castlegar and the mighty Columbia River. Later, the road followed the gorgeous, braided, and fast-flowing Salmo River for a while before it climbed up to the Kootenay Pass summit at an elevation of 1774 meters.

My next planned stop was the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area which is comprised of 17,000 acres of protected wetland habitat for the benefit of resident and migrating water fowl and other wildlife. Here there are many kilometers of trails, bird-viewing towers, and a small but excellent nature center. Brent and I had visited this nature reserve about 30 years ago and had taken a guided canoe ride through narrow water channels lined with reeds and cattails to view the abundant wildlife. It had been a most enjoyable and memorable experience (we had even sighted a muskrat!), and so I was very excited to visit this very special place again.

Bright yellow flag iris were beautiful to see and photograph, but they are an invasive species and work is underway to try and remove them from the reserve.

You can still book a guided canoe ride through the wetland, and when I saw the canoes I dearly wished that my family was here to join me on this warm and beautiful afternoon.

Heading into Creston, I stopped to take this photo of the Kootenay River. The river and the wide valley here are stunning!

In Creston, I parked beside the art deco inspired Tivoli Theatre (1938), treated myself to a late lunch/early dinner in a hipster cafe, and then spent some time relaxing under a shady tree in the town’s Rotary Park while I made a phone call home.

Continuing on my journey, I stopped in at Yahk Provincial Park campground and decided to stay there for the night. Conveniently close to the highway, my site was just a minute’s walk from the pretty sight and lovely sounds of the Moyie River.

I read in camp until dusk, and then returned to the river to watch as bats started their evening flights, swirling and twirling at speed above the tumbling water. What a wonderful way to end a second magnificent day heading east on Highway 3!

Western Road Trip – I’m Back!

July 19, 2021

Hello everyone. I have been home for a few days now, and will leave again in a few days to visit Salt Spring Island and then family on Vancouver Island. I did not go across Canada, and I am a bit disappointed about that, but I had a wonderful time on the prairies!

I’m sorry, but whoever says that the prairies are boring just isn’t looking! The prairies are certainly not flat, and the roads aren’t always straight. The scenery changes almost every second as you drive along. The roads dip down and climb up and around, passing an endless variety of fields that change shape and colour, from every shade of green and gold to the bright yellow of canola and the pretty blue of flax.

There are distant hills, and wide, deeply eroded valleys that you drive down into, with sparkling braided rivers snaking through them like the gorgeous North and South Saskatchewan Rivers, the Bow, the Red Deer, and the Oldman River. There are sharply etched coulees, copses of trees, reed-lined ponds, streams, and swaths of native prairie grasses. There are colourful and weirdly sculpted badlands, great sand hills, and large freshwater reservoirs and salt lakes. And, even if you are standing still in one spot, the scenery is still always changing because of the almost-constant prairie wind that ripples through the grasses, trees, and wildflowers, and that moves the clouds to create an ever-changing sky. There are manmade structures as well to catch your eye and interest. Some are ancient like tipi rings, and stone effigies and ceremonial circles. Some are from the early days of the pioneers, faded or derelict old farm houses and barns, and tiny white churches that are often well-cared for and freshly painted. And of course there are modern farm buildings, roads, railroad tracks, grain elevators, windmills, shiny metal storage tanks, and other large structures and machinery – all sturdy, well-built, and purposeful.

And there is so much history! I visited many excellent small town museums, went on guided interpretive hikes, and toured world-class facilities like the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, Wanuskewin, and Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump. I saw dinosaur fossils, learned about the geological history of the prairies, and viewed artefacts and interpretive displays that shed light on the traditional way of life of the indigenous people who have lived on the plains for more than 11,000 years. I also learned more about the arrival and experiences of European explorers, fur traders, homesteaders, and the Northwest Mounted Police as they moved into and changed the prairie environment forever.

In future posts, I plan to feature some of the wonderful places that I visited, but for now here are a few stats about my trip overall, including a list and photos of some of the wildlife that I spotted.

Days on the Road: 30

Mileage: 4266 miles = 6865 kilometers, almost all on secondary roads and a lot of gravel too (dusty but fun!)

