Hinton Archives - Blasdale Home

Hinton and around about

Posted on May 17, 2025 by SteveJune 16, 2025

17th May 2025

Today, there was no driving for us, Stephen (R’s brother) took us all on a tour of the sites around Hinton. First up was the Solomon Lookout to view the Black Cat Mountain. There were good views of the mountains, and down below the valley. As luck would have it, there was a long goods train passing up the valley.

Why Black Cat Mountain? One mountain side had once been spectacular, but there had been the inevitable forest fire, and when the forest regenerated, the trees were a different colour to the surrounding ones. They created an image which looked like a high backed, scared black cat. Years later, like now, you need a particularly good imagination to see it.

Then on to Switzer Provincial Park, where there is a lake. Some trees showed evidence of claw damage. Here there were some birds flying around. I managed to get a photo of a dark-eyed Junco, an American Tree Sparrow, a Yellow Rumped Warbler and of course a Canada Goose.

Back at Hinton we stopped at a café for coffee, before going on to the Northern Rockies Museum of Culture and Heritage.

Back at Steve & Marilynn’s, we had a chicken BBQ supper. Bit too chilly to sit out on their deck, so we ended up eating indoors, after BIL Steve had braved the elements to be chef-of-the-day.

Hinton and Beaver Boardwalk

Posted on May 16, 2025 by SteveJune 16, 2025

16/05/2025

A tour of the house now meant R could picture Steve and Marilynn at home.

Much talking & reminiscing.

A short walk from their home is the Beaver Boardwalk. The very boardwalk which Michael Portillo walked on a few years ago on his Canadian train trip! Since then, the boardwalk had started to fall into disrepair but was now being renewed. We didn’t see any beavers, but did see their home, their dam, and various trees which had been chewed down. Not only is there the boardwalk, but there are miles and miles of tracks through the forest. An incredibly special place.

We discovered the local squirrels chatter rather like a petrol engine starting up. We also discovered that many Canadian squirrels are small & red! (Later we were told by others that Canadian folklore says it is the nasty European grey squirrels who cause problems!)

We sat on their rather splendid deck watching the local birds & squirrels.

Supper out at a local diner, specializing in European foods, including Greek. R had souvlaki, while I ate prawns.

The weather had started out dry but was rather wet when we exited the restaurant. A drive around the town seeing the sights of Hinton after dark.

Driving to Hinton

Posted on May 15, 2025 by SteveJune 15, 2025

15/05/2025

Up an out quickly, we decided to head straight on to Hinton, where we were staying three nights visiting R’s brother and sister-in-law. I would have liked to have visited the museum in Rocky Mountain House, and the brewery, but as events turned out, luckily, we did not. I had found an off-the-beaten route to drive to Hinton. It was the shortest route but did not follow the Canadian grid system of main roads.

First off, we stopped at some small shops in Nordegg, one of which was a community shop. R wanted a washing-up sponge for the van, but no luck. She was told perhaps they’d have them later in the year. (The van came with no method of cleaning the crockery or cooking utensils, nor a tea-towel to dry anything with.) There was also a small ‘Shell Fuel’ shop, and that sold them. Next door there was a liquor store, where I popped in and bought some beers, brewed in Rocky Mountain House itself. The beers were displayed in a chilled room, so I was rather quick in buying them, cos it was rather cold wearing just shorts and T-shirt.

Back to the road, we drove another 1000 meters before taking my off-the-beaten route right-hand turn to Hinton. Hinton was signed as being another 170K. But there was something funny about this road; oops, it was a dirt track! Apparently, a forest track and looked to be all dirt. Not only was it dirt but it was also wet dirt after a heavy overnight rainfall. It was quite slippery, so progress was slow. I noticed that no other vehicles were using it. We went this way for about another 5K, where there were signs warning that further on the road was under water. We (ie R) thought better of it (I thought we could have done it, I swear the water didn’t look that deep) and so turned around. Was not going to be a good trip. After this small detour, we found the van (and parts of R who’d directed my U-turn) were caked in mud, 25mm thick, which subsequently baked on with the hot sunshine.

Back on the main road we headed on towards the snowfields and took a right-hand turn onto the 93. Yes, this route was longer at 260K, and not the 170K of the dirt road. Very pretty though. We will be back on that route another day.

Continuing along highway 11 we followed the Abraham Lake, and the North Saskatchewan River. There were many small seven site campsites along the route administered by the Albertan authorities. In my planning I had thought about these camp sites, but I unsure how you paid, and whether they would be full. They were empty and there were even toilets on site (long drop). The views were f especially as we approached the ice road.

As we drew near the Ice Road, we passed through the toll gate for the park. Thankfully we had a season ticket for the park, and duely sailed through with no additional charge. We then headed North on highway 93 (The Ice Road), towards Jasper. On route we stopped at a viewing site, near Panther Falls, this allowed us to see the road we had driven down.

On route we passed the Columbia Icefield, where there was a mobile signal and we were able to phone to give our ETA. We would be visiting here in a few days time. Further on, as we approached Jasper, we passed the campsite we would be staying at in a few days time. Here we could see the burnt out forest from the fires last year. We then headed out from Jasper toward Hinton., arriving at Hinton at 17:40.

Rosmarys borther had not warned us not to take the dirt road, cos nobody would do that.