A Road Story – Chapter Eight – Down the Road

We left Canmore on a bright sunny day and drove north and west on Highway 1 to Lake Louise and then on the Icefield Parkway to Saskatchewan River Crossing and then east on the David Thompson Highway. We were bound for Carvel, Alberta and Vera’s family farm.

Carvel is a farming community just west of Stony Plain and just off of Highway 16, the Yellowhead Highway.

Eventually we would follow the Yellowhead all the way to Prince Rupert and then on to Masset, Haida Gwaii — but more of that later.

Before we left the icefield Parkway we stopped at Jimmy Simpson’s Num-ti-Jah Lodge on beautiful Bow Lake.  Jimmy Simpson was a trapper and guide who first came to the area in the late 1890’s and eventually became one of the foremost guides and outfitters in the area, leading parties who made several first ascents in the Rockies.

Vera and I had stayed at Num-ti-Jah a few years back and so we decided to stop in for lunch on this road trip.

The setting could not be more beautiful, hard by Bow Lake in the shadow of the Bow Glacier.

After lunch we continued north and east on the David Thompson Highway

We then drove back roads away from the mountains and into the foothills of western Alberta.

It was harvest time and the countryside was diverse and quite pretty.

Our plan was to split up at Carvel with Vera staying on with her family for a week while I travelled west to Jasper until she could join me there.

Join us in Jasper in the next Chapter.