August 31, 2025
Today I will head back east to Alberta province and start working my way north. Before I leave Castlegar I want to share something I noticed as I drove into town two days ago. When I had been to town previously I approached from the west and left to the south. This trip I came in from the south and noticed this as I was descending Mount Kelly.
I was looking right down the runway of the West Kootenay Regional Airport, and there was a large mountain on the other side. The mountain in the distance is Sentinel Mountain which, at it’s highest point, is 5,456 feet tall. The mountain I was on when I took this photo is even higher at over 6,400 feet. The mountain in the distance isn’t that far from the end of the runway (looks like about 3 miles on Google Maps).
When I was in town yesterday taking pictures of the sculptures I heard, then saw, this mid-size passenger jet flying parallel to the runway and then bank south to make a turn towards the runway.
You can see it in front of the mountain before it would turn right again to land.
Someone at the Visitor Centre told me that the airport is nicknamed “Cancel-gar” by the locals due to the number of flights that get cancelled due to weather or other issues.
Today I would reverse my route from two days ago and shortly after crossing the Canadian Rockies I will turn left onto smaller roads for the rest of the day. I had a few stops planned in Alberta province and the total drive time was projected to be about 7 1/2 hours without stops.
The town of Creston is about an hour and half east of Castlegar. When I had driven through it previously I stopped to get gas in town and drove past the Kokanee Brewery. They market their product as “Glacier Beer” and, despite being acquired by a much larger brewery, still make their beer here.
That is a statue of Bigfoot making off with a case of Kokanee beer.
I won’t show any more mountain pictures since you just saw them two days ago. Once I got past the Rockies I headed north to the small town of Longview. My plan was to have a fancy steak dinner at a highly rated steakhouse there but that plan fell apart when I tried to make a reservation. The first day I called they had already started serving customers and the recording said to call another time (well excuuuuuse me!). I called back the next day and the recording told me they had shut down for a week so the staff could have their vacation.
So no steak for JohnBoy.
I went to Longview anyway and it was a cute little town:
I didn’t even drive by the steakhouse, which was further up the road, but I did go to an ice cream stand which offered their signature Saskatoon Berry milkshake with fresh, locally grown Saskatoons. Just my luck they were sold out. So no Saskatoon Berries for JohnBoy, either.
I left town and drove east to my next stop. On a very small rural road I stopped to take a photo in each direction. North (left)
East (forward)
South (right)
And west (behind me). You can see the Rockies in the distance.
This is where I was now headed:
If you are familiar with the original Star Trek TV series you know that Mr. Spock is from the planet Vulcan. Welcome to Vulcan, Alberta!
Once fans of the series discovered that there was a town called Vulcan here they started visiting and things kind of took off from there. Now they have festivals here and Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock, attended at least one. It has taken on a life of its own…
You will notice that the large starship shown above is NOT identified as the Enterprise (possibly due to licensing issues).
The flower planter located outside the gift shop is a replica of a Federation shuttlecraft.
I thought the place was closed so I put my phone up to the glass on the entrance and took this photo – and then saw people moving around inside. Turns out I got there just before closing time.
I walked around inside for a short while looking at the merchandise, and there were many items and photos signed by the cast of the show. One of the brochures I had picked up back when I was in Calgary alerted me to this town. There was also a menu for a local pizzeria which, when the festival occurs, makes a pizza with a Federation logo-shaped crust.
When I left Vulcan I headed back northwest to the town of High River, where I had a one-night Airbnb reservation. I picked it because it was the largest town near here and with all my stops I knew it would be getting dark soon. When I got there I discovered it also has a connection to a TV show.
The Canadian drama “Heartland” is currently in it’s 20th season. Parts of the show are filmed in and around High River, including Maggie’s Feed Store and Diner. The actual ranch featured in the show is on private property, in a nearby town, closer to the Rockies.
This is a “set” used for filming and is not an actual restaurant. I only knew about Heartland, and this set location, because a friend of mine used to watch the show.
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