Okotoks, Alberta

Thursday, July 5, 2018

Day 21

105 Miles

The next stop for Daisy and me on our Canadian journey was Okotoks, Alberta, where we spent two nights (July 5 and 6) with our friends Paul and Elva. We met them last February on the Mexican Connection RV caravan to Baja California, Mexico. We were all on the parking team, which means we shared a lot of time together—working but also having fun.

It was a completely clear day with temperatures in the high 60s as we drove east on Trans Canada Highway 1 and then south on Alberta Highway 22. The terrain became flatter and the land more suited to agricultural production, but there were still mountains on the western horizon. 

We have seen lots of cattle guards in Texas and other states, but only in western Canada did we see signs calling them “Texas Gates.”

In Turner Valley, we stopped for a break at Coyote Moon Cantina that involved a light lunch.

Yes, there were not only cattle but also horses on the roadsides in the open range country.

Our destination of Okokoks is south of Calgary, and the Stampede was starting on July 6. However, this wasn’t our first rodeo, so we decided not to get into the huge crowds but rather to explore the more rural areas. We were going to visit the fun people we had traveled with in February.

Paul and Elva have a lovely home and large yard in the foothills of Calgary, and they were wonderful hosts for our visit.

They even had a place for us to park our truck camper with an electric hook-up, so we were very comfortable. 

Friday, July 6

Day 22

On Friday, Paul and Elva took us on a tour of their area, and one of the first stops was the Okotoks Erratic. The Foothills Erratics Train is a group of rocks carried from the Rocky Mountains by glacial ice during the last part of the Ice Age, sometime between 30,000 and 12,000 years ago. This ice flowed southeastward along the edge of the main continental ice sheet and deposited the rocks in a narrow belt.

This enormous quartzite block, weighing about 16,500 tons and measuring about 135 x 60 x 30 feet, was carried here on the surface of a glacier. It came from the Rocky Mountains in the Jasper area. Rocks moved many miles from their original location by the ice are called “glacial erratics.”

The Okokoks Erratic is the largest single member of the Foothills Erratics Train, which extends from Jasper National Park into northern Montana. The name of the rock, and thus the nearby town, comes from the Blackfoot word for rock: Okatok. The quartzite has been fractured by natural processes such as freezing in the winter and the hot prairie sun in the summer. 

The shape of the section of rock in the center of the photo below reminded us of the “Old Man of the Mountain” rock profile that is the iconic image of New Hampshire and crumbled in 2003.

Growing at the base of the rock were these wild roses, the provincial flower of Alberta. 

Another thing we noticed were the frequent number of murals on the barns and sides of town buildings.

We had lunch at the Chuckwagon Café in Turner Valley. Apparently it had been featured on the Food Network, but the food wasn’t as good as the two dinners and breakfast that Elva and Paul prepared for us!

 

This is expected by the locals for this ranch owned business!

I ordered the Eggs Benedict and with a smile, told the server that if I did not like the Hollandaise sauce I would return it. She said she had made the sauce herself and I would like it. I did.

 

Daisy ordered the beef patty with bacon. 

The waitress offered that the young beef there is local ranch  

grown and that the hamburger is ground in house and never frozen.  One special feature is that a light touch is used when the patties are hand formed.  One review from the owner said that the patties are just 'tickled' together to shape. This makes them juicy.

After lunch, we checked out the neighboring Eau Claire Distillery, another first for this trip.

The sign above the distillery view window says "good spirits live here."

We did a tasting that included small amounts of two vodkas, three gins, ginger beer, and their own tonic water. 

You could buy gin cocktails at the bar, but we decided not to try any of them on this trip. We thought it was interesting that they were named for the seven deadly sins!

The straight boozes that we tasted are distilled on site.

Daisy's favorite was the prickly pear vodka. 

In the background of the photo below you can see the distilling room, and it was interesting to hear about the processes used. The Eau Claire Distillery has only been in business for about a year, has received several awards, and is already planning to expand its capacity to keep up with demand.

This was a unique ending to a special day with friends.