Tour de Alberta (Part 2): Leech Lake

In Cypress Hills Provinical Park, Kyler and I got to practice setting up our tent, with the fly on, in the rain.
We also got to figure out how to make dinner in the rain. Our solution was this set of covered picnic tables in the day use area.

The kiddos kept complaining they were cold,

But Calista found a way to make herself warm!

And by the time dinner was done,

Everyone was in a pretty good mood.

Even if it was wet.

Our campground was up a hill a bit, and completely covered in fog.

Honestly, you could have told me I was camping in Oregon and I would have believed you.

I actually kind of loved it.

In the morning, weather had cleared up a bit, so we decided to take a hike.

The trail was still very muddy from all the rain the day before

Which resulted in some very muddy moments for me.

I changed pants when we got back to the car.
Our next stop in Cypress Hills was an outdoor, self-guided forestry museum.

There was a ton of old equipment that the kiddos absolutely loved to climb on.

So we spent a while, letting them each climb and play.

We stopped by a couple of viewpoints.

Craig refused to get out at Horseshoe Canyon,

But he was willing to look at Reesor Lake.

While paused here, another car came up to us and told us they had just seen a couple of cougars down the road!

We continued down the road (via car) to Reesor Lake itself, where we ate lunch and played around for nearly 2 hours.

We didn't see any cougars, though. Just a couple of leeches.
Since weather was still holding,

We played a little at the playground and then headed to Elkwater Lake after dinner.

Of course the kids insisted on playing in the lake, even though they were fully clothed.

And of course, they got completely soaked. Whoops!

The short walk back to the car felt much longer with wet, whiny children

But once they were dry again their moods improved quite a bit.

Or they fell asleep, exhausted.

Another segment of our journey complete.  By this point, Kyler and I were looking at 5 days since we last showered (not part of the original plan, but most of the campsites had closed their showers due to Covid) and the kids had a perpetual layer of grime. Sounds about right for camping, I think,

Because of all the poor weather, we spent most of our time in Cypress Hills feeling like we were the only people in the world. It was kind of cool, actually. I'd love to go back and explore some more, including heading to the Saskatchewan side or learning to ski on the bunny slopes in the winter.

Our next stop would be warmer, drier, windier, and much busier. Bring on the hoodoos!