I received a warm reception from the blog over the last week since publishing and I’d like to thank everyone for the kind words of encouragement to continue writing about my journeys. This first blog post from last week detailed out the decisions and scenarios leading up to the year long vacation, found here – My Recipe for a Year Long Vacation. I’ll now be moving forward into Week One of the trip, the journey across Canada.

The Drive

With the Subaru loaded, we departed home a bit later in the day after more goodbyes, farewells, and see you laters. The final stop before departure north was the 400 market, to see my mother at her Yours Truly Country Store booth (shameless mother promotion, but she deserves it). I’m sure she’s reading this, so big congratulations on hitting your 19th anniversary of the store last week!

Over the course of the week, we travelled from Innisfil to Calgary, with overnight stops in Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg x2, Regina, and finally Calgary. Purists will say we did this slowly, only driving 6-8 hours a day in-between destinations. But with what seemed like all the time in the world ahead of us, why wouldn’t we take our time across this beautiful country?

Points of Interest Along the Route

Along the drive, we spent our nights mostly in BNBs and hostels. While the Subbie is just large enough to sleep in, we had no external storage compartments to store the gear from inside the vehicle elsewhere. Also, we were on vacation, and a good nights rest seemed important while completing longer driving days.

With the BNBs and hostels planned out as the final addresses in our GPS, we were able to fill the drive days with other points of interest at our leisure.

Now let me get something straight before I continue. I talk a lot of trash about Ontario. Too many people, no ocean views, too much traffic, etc. But my largest complaint was flatness. Perhaps I’m a bit biased in this after being stuck out on the plains of Kincardine for the last while, but everything just felt flat.

This was the frame of mind before I got up to Northern Ontario on this trip. Between the landscape and the views of Lake Superior, Northern Ontario is absolutely breathtaking to visit. I’d absolutely recommend a stay-cation up that way for the outdoorsy type. I’ve heard great reviews of the Lake Superior Hiking Trail and Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, both which are definitely on the bucket list for the next time I’m up in that neck of the woods.

Agawa Rock

The first stop on day two was Agawa Rock. This indigenous archaeological site shows pictographs along the rock wall, pictured below, of canoes and animals such as moose, deer, bear and caribou. Along with the significant amount of pictographs, it also has superb views of Lake Superior and some of the islands out on the bay.

A word of caution during off peak months, this site is quite dangerous as the angle of rock mixed with the rough waters of Superior create a very slippery surface sloping into the freezing cold lake. As well, there was no rope or chain set up in the early season to see the further out pictographs. Safety prevailed over the FOMO here, and we held back from venturing too far out onto the slick rocks.

Kakabeka and Aguasabon Falls

Northern Ontario is also home to many beautiful waterfalls. Both Kakabeka and Aguasabon are some of the largest waterfalls in Ontario at 40m and 30m of vertical drops, respectively. Kakabeka falls are easily accessible off of the highway, while the visit to Aguasabon in early May led us to a snow covered service road that was closed for the winter. This forced a few kilometer hike through the brush to come out onto the viewing platform.

With the late spring melt, both of the falls were very powerful, roaring down into the canyons below. I’m a sucker for a good waterfall, and both of these stops would be on my recommended list for anyone else making the drive.

If I figure out how to get a real gallery up and running, I’ll be sure to add videos – but for now, here is a picture of the mighty Kakabeka Falls on May 3rd, 2022.

One other apparently noteworthy destination close to Thunder Bay would be Ouimet Canyon. This year gave us a late spring with colder temperatures and late, heavy snowfalls, resulting in the roads servicing this area closed with snow. This required us to delay the visit, pushing it until the next time we end up in Northern Ontario.

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Alright, we’re back to flatness. Winter-peg, as some call it, was just in the process of coming out of hibernation and entering into spring. What this now seems to mean for cities like Winnipeg and Calgary is massive flooding around the region’s waterways. The Assiniboine and Red River meet up at a spot in Winnipeg called ‘the Forks’, where off of the rivers, a very touristy spot with shops, good food, beaches, and short nature hikes are all within a few feet of each other. The water was meters higher than usual at this time of the year, flooding much of the available walkways down by the water’s edge. Thankfully, everything else remained open to us.

Two of my cousins are residing in Winnipeg so we decided to spend two nights and one full day exploring the city. Sadly, at the time of arrival, one of the cousins came down with a bit of that nasty C-word I promised I wouldn’t talk about, so Becca, my one cousin and I spent quality time down at the Forks with food, many local brews, and good conversation.

