No Ocean, No Mountains, but Still Some Things to Like

Almost as soon as we left Jasper National Park (the park boundary was 35 miles from our campground) we were out of the Rockies.

190 miles later we arrived at St. Albert Kinsmen RV Park and there was not a hill in sight.

St. Albert is a suburb to the northwest of Edmonton, and all the area is flat.

The Kinsmen are a service club like the Elks or Lions. They also had a banquet hall, a rodeo grounds and a BMX track. Odd combination. The RV park was well maintained, if a bit tight, and had good power. Our only complaint was very low water pressure. We left this morning and intended to rinse our black water tank, but instead just put in the 6 gallons we always use to start the next tank. It took at least 15 minutes to get that 6 gallons in!

But it was right along the Sturgeon River…

and there was a bike/walking trail along the river. You could cross the bridge or go under it.

Heading southwest on the trail you came to Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park on Big Lake and this viewing platform. An advantage of the flat land and flat water is that you can really appreciate the sky and clouds.

The park also has a marsh with a boardwalk that zig-zags across it.

If you cross the bridge you can walk in the Grey Nun White Spruce Park.

Unfortunately many of the trails there were flooded.

Heading northeast on the river trail you are heading towards downtown St. Albert, though on sections of the trail you wouldn’t know it.

Beaver live here. This small tree was felled by beaver.

That’s their path to the water.

And between an eighth and a quarter mile upstream was their lodge.

This is Lion’s Park along the way, not far from downtown.

You can take a side trail to the commercial area…

or cross a pedestrian bridge…

to ball fields and a grain elevator historic park on the other side.

I didn’t have the chance to go further but the trail led past downtown to the other side of town where there is the Riverfront 56 Natural Area.

There were lots of recreation opportunities. Besides the paths there was this kayak launch dock…

and onshore a cleaning station for your watercraft. And besides the baseball, BMX and rodeo I mentioned there were soccer and rugby fields and we saw folks who had set up on of the rugby fields for cricket.

There were also a number of disc golf courses and we played on two of them.

So although I don’t like the plains as much as the mountains or the seashore, there is certainly beauty here.