Woke up today to another chapter on the road.  After four days in one place it was time to shift off.  We had planned on following some lower digit routes (3 and 7) west in a snake like fashion to Vancouver Island.  But after listening to assorted neighbors and the RCMP we decided to head straight north to Kananaskis County (K County or K Country).  We took the Cowboy Trail (Route 22) and it looked more western than west.  The route traveled in a low valley with cattle ranches strung out on both sides of the car. The Canadian rockies followed along our western side.  Although a valley, the ground rose and lowered in such a way that it resembled waves more than ground.  Towering mountains ringed the valley.  Along the way we stumbled upon the Bar U ranch which is a working ranch/ national park.  Everything was restored beautifully and had enough staff present to answer any questions we had but not enough to prevent us from wandering freely. We especially enjoyed meeting sixteen year old Tate who worked as a ranch hand at the U Bar Ranch.  He also helped his family manage their own ranch.  At sixteen he had already worked as a hunting guide and appeared quite confident in what he wanted out of life (to manage and then own his own ranch).  He was exceedingy polite and answered all our questions about his high school, ranching chores, etc.

After leaving the ranch we took a gray road into K County.  The best way to describe K County is a beautiful mountain paradise that no one outside of Alberta has heard of.  At least that is what it felt like.  Henna was still recovering from our monster Lake Bertha hike so we did not get to venture far into the paradise.  We did hike to a cool waterfall along Cat Creek (about a mile and half hike with a modest elevation gain). 

After the hike we drove to the highest point along a public road in Canada and admired the scenery.  Corey was driving and did a good job of not running over any big horn sheep.  We gave into a hotel in Canmore and are about to plot our next drive tonight.