The circle continues.

Many years ago I enjoyed road and camping trips from Calgary East often to Brandon Manitoba or even as far as Peace Gardens on the US/Canadian border and also into Minnasota where the mosquito reined supreme.

These trips were with my host family and included their young son.

Well that son is now a grown man married and has a son of his own so it was a full circle to be asked to go camping with his family.

The familiar aspects were a camper trailer and a large US style truck to pull the camper.

The differences being a furance built into this years camper, a fridge and a powered site so coffee was freshly brewed and served in bed.

The weather varied from tank top to cold rain but still he campfire was lit each night and dinner cooked it too was eaten around the campfire area.

The trip started North of Airdrie and followed Highway 2 to Red Deer where lunch was at A&W before we turned West and headed towards those ever present Rockies. However unlike my other trips we remained on the vast Alberta plains and the foothills.

The Crimson Lake campsite was reached around check in time of 4pm and we were soon busy unhitching and erecting our home for the next three days. The campground was well presented with gravel campsites, a modern amenties block with adequate hotwater showers while each group of camps were serviced with the traditional close the lid to stop smells camppit toilets.

Lots of people were in the campground keen to get that last camping trip before the winter snows arrive. (they are predicted for later this week). The range of camps were from ultra modern self propelled motorhomes to 5th wheelers where the owners sat in air conditioned comfort watching cable TV to pop up camp trailers like ours and also present was micro campers and an odd assortment of classic VW micro buses and yes hike tents.

The night passed quietly and warm with the help of the furnace and morning came bright and sunny but soon the sky became overcast and light rain fell. The decision was made a long drive rather then a hike.

We loaded up the Amarda 4WD and headed off to ram River Falls. I had been there in 2017 from a different direction so it was all new scenery.

The scenery was some farmlands with a late harvest of the wheat crop underway and then it changed more to forestry and the everpresent oil & gas field wells with the resulting array of heavy diesel powered utes of the roughnecks.

We were hopeful of seeing a reasonable array of Canadian wildlife however we had little luck seeing only Grouse (birds) squirrels ( one in particular delighted in chewing off the pine cones and throwing them onto the roof of our camper as he prepared for the long hard cold winter ahead), mule deers and three Alberta Wild Horses.

The Ram River Falls are different to most falls as access is via a long steep stepped walk way some 150m down the sides of volcanic ash. The falls are located 64kms South of Nordegg on Hwy 743, in Ram Falls Provincial Park where all sites are unserviced and cost $26 per night. Like all campgrounds it is essential to bring or purchase firewood ($8 per bag) as they do not permit the burning of local timber dead or otherwise.

We walked down to the lower viewing platform and then after climbing back out walked the rim areas.

Nordegg at 1287m is a hamlet on the North Saskatchewan River that is noted in history for a mining disaster. On November 1st 1941 the AB Brazeau Mine was rocked by an explosion and 32 miners were killed with 29 now buried in the town at a special memorial gravesite. 30 others working in the coal mine were uninjured and made their way to the surface.

We then travelled to Crimson Lake Falls to look at the three main forms of vegetation that meet in this location. The Boreal forest comes in from the North West while from the West one observes foothills and in the East is parklands. This results in the formation of organic bogs and fen coverage in the centre of the park and from the North the vegetation types typical of the Boreal Forest is black Spruce bogs,tamarack swamp birch fens and open sedge fens. The actual falls can be accessed by a well formed road to within metres of the main drop and a short walk found us at the River while other more adventurerous types clambered down the steep sides to the rock ledges below the falls.

The final day saw the necessity to break camp and journey into Olds and Sundrie before the trip south to Airdre our starting point three days before.

The most memorable aspects as far as natural scenery is probably the vivid sunset over Crimson Lake as the photo's show.

Culturally the aspects that will remain were the times spent at The Sandpit play area and the company of the third generation family member.