Claresholm, Alberta - September 26th to 28th, 2022
As we travel for long periods of time, having a place to stop and relax for a few days is welcomed every now and then. No agenda, no tourist attractions, just a quiet little town. Claresholm, Alberta was one of those places.
Monday’s drive from Two Jack Lakeside Campground in Banff to Centennial Park Campground in Claresholm is roughly a two and a half hour drive according to Google Maps. The only stop we planned was at the Sweet Rhapsody Bakery on the south side of Calgary.
As we headed east on the Trans Canada Highway 1, the mountains slowly gave way to the wide open plains. The rocky mountain sides slipped away and were replaced by fields of hay bales and pastures with horses and cows.
We didn’t feel like going to downtown Calgary, and drove around the outskirts, being satisfied with seeing the ski jumps from the highway. Calgary was the host of the 1988 Winter Olympics. We were surprised to see that there were ski jumps so close to town. Since Calgary is in the plains, not in the mountains, most of the ski events were held about an hour west of the city, at the Nakiska ski resort and the Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park.
We picked the Sweet Rhapsody Bakery because it was a Monday and most of the bakeries we could find via Google Maps said they were closed on Mondays. However, when we pulled up to Sweet Rhapsody, it too was closed on Mondays. Google Maps was wrong. So we sadly just drove on to Claresholm.
Claresholm is a quiet little town. There is not much to see or do in Claresholm, we just picked it because it was a good distance from Banff and looked like it had a nice campground. The Centennial Park campground is run by the city. The sites are well spaced in an open, grassy park that is a few blocks away from the highway. There are hookups if you want them and a free dump station. The bathhouse is clean, with flush toilets and free showers. We chose not to have hookups to save a little money. The price was just $25 (Canadian) per night.
After eating lunch at our camp site, we went for a walk around town. Along the busy highway are restaurants, gas stations, motels, a visitor center with a museum, and an IGA grocery store. We walked along the highway through town. It is walkable, but not that pleasant due to the traffic, especially the noise from the semi’s driving by. But that is a problem in many North American cities, large and small, with what is called a “stroad”. However, there are a few business lined side streets in the town which are much more enjoyable to walk down.
On the highway, we found a place called & Kitchen which served hand-dipped ice cream. That sounded wonderful. The temperatures were up in the 70’s, some of the warmest we’ve had all season, so ice cream was a welcomed treat. They served Chapman’s Ice Cream which is OK ice cream, but it was cold and sweet and very satisfying.
On the way back, we stopped in the IGA store across the highway. It was our last chance to stock up on La Cochina tortilla chips before we cross the border on Wednesday. We’ll miss those chips back in the U.S. For dinner, we tried to use up the rest of our groceries to prepare for crossing back into the United States on Wednesday.
Tuesday was a relaxing day. We needed a break. The cell service at the campground was the best we’ve had in quite a while. We spent the morning catching up on social media, working on blog posts, and taking showers.
For lunch, we walked into town to the Canadian Pizza Unlimited on 50th Avenue. The day before we saw a sign that they had donair sandwiches, Halifax style. We haven’t eaten a donair since Vancouver Island back in May (Nanaimo, British Columbia - May 25th to 26th, 2022). We ordered the ones back then with tzatziki, not realizing that was not the traditional sauce for donairs. So this time we were hoping to get a taste of a true Canadian donair.
We both had a donair and split a basket of fries. The portions were very large, even by American standards. We couldn’t even finish it all. The donairs had a sweet sauce. The sauce reminded Ann of Marzetti’s original slaw dressing that she had often when she was growing up. We’re not sure how authentic Canadian Pizza Unlimited’s version of a donair is, but it will have to do until we visit Canada again.
After stuffing our faces, we strolled around the residential streets of town trying to burn off some of those calories. It was another beautiful, sunny day in the 70’s. Back at the campground, we chatted with some of the other campers.
In the late afternoon, we went for another walk around town. We walked over to the visitor center and museum. There were a few items on display outside, but the museum was closed for the season, so we couldn’t go inside. But we are not big fans of indoor museums anyway, so that was OK with us. Then we headed over to the ice cream shop again. Yes, we were eating…again.
Needless to say, when dinner time arrived, we were not hungry. So we just snacked on some tortilla chips and salsa as we sat outside, enjoying the lovely weather. It was so warm that we opened up the back of the van to allow the air to flow through it. The van was sitting in the sun, so it was heating up inside, even with all the shades in the windows and both of the window vents in the front windows. At least our lithium batteries were staying fully charged with all the solar gain on our panels. After a couple of laps around the campground, we were ready to turn in for the night.
Before we left Claresholm on Wednesday, we stopped in town at the Blackwood Coffee Company. Since being disappointed about not finding an open coffee shop in Calgary on our drive to Claresholm, we didn’t want to take any chances this time. We knew the one in Claresholm was open and looked cute. It was a wonderful treat. The shop is in an old building, but they renovated it nicely, keeping its character. Keith had a croissant with jam with his chai. Ann had a hard time deciding what to have. She ended up with the lemon loaf with poppy seeds, but also bought a salted caramel brownie for later. The lemon loaf was nice and refreshing. We’ve noticed that in Canada, they call just a slice a “loaf” while Americans would probably call it “bread” and only use the term “loaf” when it was the whole loaf and not just a slice. Although we would also call the whole loaf “bread” as well. So when we say pumpkin bread, it may refer to just one slice or the whole loaf. We split the brownie for dessert after dinner that evening. It was also delicious, but very rich. So Ann was glad that Keith agreed to have half of it.
After spending over a week in Jasper and Banff National Parks, Claresholm was just what the doctor ordered. We were able to recharge our souls and move on to the remaining weeks of our itinerary for Season Four.
Check out our related video: Claresholm, Alberta
(Ann)