My road trip to Fernie and back consisted of a 1461km loop through central and southern Alberta and southern British Columbia.  I took the 'scenic' routes to stay off the very busy HWY 2 and found some amazing landscapes.  I need to do that more often; stay off the beaten track.  I found some hidden gems and for the most part, there was little to no traffic on the routes that I chose.  There were a couple of sections of highway where I drove for more than an hour without seeing another vehicle.

The trip to Fernie took me through flat prairie, sprawling valleys, rolling foot hills and majestic mountains.  I saw wind turbines for the first time and had no idea that they were fields full of them in central Alberta.  I thought they were prevalent only in southern Alberta.  I learned something new!  The last time that I was through the Crowsnest Pass was in 1967.  Needless to say, there is not much that I remember of that trip and probably did not appreciate the rich coal mining and railroad history.

I saw areas of Alberta that had no snow, some that had a dusting of snow and yet others with snow cover equivalent to what I have at home.

I thought that I had died and gone to heaven when I saw all the snow in Fernie.  There were actually snowbanks on either side of the highway!  It was great fun to snowshoe through the snowy forests.

I took a different route home.  It was just as scenic and gave me a view of the mountains for a greater distance.  Each time I glanced over my left shoulder, I had glimpse of their snow topped peaks.  I have to say that when I reached the northernmost point of the highway where I had to turn east, I had to take one last, longing look at the mountains.

The trip went by much too quickly.  I took note of some historical points of interest that I want to check out.  The Frank Slide Interpretive Centre and the Leitch Collieries Historic Site are both on the list.  I'll save those for a time when I have more than three days off.