At some point in the journey, I just had to ask. "Honey, are you sure we are heading the right way? We are headed due south. The pond is east, northeast of here."
I don't know what it is about men and their gadgets but I had to pull out an online map/gps type thing to prove my point. lol. He made a left turn way too early.
Anyhows. We decided to change our plans and see where the road took us and we'll see what there was to do when we got there. It was maybe two or three in the afternoon
and we could do that because the sun sets later these days, maybe round 9pm.
We came to a small town called Turner Valley. Oil and gas in the province of Alberta, where we live, was first found here. It was a sleepy, small town with hardly anyone about. J asked a local if there were any fishing spots in the vicinity but apparently the water levels are too high (we've been having a very rainy season this past week) and so we completely abandoned any hopes of fishing that day.
We went on a drive towards Sheep River Falls and stopped at a clearing. The views were awesome. The hills looked like paintings, with very vivid brushstrokes for the distinctive foliage. There was a relatively steep drop to a river below. Very picturesque indeed. This might be too much to share but most of us made a restroom stop here, one of the most awesome toilets in the world, in my humble opinion and experience. Yes, another one of our pot-a-potty stops. And my apologies for not sharing any pics.
We finally got to the Falls after driving on further and a short walk down the river.
It was a terrific view and the air was crisp and clean. I have to say, the Falls look bigger in the pic than it actually is.
Then we hung out for abit by the river.
And K4 laid claim on this rock.
And shoved his brother right off it when K2 came to chat with him. lol. He really did.
The boys were building a little stone bridge/trail across the water.
On our way back, we cruised past Turner Valley again, and then Black Diamond.
And Okotoks. I saw this structure in the distance and exclaimed, "Look, J, is that THE rock?" J said, "No, it's a broken down building". And he was not bluffing. He really thought it was an old building.
Well, broken down building it was not. It was a rock, probably broken off from an even bigger rock. That was the Okotoks Erratic. A piece of rock that was carried down by the glacier when it melted and then left behind. There's a trail that leads all the way down to Montana scattered intermittently with pieces of these huge glacial rocks. The boys wanted to climb it or at least get out of the car to explore but it was getting late and there is school today so we said no. lol. By the way, no climbing is allowed but you can spot people on it. It is that tempting.
So, that was where a wrong turn led us yesterday. Made any wrong turns lately? Life can be full of surprises! You might be able to control the outcome to a certain extent by your attitude towards these unexpected twist and turns. I know I did. :)
Yukari
