3 Ginger Snaps

The Okotoks Erratic is a trail of quartz rocks left behind be a receding glacier about 30,000 years ago. Today we saw the biggest member of the group of rocks. How did we know it was big? We saw this sign:

Truth be told, if your driving on Alberta Hwy 22 just north of Okotoks, you can’t miss it. It looks like this

And it’s just sitting there in the middle of a field. Actually – in the middle of a lot of field. And it’s spectacular. It puts geological time in perspective in so many ways. The rock itself started forming about 600 million years ago. It took about 40 million years to form. Then, predict some geologists, there was an earthquake and it fell off Mount Edith Cavel up in Jasper onto a glacier. Then the glacier brought it a few hundred kilometres south to where it sits today just north of Okotoks. And it’s awesome. There is a fence around the rock but it’s just begging to be climbed and we couldn’t resist.

Again – I come back to a question that I wonder about often – how to you grow to love and admire the many wonders of the natural world without coming face to face with the natural world. I’m not saying we should let amateurs climb the mountains in Jasper. But when the glaciers do the heavy lifting and put the rocks right where we can enjoy them… plus we met these guys:

And that was just one of the amazing things that happened today. We started the day with an incredible 2 hour trail ride through the foothills of Kananaskis Country. Jet, Heart, Rain, Moon, and Yahoo were super steady in the mud and we totally enjoyed seeing the forest from a whole new perspective. Especially the incredible stands of Trembling Aspen that we traveled through and the magnificent Alberta wildflowers.

After the ride, we headed into High River, the home of some of the set of the CBC series Heartland. It was a major hit for Charlotte and Ruby who are both fans of the show. Interesting fact: Heartland is the longest running scripted TV show of CBC ever. We visited the Highwood Museum that did an excellent job documenting the remarkable history of film and TV being shot in the area. We then moved on to visiting all the sights in the town that are used as sets for the show.

We even managed to collect a tiny souvenir that Hil suspected was a leftover from one of the shoots. Some gaffers tape marking out where people were supposed to stand. Not sure it will make it into the museum – but I know some people who will treasure it!

And we finished the day by heading out into the pasture and feeding the horses some apples. They were pretty enthusiastic about the treats and we loved feeding them. Although I have to admit that when a group of them gets interested in what you have in the bag they can be very intimidating, very persistent, and sometimes a little bit pushy!!!

Sam the dog also likes apples. And the snaps.

And last but not least, we found this beauty – who looks like she belongs with the ginger snaps. She wouldn’t really cooperate for the photo but we will try and find her again tomorrow!