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In Education: Oh, Canada, I missed you.

The family road trip does have a place in today’s high-speed, Internet society.
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Essex, Montana.

Hard to believe– but here I am writing the fourth and final installment in my family road trip chronicle.

The last week of my trip may have been the most exciting– we drove the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park, Montana. The road was breathtaking. Even at the highest point, Logan’s Pass (6,646 feet), mountains towered above me.

Like mountain goats, we wound around glaciers, mere feet of clearance between our car and the edge of cliffs that tumbled into valley below us. In places, there was hardly enough space for two cars to drive side by side.

We drove past the famous Weeping Wall, where water seeps out, seemingly from nowhere.

Having travelled through numerous U.S. National Parks, and Canadian National Parks, one thing that was notable was that the U.S. National Park service seems to put more funding into their parks. It’s difficult to describe. Everyone in the U.S. parks was enthusiastic. The parks and monuments run by the parks service offer tours and educational programming.

Before this summer, I’d assumed that we did the same thing in Canada. While the scenery in America’s Glacier and Canada’s Waterton Park is equally stunning– I was surprised to find that the care and effort wasn’t quite the same.

Upon leaving Glacier and entering Waterton, I noted the USCBP has an expansive, lodge-style building, while the CBSA had a small pre-fab box-like structure with a green corrugated roof. Yet both parks are beautiful.

One of the best nights of the trip was staying at the Bayshore Inn, right on the edge of Lake Waterton, Alta. One park ranger I met told me that there were things that America could learn from Canada– I think it’s the other way around.

My family’s journey across America’s Route 66 is something I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life. However, there was an audible sigh of relief when the car crossed the border back into our home and native land. No more having to convert kilometres to miles, no more fussing over the exchange rate (are pancakes worth 11 dollars U.S.?), and no more worrying about the Obama pin on the pocket of my jean jacket.

Oh, Canada, I missed you.

We went camping in Bow Valley, Alta., right on the edge of the river. It was nestled in the Rocky Mountains. My family is not adept at camping – insects adore us, tents are challenging and sleeping bags simply do not go back into their bags. Then there are pit toilets. We’ll leave it at that.

I think our family has become much closer this summer.

After Bow Valley, we crossed back into British Columbia. It’s super, it’s natural, and boy did I miss it. It was horrible to see the wildfires burning through our forests. Sometimes they were right next to the road. We opened the sunroof to watch the fire-fighting helicopters. There were many communities that we drove through that were filled with smoke.

After driving 15-kilometres along a smoky gravel logging road, we arrived at the very last stop of our trip – Postill Lake Lodge. The lodge and some of the log cabins were built in the ’40s.

We stayed in the “Deer Hollow” cabin, right on the edge of the lake. We sat at our picnic table and cooked our dinner over a propane burner. S’mores are the ultimate summer food. Looking out over the lake, I wished I could stay for more than one night, but three weeks away from home is a long time.

I’m glad to be back in Maple Ridge.

Yes, the family road trip does have a place in today’s high-speed, Internet society. It provides an opportunity to re-group, to re-connect and to appreciate people and places.

Marlowe Evans is a senior student at Thomas Haney secondary and a member of the school’s student council.

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Waterton Park, Alberta.
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Lake Country.