For as much disrespect that Winnipeg gets, the city is a nice experience in good weather. Which, nice weather seems rare in Winnipeg, considering our arrival marked the first nice day of the year. Maybe I understand the majority of the disrespect.

Regina, Saskatchewan

I’m pretty sure I saw Regina from about 40km outside the city. People talk about the prairies being flat, but it does not prepare you for how the prairies actually define flat. Saskatchewan also changed my mind about Southern Ontario – Southern Ontario is basically the Himalayas compared to Saskatchewan.

And it’s cool to see it for the first time, for the first maybe 30 minutes. But on and on it goes. Talk about ‘Wide Open Spaces’, I think the Dixie Chicks were talking about the Canadian Prairies in that one. And I’m now very well acquainted to that song, having had it on repeat the entire length of the prairies courtesy of Becca.

In Regina itself, Wascana Lake pathway was a nice walk, and the Royal Saskatchewan Museum was also great to explore with their largest T-Rex fossil in the world (named Scotty), and other wildlife exhibits. Thanks for the memories, Regina!

Drumheller, Alberta

What kid didn’t love playing with a triceratops in the sandbox? When I was probably 11 years old, I did a whole history fair and speech on dinosaurs. They were my JAM. And that is exactly how Drumheller made the list of must-stops on the way across the country. And did it ever deliver.

Drumheller is known as the “Dinosaur Capital of the World,” and they capitalize on that in every way they can. It’s a bit like Clifton Hill in Niagara, where beside the natural wonder and beauty of the falls is 13 different themed mini-putts and a casino.

If you look past the 5 different dinosaur museums in Drumheller all vying for your attention, you’ll find the badlands in all their glory. The badlands around Drumheller were once a sea, now dried, leaving loose sedimentary rocks and sand being eroded by an area that receives massive rain and thunderstorms.

During our time in Drumheller, we discovered Hoodoos (pictured below), and intricate formations of the rocky landscape that are constantly under erosion. This erosion and loose earth also leads to many findings of dinosaur fossils in the area, connecting why it keeps the “Dinosaur Capital of the World” schtick going.

Calgary, Alberta

In the same day of driving from Regina to Drumheller, we also completed the Drumheller to Calgary drive, marking the end of the first week of the trip. I won’t call this completing the drive across Canada, as we extended that out a few more weeks before we really made it to the western edge. But this was our first significant stop, having the next 5 nights in the big city known for oil, gas, and most importantly, stampede.

We met up with our first friend of the trip, Hannah, who so graciously opened both her door and pull-out couch to us. The night also consisted of carb loading, as the plans for the next day were Calgary Beer Fest taking place on the stampede grounds. A dangerous combination, but one that we were all looking forward to. I’ll wait for next week to write that story out, as I think I’m still feeling the effects of Beer Fest a couple of months later.

The People We Met Along The Way

I could probably write a whole blog post on the stories of the people we met on this leg of the journey, but I’ll condense it to the few best stories here:

Thunder Bay: We met a fire tower watcher in the hostel. She was driving out west to spend 3.5 months up in Northern Alberta, completely isolated except for a satellite phone to order supplies and communicate observations. I’m not sure how anyone could manage 3.5 months of almost pure isolation, but the way she explained it, it sounded like a vacation with pay!

Regina: In the first 5 minutes of conversation with a local, where he learned we had spent time in Ottawa during the trucker’s rally, he wanted a detailed report of how it went “from a local’s perspective,” and gave the truckers praise for travelling from his home province to the countries capital. He also then proceeded to explain how the war in Russia is completely controlled by the media and Ukraine is not under attack, per his sources.

Sault Ste. Marie: Our hosts informed us that we would have to be prepared for bigfoot, sasquatches, and forest fairies. Apparently, a tell-tale sign for bigfoot territory is trees that have fallen over, and when you notice this proceed with caution. They live in tribes, usually with children around the area as well. I stated a good dose of bear spray should protect us, which they thought was “a little bit ridiculous”.

Sneak Peek – Next Week

For the next blog, I’ll be diving into our stay at some of the nicest places in Alberta, between the big city of Calgary, and the nature surrounding the quaint towns of Banff and Canmore. I’m finally able to pull out the bike for some exploring, and get to some incredible hiking trails. Cheers for now, see you next week!