13-JUN-2007
And then we met the mother bear (just to the left of the large dead tree in the centre) and two cubs (wandering along the pathway in the right of the image). We saw the cubs first; it was in fact a comfort to know where the mother was, and that we weren't between her and her cubs.
13-JUN-2007
Driving out from the trailhead, we saw more bison. We also, roughly around this point, found that we were covered in ticks from our walk, and still well within the bison enclosure (where you're not supposed to leave your car). It was an unpleasant time. Luckily, no Lyme disease in RMNP.
13-JUN-2007
The first night in RMNP we had stayed in a lodge because it was tipping down with rain. The second night we camped. Here's Janet putting up our tent. Luckily, the campground was a very short walk from the townsite, where we had already found a nice pizza place with Fort Garry ale on tap.
13-JUN-2007
Riding Mountain National Park curls around Wasagaming, a resort village on the shores of Clear Lake. There are lots of very pretty resort-like buildings, and (strangely enough) two old gas stations which appear to have been preserved in amber. Here's the first.
13-JUN-2007
Here's the second. (This one is actually still operational.)
14-JUN-2007
From Wasagaming we drove North out of the park then West to Inglis, where a row of several Standard Plan grain elevators remain at the end of an abandoned CP spur.
14-JUN-2007
The elevators are a National Historic Site.
14-JUN-2007
It was rainy and drizzly and grey, and since the visitor centre wasn't going to be open until July, all we could really do was wander around and read the plaques.
14-JUN-2007
And take photos. They're massively impressive devices, and interesting to really wander around them a bit, since they're scattered across the prairies in ones and twos.