 09:31:31 To start the day off we have a little hike up into Johnston Canyon. At the bottom you can see "You Are Here". At the top you can see where we're headed, the Upper Falls, only 2,6 kilometres away climbing uphill. The time is now 09h31, synchronise watches. Let's see how long this takes us.  09:35:21  09:37:52  09:39:35  09:42:54  09:43:57 As you might have noticed, most of the photos are in portrait orientation due to this being a vertical canyon.  09:45:34 Trees grow anywhere they can, don't they?  09:46:08  09:46:41 And so we reach the Lower Falls, a distance of 1,1 kilometres. It was supposed to have taken us 30 minutes, but we did it in 15 minutes. Only 1,5 kilometres to go. Oh.... and then the way back down, of course. I forgot about that.  09:49:29 Some more views of the Lower Falls.  09:50:47  09:53:24 Let's crawl through here and get closer to the waterfall, shall we?  09:54:40 Well, not so much closer, but a bit anyway.  09:56:00  09:59:09 And so we continue up the canyon...  10:03:16  10:12:05  10:20:09  10:21:01  10:22:45 I believe that these are the Upper Falls up ahead, but I am not sure. There's no signs or anything. (Check out the cool cave at the top.)  10:24:12 The Upper Falls?!??  10:24:19  10:24:46  10:31:00 Ok. Those WERE the Upper Falls, but you had to climb a bit further to officially reach them. The sign congratulates us on our 2,7 kilometre hike, rising 120 metres in elevation along the way. Time check? It is 10h31, exactly one hour after we first set out and precisely the predicted time as noted on the initial sign.  10:31:27  10:31:30 I am scared of heights so I am really nervous out here on this ledge.  10:31:36  10:32:57 Ok. Time to head back down again. 2,7 more kilometres ahead of us, but at least these ones are more or less downhill.  10:55:55  10:57:25 I forgot to mention that it's raining a bit out here today. But that was actually all part of the planning since today is NOT a weather critical day. Of course it would be nice to not have the little bit of rain, but since we're in the forest we don't really feel it, nor do we need it to make the scenery any better. Thank you again Nerd Schedule.  11:02:13 So green....  11:04:49  11:11:37 One wonders how this tree ended up this way...  12:44:03 And so we skip ahead an hour and a half... we've left the Rocky Mountains behind us (see them in the distance?) and are now firmly on the wide open prairies and heading East for the city of Calgary. By the way... a Texas Gate (see left) is a special kind of gate-less "gate" that is made of a pit with poles over it lying parallel. This allows cars to drive over, but does not allow cows to cross over it (because their feet will fall through), thus keeping them inside the fences.  12:45:10 The mighty Trans Canada Highway heading West. If we turned around and drove for 12 hours we'd be back in Vancouver.  13:02:53 Arriving at the outskirts of Calgary we glimpse the ski jumps at Canada Olympic Park, home to the 1988 Winter Olympics.  13:17:44 Stopping in at Canada Olympic Park we take a ride up the chairlift to the top of the hill where the ski jumping towers are.  13:22:59 People generally have no idea how steep these things are. It is frightening, actually, to stand out on the edge of the ramp. Look at the bottom-left as well to see the ground plunge away from the ski ramps and into the seating bowl below.  13:28:38 Rear view of the main ski jump tower.  13:29:28 Far off in the distance are the snow-covered Rocky Mountains.  13:32:48 Ever since the Olympics this whole site has become somewhat un-used. They try to keep it going, but there's just not much use for a ski jump for a country that didn't even field a ski jump team in the last couple of Olympics. Check out the dilapidated state of the seating area below. It's like the ruins of an ancient civilisation.  13:34:18 The snow-capped Rockies in the distanced once again.  13:34:54 Another view back at the ski jumps.  13:35:07 And in the distance to the East lies downtown Calgary.  13:35:58 In an attempt to remain relevant in the summer months the park is used for mountain biking. Take the chairlift to the top and bike down the ski slopes.  13:42:35 Anyone remember the movie Cool Runnings? The Jamaican Bobsled Team?!?? This is their sled.  13:44:50 The now extinguished Olympic flame.  14:00:15 Leaving the sad ruins of the formerly great civilisation behind us we go for lunch at one of my favourite places... Taco Bell!  14:30:12 After lunch we continue down into downtown Calgary.  