Home page: Cochrane, Canada to Columbia Falls, Montana, USA

7th July 2012 - Cochrane, Alberta-Canada to Columbia Falls, Montana-USA

We said goodbye to Cochrane on a cool sunny morning as we head south to Montana to meet up with our dear friends, Robie and Sharon.

It was to be our longest drive on this 3 month journey so we decided to set off a bit earlier than we had been. The route took us along rolling hills, many beautiful and expansive ranches with names like "U Lazy U" Ranch, Barr 11 Ranch.

As we approached the town of Crowsnest, we saw this tremendous landslide site. I've included a bit of the background info to this feature.
The Frank Slide was a rockslide that buried part of the mining town of Frank, Northwest Territories, Canada, on the morning of April 29, 1903. It occurred at 4:10 AM, when over 82 million tonnes (90 million tons) of limestone rock slid down Turtle Mountain within 100 seconds, obliterating the eastern edge of Frank, the Canadian Pacific Railway line and the coal mine.

It was one of the largest landslides in Canadian history and remains the deadliest, as between 70 and 90 of the town's residents were killed, most of whom remain buried. Multiple factors led to the slide. Turtle Mountain's unstable formation left it in a constant state of instability, leading area native tribes to call it "the mountain that moves". Coal mining operations may have weakened the mountain's internal structure, as did a wet winter and cold snap on the night of the slide.

A derelict building, remnant of the old mining days.

One of the many lakes we passed on the way to Montana. This one is Island Lake.

This Titan 33 truck situated at Sparwood, claims to be the largest truck in the world. Tom thinks the ones that BHP and Rio Tinto use in the Kimberleys in WA are probably the same size.

I would hate to have a flat tyre on this monster!

The cutest Duty Free shop we've come across - it sits on the Canadian side of the border.

Rum is so cheap - $15.00 for a litre.

We crossed into Montana, USA at Roosville - we noticed that there were more rvs going into Canada than departing at the time we were leaving.

To enter the USA, we had to drive past a series of cameras and probably x-ray machines.The Customs Officer was very friendly and returning to the USA was a breeze (I did have my orange jumpsuit ready).