2005/08 Alaska Trip - The Island and home - Moose Mountain |
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Saturday September 3rd
It was lunchtime before we left and headed east across Alberta. We stopped for lunch where the road dropped down into the Badlands and crossed the Red Deer River. That evening we camped on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border at a little place called Alsask. We stopped there on last year’s trip too and, like last year, we were the only campers
Sunday September 4th
We were confused about what time we were starting as Saskatchewan has its own time rules. It doesn’t follow daylight saving, so it’s on Mountain time in the summer and Central time in the winter.
The driving wasn’t too exciting as Saskatchewan is largely flat with very few trees, and all we could see were crops in all directions. Some were being harvested, but most were not as this is Canada’s bible belt and this was Sunday. We’d driven the same route last year, but somehow I managed to miss three turns and ended up exploring some bumpy back roads.
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The road home in Canada (Banff, White Bear, Moose Mountain) |
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As we approached Regina we heard that this was a historic day. As well as being Labour Day weekend, it was Saskatchewan’s hundredth birthday and this was going to be celebrated by fireworks displays. These were going to be simultaneous across the entire province. I don’t know why that was important as most places are far enough apart that the townspeople couldn’t see the next town’s display anyway, but … who knows?
With all my missed turns and the bouncy roads it was getting late to find a campsite on Labour Day’s Sunday. The animals were also coming out as the sun went down and we were dodging porcupines and skunks for the last fifty miles. It was dark when we got to Moose Mountain, and we expected to find the park was full, but there was plenty of room. Everyone off synchronizing their fireworks, I guess.
Monday September 5th
We awoke to find that we were within walking distance of Moose Mountain’s Little Kenosee Lake. This was quite wild and pretty and made up for seeing neither the moose or the mountain, but then I think anything higher than a tree is called a mountain in this part of the world.
I’d seen that there was a “White Bear Lake” on the map so we had to go take a look. It turned out to be the White 
Bear First Nations Territory, an Indian reservation, and its major attraction was the BearClaw Casino. The lake itself looked prettier than ours, but maybe that’s because we were seeing it just as the tree colours were changing.