Canada Fly-By

Golden Eagle in Montana

So the next part of our road trip takes a turn from wildlife and landscape to people.  We noticed that Yellowstone was about an 8 hour drive away from some very good friends of Jackie's so, being a little crazy, we decided to make a side trip to Redclif, near Medicine Hat in Canada.  While this was a L O N G day of driving, it was a fantastic chance to catch up with (or meet) old friends, and, as it turns out we saw some pretty cool things along the way.  Jackie had always been told driving the prairies of Canada was pretty boring but we saw another side of them in sunset on snow, with a Chinook arch on the horizon (it's a Canadian weather thing).  We also finally got a good shot of a golden eagle in Montana beside the road.

From Medicine Hat it was suggested that we could drive to Portland via Calgary, Banff and Vancouver and it wouldn't take much longer, plus the roads were more likely to be clear of snow.  Once we realised we could visit two other friends in Canada via that route we were sold!

The drive to Portland was on some days long and nervous due to the amount of snow on the road and avalanche warnings, plus we didn't have many stops for photos but it was well worth it to visit friends.

Here are a few photos from this leg of the journey...

The plains of Alberta

The plains of Alberta

Random lake in BC

These awesome people opened their home, their country and their culture to me 18 years ago and I'm so glad they did. Experience of a lifetime!

This is Tasha, we bonded in Travel and Tourism class at my Canadian high school. Since then, she has married one cool bloke and given birth to another.

We were so stoked to see this chick as we traveled around, can't wait 'til she's back in Melbs!

This is one of the first towns after crossing back into the US, just to make sure you know which country you are in.