Day 7 - Monday, September 23

Today was a lot of fun with some exertion and near terror thrown in. The Sulphur Gates is an area in Grande Cache where two rivers meet. The drive in was gorgeous.

There is a two phase trail there - one up (that's the exertion part) and one down (that's where the terror comes in). If nothing else, we're here at a very pretty time of year. It would not be this nice in the summer.

The trail started out so very sweet totally lulling us into a false sense of everything.

That trail soon got very steep and rough with rocks and roots. They have given this a great deal of thought and provided a handrail for the ascent. It was still a bit of an effort but definitely worth whatever it took. I'll let the photos of the view from the top do the talking.

Their kind thoughts to your safety were abandoned at this point. We could have taken the same trail with the handrail back but decided how hard can it be to go the other trail? The answer is extremely hard. This photo does not give any perception of how steep this trail is. There is precious little to hold on to so Karen chose to bum it. I treaded softly and hoped for the best.

Having survived this session we walked the Split Rock Trail. I can't begin to tell you how short this trail was. You could probably cover this distance by walking inside your house.  😅

We had passed something yesterday that so bewitched and bewildered me I had to stop and see it this time. It's about a 20 minute drive north of Grande Cache. In this day and age I find this so hard to believe - a COAL Electrical Generating Station - in Alberta! 

That's one week down. Tomorrow we move on to Hinton. You may recall that awful day in February 1986 when a CNR freight train and Via Rail passenger train collided killing 23 and injuring 71. It was one of the few stories presented on the TV show Mayday that was not about an airplane disaster.

We'll be driving and being safe. So far this has been wonderful. I hope you all enjoy following along.  😎