Alberta

Morning in Alberta

The morning begins with a delicious breakfast of eggs and bacon (much better than the coffee we're used to making ourselves!). We spend over an hour chatting with a couple from Chicago, he's a history professor. n a n You at the American School of Rome, while she was interested in museums. So we leave at 9 am for a day entirely dedicated to travel. We first reach Fort St. John and then... Dawson Creek After seeing a bear by the side of the road. Here is the mile 0 of the Alaska Highway (which is approximately 2300 km long), which we leave to head west towards Grande Prairie. We are now in large cities and have another encounter with urban traffic. The landscape also changes: we have left the hills and for the first time we come across the plains, although they are mostly flat. We are in Alberta, a province dedicated to agriculture and livestock farming. There are numerous and very large silos connected to the railway that store grain. Shortly after Dawson Creek, we witness a distressing scene: a mule deer runs wildly towards the highway just as a pickup truck is passing another vehicle. We follow it for about 300 meters. The animal enters the roadway and cannot avoid the impact with the pickup truck, which instantly kills and throws it into a ditch, risking creating a pile-up of cars. Seeing this scene, we are momentarily stunned but continue on our way, feeling sorry for the poor animal that adds to the already high number of animals killed due to accidents. After Grande Prairie, we continue south towards Grande Cache on a straight highway that takes us to reach an altitude of 1200 meters. It also starts to rain and the temperature drops to 6°. Along the road, we encounter several animals, mainly mule deer grazing. The afternoon experience advises maximum caution. Dinner is at the Mountain View restaurant in the Grand Cache hotel, with the usual steak (but this time with the three A quality mark of Alberta). Due to being fully booked in other hotels, we have to go to the Alpine Lodge Motel. It is ugly and expensive compared to the service offered. There are many construction workers occupying the hotels, making it difficult to find a room, even though it is not a major tourist area.