2014 was a bit of a trying year for me. For 2015, the theme is, “Make new incredible memories – don’t live in old mediocre ones.” On the last day of 2014, let’s take one last look into my past.
Of course, these are old (very old) memories but they aren’t mediocre. For me, a few months away from my seventh birthday, they were pretty incredible. In June and July of 1975, my family hopped into the 1973 Dodge Duster and travelled to the Pacific Coast of Canada and back.
With my Mom passing away earlier in 2014 and my Dad deciding to give up the house and move into a senior’s apartment complex, the inevitable day came when my three siblings and I had to clean out the home my parents had lived in since 1965. It was the home where I was born and lived in until my early 20’s.
It was a tough job. You just wanted to keep everything because everything reminded you of old times. Even the cheap-ass glassware that was probably purchased at a gas station forty or fifty years ago held a sentimental spot in your heart.
Anyway, we all came away with a load of momentos. One of my most prized ‘gifts’ from the past was a ragged notebook that was originally displayed at a store somewhere as an yearly organizer. In 1975, my Mom purchased it and the notebook became her travelogue for the next four decades or so.
With that notebook and the picture album from the 1975 Cross-Canada trip, I pieced together an article I hope you’ll enjoy. The images were taken with an instamatic camera with old fashioned 110 film in cartridge form.
At the end of the article, I’ve transcribed some of my Mom’s notes. The gas log and camping log may seem boring to some but it’s a bit of an interesting look back at a road trip when all of North America still worked in gallons and a dollar had a lot of value.
Leaving from London, Ontario, we went the long and painful route through Michigan, back into Ontario and across the top of Lake Superior. The Duster is now vintage but at the time it was pretty much brand new to us. An improvement on the Beaumont it replaced, the Duster actually had an AM Radio – very exciting. However, like most cars in the 1970’s, it lacked air conditioning.
This was not the fastest model with just the 225 slant 6 under the hood. With pulling a trailer and, again, it being the 1970’s, according to my Mom’s notes, we were lucky to get 200 miles or 300 kilometres per tank of gas.
The image above was taken somewhere along the top of Lake Superior.
Fast forward to the Rockies. That’s my Dad and six year old me seeing the mountains for the first time. We had picked up my sister in Edmonton and were now riding crammed with five in the car for the rest of the journey.
When visiting Florida, some people are Gulf Coasters and some swear by the Atlantic side. In the Rockies in Alberta, there is also a divide. We have always been a Jasper family while some will always go to Banff.
The above image is taken at the top of Whistler’s Mountain, just outside the town of Jasper in Jasper National Park. This mountain is 2,277 metres or 7,472 feet above sea level. The Jasper SkyTram and the station you see in the image was opened in the summer of 1964. The trip from the lower station (at 1,304 metres) takes seven minutes.
Once at the top, there is a trail (seen in the image) that takes you the rest of the way to the summit. I don’t believe we made it all the way in this visit but definitely did two years later on our next journey out west.
Athabasca Falls is located about 30km south of Jasper. At the time, I was not a waterfall junkie – an obsession that is relatively new in my world. However, I was still pretty impressed. The waterfall is only 23 metres or 80 feet in height and just 18 metres or 60 feet wide. However, the sheer volume of water makes this waterfall incredible.
Somewhere buried beneath still lay the bodies of two souls that were never recovered after the Hope Slide. On January 9, 1965, 47 million cubic metres of rock was released from the side of a mountain near Hope, British Columbia in the Cascade Mountains. What was left was a rock pile 85 metres or 279 feet deep and 3 km or 2 miles wide.
Four people died as part of the Trans-Canada highway was buried. Two bodies were recovered but two are forever entombed. This remains the largest landslide ever recorded in Canada.
The image above shows the remnants of the slide with an unceremonial outhouse sitting on top. That’s my Mom using the facilities and that’s me off to the right, looking to get into some trouble.
Always the handsome devil, that’s me along the viewing platform at Hell’s Gate. The Fraser Canyon is an 84km stretch of the Fraser River. Hell’s Gate is located near the town of Boston Bar, British Columbia. The Hell’s Gate AirTram Ride goes across the river at its most perilous point.
Our time on Vancouver Island was an adventure. We got off the beaten path and got lost late at night in a pretty dense fog. We did manage to find a campground but soon left the wilderness for the more densely populated Victoria. Above is my Mom and I inside a tree.
We might be Jasper people but we did stop in Banff on the return trip. Above is an image of Mount Rundle. When we arrived, the main campground in Banff was full. The overflow camping was nothing more than a paved road to nowhere. Once we did get into the main campground, adventure awaited.
First, understand that our tent trailer was exactly that. It was a flimsy metal frame with pieces of plywood that extended out for beds on either side. The roof was simply a canvas tent with poles similar to a tent that would sit on the ground. So, it was basically a tent that sat a foot or so above the ground. Often, little me would roll to the end of the bed and fall out onto the ground below as the tent was just pulled over the board and not sealed in any way.
On our stay in Banff National Park, I was awakened at some point in the night by an excited family. I wish they’d let me sleep. Two black bear cubs had climbed a tree next to our trailer and could not get down. Mama bear was extremely stressed and running laps around the tree and our trailer.
