Day 35 - May 25 5 DAYS IN MAY...THAT'S WHAT'S LEFT OF OUR ADVENTURE

Come and listen to my story 'bout a man named Jed. We're in the prairies as we head out of Peace River and the donkeys, iron horses or whatever you want to call them are all we see.

Seeing bears has not exactly been unusual on this journey but we had yet to see any cubs so today's sighting was special. Still not close enough or sharp enough but it sure was fun. Mom came running out of the woods followed by two of what turned out to be three cubs. Once she saw the highway she thought better of her plans and turned, hightailed and ran back to the woods. One of the babies (that's an awful big baby) stood up and jumped on mom's back as she ran by.

We arrived at our chosen hotel (chosen when we saw it) in Whitecourt, AB at about 2PM so we headed out to nearby (20 kilometres) Hard Luck Canyon. It nearly was just that as all the road signs indicated "Site Closed". The parking area was barricaded but someone had knocked them down so who are we to argue. As we walked along the trail the bridge to the top of the canyon was blocked off due to restoration. We backtracked to a side trail that indicated alternate access so we took it. A short hike took us to the top of the canyon. 

From there a couple hundred stairs led to the canyon floor. It was pretty locked in at that point but certainly worth the effort to get there.

Carved by Hard Luck Creek through the sandstone layers of the Paskapoo Formation, Hard Luck Canyon is a unique geological feature within Woodlands County. I'm certainly glad we were not there much later in the season because as we arrived back at the SUV we were swarmed by small fuzzy flies. Plenty evidence of them on the windshield as well.

Even after 5 weeks this is still a lot of fun. It's hard not to have fun in Canada...any time of year. Tomorrow we head to Calgary for 2 nights so I'll combine the next 2 days in the next blog. I'll email you all a reminder. Stay with us!

😎