Stone ridges and bear bridges

Day 22
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Lake Louise, AB to Saint Mary, MT
304 miles

Canada’s commitment to preserving wildlife and increasing motorists’ safety is impressive. In Banff National Park, they were “twinning” the Trans-Canada Highway (expanding the existing two-lane highway into a four-lane, divided one). In the process, they realized that the right of way would be too wide for wildlife to cross the highway safely, so they took some extraordinary measures to protect both animals and motorists. They have erected nine foot high sheep fencing along both sides of the road for the entire length of the new highway through the park. In addition, they are building “bear bridges,” which are about 200 feet wide and run from the forest on one side of the highway over both sets of lanes to the forest on the other side. These bridges have been planted with trees, shrubs, and natural cover to create a “pedestrian way” for bears, elk, mountain goats, and other wildlife. There is evidence that they are working. Park officials have taken footprints and used fur snares to gather samples of animals’ fur, and have thereby determined that multiple species and individuals have made use of the bridges.

We drove under many bear bridges on our way from Lake Louise to the eastern boundary of Banff National Park on our way to Calgary.

In Calgary, we stopped for lunch at a Subway. Needless to say, the “5-dollar-footlong” promotion was not in effect in Canada. A nothing-special lunch for four of us cost $34.

Like any country, Canada was a mixed bag of good and bad. We appreciated their focus on conservation, recycling, and a pedestrian-friendly culture. Canadians value and conserve wildlife. We liked their use of coins for the one and two dollar denominations, and, in general, we recognized the superiorities of the metric system. At the same time, Canada’s inferior roads, high prices, horrendous weather, and bilingualism grated on our nerves after a week. We also noticed that Canada’s low population density caused inefficiencies in infrastructure.

Their commitment to, and obsession with, giving English and French equal status, at least on a federal level, represented a significant impediment to this nation. Every sign on a national highway and every printed material in a national park must, by law, have both English and French. We realize that this was a concession by the majority to Quebec to preserve the union, but it was at a great cost to the nation. It made us realize the importance of keeping English (only) as America’s official language.

After lunch, we exited onto Alberta Route 2 and headed south toward the US border. It was a good road that traversed a flat plain of verdant farmland just to the east of the Rocky Mountains. The Rockies’ Front Range was visible on the right for more than one hundred miles. We saw isolated showers in the distance on both sides of the road, most of which we did not personally receive rain from.

In southern Alberta, we reentered windmill country. We skirted an afternoon thunderstorm that Elliot was sure that we would drive into. However, our luck held, and the road curved gently to the left, away from the impending rainstorm. As we drove into the next town, a small military base in southern Alberta called Fort McCleod, we felt how windy the conditions were, and it reminded all of us of the Great Plains states like Kansas and Oklahoma.

We headed past small towns on the way to the border, and Frank commented on the depressed economy in the area, noting the mostly Indian population. We waited in line to cross the border into Montana behind several other cars. There was only one lane open; a stark difference from the border crossing into British Columbia from Blaine. Let’s just say that security was a little less hyped up, except, of course, when it came to declaring food. “The mean man took all of our mandarins,” Emily later commented, presumably because of the health hazards associated with them being from a foreign country.

We finally reached Glacier National Park in the town of Saint Mary, Montana, and decided to stop at a visitor’s center to get information, use the bathroom and watch a "free" movie that was being screened every half an hour or so. Unfortunately, the price of admission was a missed opportunity to camp in the better of two campgrounds. We drove up Going-to-the-sun Road and pulled into the Rising Sun Campground just as the last campsite was being given away to another family who had reached the campground less than five minutes before we did.

So, we decided to spend one night at the Saint Mary Campground, which, in the end, was a very nice place.