In the end, park rangers came and tranquilized the bears and all was well. However, you don’t have to stoop and scoop for bears. Mama had left a decide size pile on the ground between our site and the next. The kid in that next site wiped out in the bear shit in the morning and was coated.
A Canadian icon, Lake Louise is nothing more than a pond at 2km at its longest and covering 0.8 square kilometres. But, the glacial lake creates a setting that couldn’t be made better by an artist. The lake is located 1,750 metres or 5,740 feet above sea level and is surrounded by glacier coated mountains.
Lake Louise is home to Fairmont’s Chateau Lake Louise, one of the ‘Grand Hotels’ put up in the early 1900’s along the cross-Canada railway. The lake is named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria.
No doubt, I would be in a heap of trouble today for climbing on the badlands at Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta. In fact, I’m pretty sure in 1975 it was a no-no. Located southest of Calgary, about 50 km from the town of Brooks, Dinosaur Provincial Park is located in the Red Deer River Valley.
One of the richest dinosaur fossil locales in the world, 40 different pre-historic species have been discovered here. The Provincial Park opened in 1955 and was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, four years after our visit.
Well, it looks like ‘Big John’ below is still standing today. The very tall miner is located at the entrance to the Iron Mountain mine tours in Vulcan, Michigan. 400 feet below the surface, there are 2,600 feet of underground tunnels to explore.
We had just been to Florida in the past year. Therefore, visiting Miami Beach, Michigan seemed like a tacky thing that had to be done. Located on Lake Huron, northeast of Bay City and Saginaw, Miami Beach is nothing more than a day trip’s distance from home.
Below is my Mom’s meticulously maintained travel notes. The gas log is interesting. Metric didn’t come to Canada’s gas stations until 1981. I remember the day. Prices suddenly dropped to 18 cents and had people thinking they won the lottery. However, they soon found out it was 18 cents for a litre and not for a gallon.
A gallon is not always a gallon. At the time, Canada used the imperial gallon which is the equivalent of 4.55 litres. The U.S. has their own interpretation of a gallon with it equaling 3.79 litres. You’ll notice that the fill-ups in the U.S. were often higher in gallons than in Canada. My Mom had actually calculated the U.S. quantities into Canadian numbers but I didn’t include that.
| Date | Mileage | Location | Price | Qty. | Total |
| 15-Jun-75 | 35,794 | London, ON | $ 6.25 | ||
| 15-Jun-75 | 35,949 | Flint, MI | $0.57 | 8.5 | $ 4.85 |
| 15-Jun-75 | 36,194 | Kinross, MI | $0.62 | 12.0 | $ 7.40 |
| 16-Jun-75 | 36,396 | Wawa, ON | $0.76 | 10.6 | $ 8.10 |
| 16-Jun-75 | 36,596 | Nipigon, ON | $0.76 | 9.7 | $ 7.35 |
| 16-Jun-75 | 36,788 | English River, ON | $0.77 | 10.0 | $ 7.70 |
| 17-Jun-75 | 36,996 | Kenora, ON | $0.75 | 10.4 | $ 7.80 |
| 17-Jun-75 | 37,133 | Winnipeg, MB | $0.62 | 6.5 | $ 4.00 |
| 18-Jun-75 | 37,308 | Shoal Lake, MB | $0.72 | 10.0 | $ 7.15 |
| 18-Jun-75 | 37,493 | Elfros, SK | $0.64 | 10.3 | $ 6.57 |
| 18-Jun-75 | 37,713 | North Battleford, SK | $0.66 | 9.7 | $ 6.40 |
| 19-Jun-75 | 37,898 | Vegreville, AB | $0.56 | 9.1 | $ 5.11 |
| 20-Jun-75 | 38,109 | Edmonton, AB | $0.57 | 9.7 | $ 5.50 |
| 22-Jun-75 | 38,210 | Edmonton, AB | $0.55 | 5.0 | $ 2.75 |
| 22-Jun-75 | 38,387 | Hinton, AB | $0.64 | 8.2 | $ 5.25 |
| 23-Jun-75 | 38,612 | Jasper, AB | $0.70 | 9.5 | $ 6.65 |
| 24-Jun-75 | 38,816 | Clearwater, BC | $0.74 | 9.5 | $ 7.00 |
| 25-Jun-75 | 39,004 | Lytton, BC | $0.85 | 8.8 | $ 7.45 |
| 25-Jun-75 | 39,185 | Nanaimo, BC | $0.80 | 8.5 | $ 6.80 |
| 26-Jun-75 | 39,375 | Victoria, BC | $0.70 | 10.0 | $ 7.00 |
