Little Elbow Equestrian

Trip Date: June 2018

Welcome to Little Elbow Provincial Recreation Area

Cooper's first official camping trip was last summer at Bow Valley Provincial Park when he was just two months old. It was challenging camping with a newborn, but we were happy we did it, although we definitely wanted to make some changes in order to make life easier for all of us. We upgraded from a tent to a tent trailer this past spring and took it out for the first time in mid-June. There was definitely a learning curve as I've only ever owned tents, so figuring out how the mini-fridge, furnace, hot water heater and all their components operated was tricky to say the least. It was certainly nice having Christine's parents along to help educate us about all the systems we needed to learn about.

Our new Fleetwood Evolution E3

This was our campsite for the weekend

Although we've hiked in Little Elbow Provincial Recreation Area (see Nihahi Creek), we'd never camped there before. The only reservable sites available were in the Little Elbow Equestrian Campground, so we reserved two sites and planned on a having a great weekend. The neat thing about the campsites in this campground is they're considered double sites, meaning you can reserve half the site or the full site. Technically we reserved two sites, but they're side-by-side so it was like having one large site for both families, which was really convenient for the weekend.

Cooper couldn't wait to explore the campsite

Unfortunately the weather had other ideas about our nice weekend in the mountains. It rained from Friday afternoon when we arrived until Sunday morning. To make matters worse the temperature dropped below zero overnight, so it was quite chilly as well. Thankfully, Cooper didn't seem to mind the wet rainy weather. In fact he was more upset at the fact we kept trying to bring him inside to warm-up. In the end we just let him play outside in the puddles and he couldn't have been happier. I think we've got a little camper on our hands!

As they say, there's no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing

Playing in the rain with dad

Splashing in the puddles

On Saturday afternoon the weather broke just long enough for us to do a little exploring. Most of the day-use areas and trailheads in the park were closed for construction projects until the end of the month, so we didn't go too far afield. The weather was always threatening to turn on us again, so we didn't want to be very far from shelter anyway.

A couple of young White-Tail bucks starting to re-grow their antlers

Beautiful mountain views during a break in the weather

Christine also spotted this pair of Mountain Bluebirds (female above, male below)

These two were our first Mountain Bluebirds of the season

After a short break the rain came back in full force

Saturday night was cold, so we ran the furnace in the trailer to keep Cooper warm. Unfortunately we were in a primitive site and our battery died around 4am. Cooper was up shortly afterwards crying because he was cold, so I took him for an early morning drive to warm him up and hopefully get him back to sleep. We drove along Powderface Trail, which is essentially a backcountry grid road that runs north-south between Highways 66 and 68. Even though I wasn't thrilled to be up that early, watching the sun come up and illuminate the Rocky's eastern slope was pretty amazing. We also had a neat wildlife encounter along the way.

Sunrise in the Canadian Rockies

Early morning reflections

Who doesn't love seeing this early morning alpenglow

This is a monument in memoriam from World War II

The plaque on the above monument reads,

"On August 14, 1941 an Avro Anson training aircraft from No. 3 Service Flying School Calgary crashed on Mount McDougall, about 10km west of this site. The lives of Flying Officer I. M. Sutherland-Brown and Leading Aircraftsman F. W. Greenfield were lost. Leading Aircraftsman A. M. R. McGruther was injured but survived the accident. 

Many lives were lost during the period of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan 1939 to 1945 as aircrew were being trained in Canada for overseas service. To their fond memory this plaque is dedicated."

Shortly after stopping to read the above plaque this coyote crossed the road in front of us. He quickly relieved himself before continuing on his way.

He stopped on the road for one last glace in my direction and then he was gone

On the way back to the campsite we stopped at the Harold Chapman Bridge that spans the Elbow River

The view from the bridge deck is pretty stunning and it was nice to see blue sky and sunshine after all the stormy weather

Although far from our most exciting camping trip we did learn a lot this weekend. We put our new trailer through the ringer and are happy to report it handles the elements very well. Even more importantly though was how well our little guy handled the chilly wet weather. He just loved being outside and exploring, which bodes well for him in the coming months. We are already looking forward to our next camping adventure in July.