km today: 96.9
total km: 1446.9
We managed to get a fairly early start this morning after our usual breakfast of oatmeal. Our first order of business was to grab a picture of the Frank Slide which we had passed the day before. On April 29, 1903, a 1km wide, 425 m long and 150 m deep slab of limestone broke from Turtle Mountain, destroying the town of Frank and killing 70 people.
The first 34 km to Pincher Creek were a breeze. There was a bit of a tailwind to push us over the relatively flat terrain. Our ride involved many picture taking stops as we were continually blown away by the breath-taking scenery. Open plains of rolling hills ahead and imposing Rockies behind.From Pincher we headed to Waterton Park (56km away). The ride became much much more hilly and the temperature grew hotter. We were definitely slower, but we still had fun. A stop for blast from the past Freezies revived us.
We finally descended into Waterton and were blown away by how beautiful it was. "Mountains meet prairies in a dramatic setting." We were also very impressed with how close Montana is. It's literally right across the lake. Waterton Park is part of a Peace Park formed with Glacier National Park in Montana.
This is a view point outside of the park.
Left side of panorama.
Right side of panorama.One problem with Waterton that we didn't prepare ourselves for is the very inflated prices for everyday necessities - mainly food. Even Subway is marked up by about 50%.
The deer were pretty cool. They roamed all over the place as though tame. To eat, they would stand up on their hind legs to grab leaves from the tree branches above.
The prairie dogs were not bad either. They probably outnumber people by about 10 to 1. At any one time you could look, and see about 10 of them. Usually standing in the classic Timone pose chirping at each other.
B&K
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