| 29-Jun-75 | 39,580 | Vancouver, BC | $0.80 | 2.5 | $ 2.00 |
| 29-Jun-75 | 39,603 | Vancouver, BC | $0.70 | 7.9 | $ 5.50 |
| 30-Jun-75 | 39,800 | Princeton, BC | $0.81 | 9.9 | $ 8.00 |
| 01-Jul-75 | 39,933 | Kelowna, BC | $0.71 | 5.6 | $ 4.00 |
| 01-Jul-75 | 40,063 | Revelstoke, BC | $0.87 | 5.5 | $ 4.76 |
| 01-Jul-75 | 40,252 | Banff, AB | $0.76 | 9.8 | $ 7.45 |
| 04-Jul-75 | 40,418 | Calgary, AB | $0.76 | 8.9 | $ 6.75 |
| 06-Jul-75 | 40,586 | Brooks, AB | $0.67 | 8.4 | $ 5.60 |
| 07-Jul-75 | 40,745 | Medicine Hat, AB | $0.68 | 7.3 | $ 5.00 |
| 07-Jul-75 | 40,962 | Parkbeg, SK | $0.73 | 10.9 | $ 7.95 |
| 08-Jul-75 | 41,103 | Indian Head, SK | $0.77 | 7.5 | $ 5.75 |
| 08-Jul-75 | 41,287 | Brandon, MB | $0.73 | 6.6 | $ 4.80 |
| 08-Jul-75 | 41,391 | Portage, MB | $0.76 | 4.7 | $ 3.55 |
| 09-Jul-75 | 41,576 | Warren, MN | $0.59 | 9.8 | $ 5.75 |
| 09-Jul-75 | 41,805 | Floodwood, MN | $0.57 | 10.7 | $ 6.10 |
| 10-Jul-75 | 42,046 | Iron River, WI | $0.63 | 12.3 | $ 7.75 |
| 11-Jul-75 | 42,268 | Naubinway, MI | $0.66 | 11.7 | $ 7.70 |
| 11-Jul-75 | 42,468 | Standish, MI | $0.64 | 10.2 | $ 6.50 |
| 11-Jul-75 | 42,643 | Port Huron, MI | $0.60 | 9.2 | $ 5.50 |
We left London, Ontario on June 15, 1975 and didn’t return until July 11, 1975. We stayed in just one motel over that time and that was on our first night, in Wawa, Ontario. The rest of the trip, we set up and tore down that tent trailer on pretty much a daily basis. We stayed in one spot for more than one night on just a few occasions.
On this trip, we stuck pretty much to mainstream Provincial Parks. On following trips, we stayed at numerous free campgrounds that were the norm back in those days througout the prairies of Canada and the U.S. – not sure if that’s the case today.
One campground has an interesting story. Happy Valley Campground in Calgary is no longer. We stayed there for two nights and it was a bit expensive at a whole $5 per night. The campground lasted until the 1980’s before it was closed down. It is now Valley Ridge, a suburb of Calgary. Where the campground was is now a golf course.
I am not sure what the name of the campground in Delta, BC was. It was blurred in the book by an ancient coffee stain…
| Date | Campground | Location | Price |
| 16-Jun-75 | Sandbar Lake Provincial Park | Ignace, Ontario | $3.50 |
| 17-Jun-75 | Park Strathclair Manitoba | Strathclair, MB | $1.00 |
| 18-Jun-75 | Vermillion Provincial Park | Vermillion, AB | $1.50 |
| 19-Jun-75 | Rainbow Valley Park – Edmonton | Edmonton, AB | $3.00 |
| 20-Jun-75 | Rainbow Valley Park – Edmonton | Edmonton, AB | $3.00 |
| 21-Jun-75 | Rainbow Valley Park – Edmonton | Edmonton, AB | $3.00 |
| 22-Jun-75 | Jasper National Park – Whistlers | Jasper, AB | $3.00 |
| 23-Jun-75 | Jasper National Park – Whistlers | Jasper, AB | $3.00 |
| 24-Jun-75 | Skihist Park Campground | Lytton, BC | $2.00 |
| 25-Jun-75 | Little Qualicum Falls | Parksville, BC | $2.00 |
| 26-Jun-75 | Fort Victoria Trailer Camp | Victoria, BC | $5.25 |
| 27-Jun-75 | Fort Victoria Trailer Camp | Victoria, BC | $5.25 |
| 28-Jun-75 | ? Park Canada | Delta, BC | $5.50 |
| 29-Jun-75 | ? Park Canada | Delta, BC | $5.50 |
| 30-Jun-75 | Tiny Town | Kelowna, BC | $5.75 |
| 01-Jul-75 | Banff National Park – Tunnel Mtn. | Banff, AB | $3.00 |
| 02-Jul-75 | Banff National Park – Tunnel Mtn. | Banff, AB | $3.00 |
| 03-Jul-75 | Happy Valley | Calgary, AB | $5.00 |
| 04-Jul-75 | Happy Valley | Calgary, AB | $5.00 |
| 05-Jul-75 | Kinbrook Island Provincial Park | Brooks, AB | $1.50 |
| 06-Jul-75 | Kinbrook Island Provincial Park | Brooks, AB | $1.50 |
| 07-Jul-75 | McLean Provincial Park | Saskatchewan | $2.00 |
| 08-Jul-75 | Norquay Beach Campsite | Portage La Prairie, MB | $3.50 |
| 09-Jul-75 | Amnicon Falls State Park | Superior, WI | $4.75 |
| 10-Jul-75 | Miami Beach | Thompson, MI | $4.00 |