Gas Costs: $946 (lowest price paid, $1.269 per litre, somewhere in Alberta, highest price paid $1.599 in Vancouver before leaving)

Camping Nights: 23 (mostly in municipal, provincial, and national park campsites. 4 nights were “stealth” (and free) in hospital parking lots, a hotel parking lot, and beside a town park)

Comfort Level: excellent! I slept well, camped well, ate healthily, and felt safe throughout.

Exercise: lots of walking and some wonderful swims

Meals: 3 fast food breakfasts, one fast food lunch, and one dinner out in Regina with a glass of wine. All other meals were camp meals or on-the-go snacks.

Hotel Nights: 7 (2 in Regina, 2 in Saskatoon, 1 in Medicine Hat, and 2 in Lethbridge) All of the hotel stays were because of extreme heat warnings and also extreme thunder storm warnings, but it was definitely nice to get really clean, do laundry, have a bit more space, and cool down with the help of AC.

Annoyances: tailgaters, melting cooler ice, and energy-sapping temperatures above 30 degrees!

Massive Prairie Storms: 3 (thunder, lightning, wind, and lashes of rain, but thankfully no hail and no tornados!)

New Travel Companion: I found this little Parks Canada fellow in my campsite at Grasslands and his cheerful face kept me company while driving.

Wildlife Spotted:

Hawks: So many! Soaring and swooping over the fields, usually in the mornings. I love them!

Golden eagles: 2, both sitting regally on fence posts, very exciting!

I saw countless other wonderful birds, including American pelicans, gulls, many kinds of shore birds that nest on prairie lakes, eastern and western kingbirds, warblers, wrens, curlews, killdeer, northern flickers, gray catbirds (google “youtube catbird mewing call” to see how they got their name!), robins, magpies, crows, ravens, and swallows in the hundreds including cliff, bank, tree, barn, and violet-green swallows. Finally, one night in Grasslands, at dusk and after a beautiful sunset, I heard two great horned owls calling to each other below me in the dense trees lining a coulee – a moving and magical moment that I will never forget.

White tailed deer: probably about 20- 30, including this morning visitor to my campsite, munching away on some tasty leaves.

Mule deer: 40-60, including these two impressive fellows in a field of canola.

Pronghorn antelope: 30-50, usually in groups of 1, 2 or 3, including several mothers with babies. One wanted to impress me with his speed by zipping across the highway, scooting quickly under the barbed wire fence at the side of the road, and then zooming at top speed across a field. Wow! They are the second fastest land animals after cheetahs! I loved seeing them.

Bison: I saw several at Grasslands National Park and Waterton, and also a large herd near Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, with many new calves. Here are a few members of that herd. They look so right in the landscape. It is astounding to me how the buffalo hunters could decimate 30 million bison to near extinction in only several decades. Thirty million! It is shocking, incredibly sad, and nearly incomprehensible!

Jackrabbits: 1 (My, what long ears you have!)

Nuttals rabbits: 6 (tiny and very very cute)

Rattlesnake: 1 (a bit too close for comfort!)

Coyotes: 4

Cross fox: 1 (This fox has caught a good-sized gopher for a midday meal! I was really happy to have seen him or her.)

Gophers (Richardson Ground Squirrels) and Black-tailed Prairie Dogs: too many to count! And so stressful when you are driving and there they are on the side of the road and you are going fast and thinking, “Please, please, please, PLEASE don’t run out in front of me at the last minute! Aaah! Dodge (safely!), oh no?, phew, thank goodness I missed him! Why do they DO that?!)

Badgers: 2 (my first!)

Porcupine: 1 (My first! A large, lumbering old fellow!)

Beavers: 2

Muskrat: 1

Moose: 1, in B.C. (Finally! I saw a moose when I was 17 in Quebec, and a mother moose and calf in Yellowstone in my 20’s, but I have never seen one in all of my B.C. travels, nor in the Yukon, nor in the Northwest Territories, and not even in Newfoundland where they are exceedingly numerous!)

Bears: none this trip, but maybe on the next adventure!

Thank you so much to everyone for reading. I hope you are all having a very happy summer.