15:02:37 Now we're in the Glenbow Museum where they have a display showing a Yugoslavian Partisan fighter from the Second World War. Damm Yugoslavians!  15:03:00 And again.... those damm Yugoslavians. It's best to finish your cigarette before you go shoot someone.  15:04:16 A collection of various weapons through the ages... I recognise most from my various computer games involving shooting people. See the difference? One is computer game, the other is for real. Rule of thumb: shooting people in computer game is okay, shooting them in real life is not.  15:10:59 And speaking of genocide.... a tipi.  15:16:22 Is it just me or were guns once either really cheap, or flour really expensive? 4 pelts = 1 bag of flour 12 pelts = 1 gun  15:37:07 I love the Hudson's Bay Company (or simply "The Bay" as it is often called). It is a Canadian chain of retail department stores and one of the oldest companies in the entire world. This flyer proclaims a 264th anniversary sale... and this was in 1934. Check out some of the prices on here: Hats for 89 cents, coats $6,48, frocks $2,48, girdles 89 cents!  15:44:49 Back on the streets of Calgary we walk past the Calgary Tower, now dwarfed by the office buildings around it.  15:58:15 Anyone from Calgary will be made homesick by this photo.  16:00:20 This is Stephen Ave, Calgary's downtown pedestrian shopping street. It was on this very street, at a story called Funky's Unlimited, that I bought my infamous green jacket in 1990.  18:20:16 Leaving Calgary behind us we see some blue skies ahead and we're on the home stretch for our final destination of the day: Medicine Hat. Only 278 kilometres to go!  18:26:26 This bridge is an important landmark when you're driving TO Calgary from Medicine Hat. It means that you are almost there, thank god.  18:38:34 See the big Canadian flag? That's a Husky station / restaurant. You can't see the sign from here for it. You actually can't build signs that big. But you can build flagpoles as high as you want and so Husky has cleverly trained Canadians to recognise that a big Canadian flag means a Husky station.  18:45:18 Once again we're in good weather again. That bit of rain this morning and the overcast but dry afternoon didn't ruin any of the day's activities at all. But we've got a long road ahead of us still. It stretches all the way to the horizon.  19:50:25 The sun sets over the prairies...  And so we reach the end of yet another day. There are more days behind us than ahead at this point. Here's a map orientation to show how far we drove today.  And to recap our travels over the last, what is it? Three days? Marked in purple is our path of travel since we reached Alberta. After flying in from Edmonton we went on to Elk Island Park, then to Jasper, then down the Icefields Parkway to Banff, then to Calgary, then finally today ultimately reaching Medicine Hat. All that driving (15+ hours) and as you can see we've barely covered half of the province of Alberta, much less the entire country of Canada. Add to this the tiny part of the West Coast we covered last week (marked in darker purple and which actually was quite a lot of driving) and compare it to the mape of all of Canada in the top left and you non-Canadians can start to get a scale for the size of Canada. What is also interesting is that the city of Edmonton, which is in itself quite far North, is actually not even halfway up the province of Alberta. And Alberta itself isn't even halfway up the entire country of Canada (North-South-wise, I mean). Look at all those places North of Edmonton that I've never been to and which are like in the middle of nowhere!  21:33:32 But some good news upon reaching Medicine Hat... instead of having to stay at my mom's old folks home complex she has instead arranged and paid for some first class accommodation at the Medicine Hat Lodge. Or, at least what passes for first class in Medicine Hat, Alberta. It's not the Waldorf Towers, but it has a hot-tub! Today's Travel Information Johnston Canyon Resort www.johnstoncanyon.com Box 875 Banff AB (403) 762-2971 2 Person Cottage = $139 Canada Olympic Park www.canadaolympicpark.ca Taco Bell www.tacobell.com The Glenbow Museum www.glenbow.org Medicine Hat Lodge www.medhatlodge.com 1051 Ross Glen Drive SE Medicine Hat, Alberta T1B 3T8 (403) 529-2222 / 1-800-661-8095 Price with Mom Discount = $0,00 
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