Tour de Alberta (Part 4): Red Rocks

After a week of tent sleeping, exhaustion, and staying up super late, we were all starting to get a little run down. This was most apparent in Calista.

We still had things to do on our tour, though, so we headed to Waterton Lakes, thinking Calista would be in a better mood when we got to Red Rock Parkway.

We were wrong.

Not only did Calista's mood not improve, the water was running especially cold and fast, so no one was all that enthusiastic about playing around in it.

Not even Craig.

Still, we weren't about to let a whiny girl or glacier water ruin our moments.

We kept attempting to make the most of it,

and Calista kept crying at us to go back to the car.

And so, eventually, Kyler took Calista back to the car.

The boys and I, on the other hand, persevered and took a little walk along the top of the canyon.

They begged me several times to take pictures of them, and then wouldn't sit still for said pictures.

Not even the one that a kind man tried to take of the three of us.

But was very happy about the bandaid the man's wife gave him!
After Red Rock, we went into town to see Cameron Falls and eat some lunch.

Attitudes improved a little bit, but improved even more when we went to go get ice cream

And met up with a cousin and aunt!

(Craig told me around this time that he has two sections in his stomach. One is for lunch, the other is for ice cream. So even though he said he was full at lunch, eating ice cream would still be possible.)

It was absolutely lovely, sitting on the side of the lake together.

We had a rock skipping contest (Kyler and Rachel tied at four skips each) and I got my shoe tossed into the lake. Thanks, Craig...

Then we headed back towards to car, stopping at the playground along the way.

After playing for a bit (and running into some friends from Edmonton), Calista climbed into Kyler's lap and fell asleep. Exhaustion was beginning to claim us all, so we decided to head back to relax at the guest house in Gardner Spring.

We had such grand plans for Waterton, including renting a paddle boat or canoe and going out on a lake and actually exploring at Red Rock. Despite some of those plans falling through, we had a lovely time. And have already begun making plans for a more extensive Waterton trip next year, when we aren't completely exhausted or (maybe?) dealing with Covid.