How to See Five Big Crowsnest Pass Stops in One Short Drive

 

If you are driving Highway 3 through southwest Alberta and want more than a gas-and-go, this loop is the one. Five stops. About twenty minutes of driving between them. Waterfall, a famous dead tree, coal-mine ruins, Canada’s worst mining disaster, and the Frank Slide.

KassDays walked the route in this video:

5 Incredible Stops in Alberta (All Within 20 Minutes!)
https://youtu.be/h8feqfWtB6Q

How to do the route

Go west from Pincher Creek / Lundbreck or east from the rest of the Pass. Stay on Highway 3. Pull off when the signs say so. You do not need a full hiking day.

Lundbreck Falls
Provincial recreation area just off the highway. Twin drops on the Crowsnest River, platforms at the top, stairs into the canyon if you want the mist. Picnic tables. Fishing. Campground downstream. Stay out of the water above and right below the falls. Parking fills on nice days; use the overflow lot across the bridge if you have to.

The Burmis Tree
Limber pine, centuries old, dead since the late 1970s, still standing because the community braced it after wind and vandals. Pull-off beside Highway 3. Read the panel. Take the photo. Do not climb it or lean on the supports. It is a heritage symbol, not a jungle gym.

Leitch Collieries Provincial Historic Site
Stone ruins of a Canadian-owned coal plant that lasted less than ten years. Manager’s house, powerhouse, coke ovens. Self-guided paths. Donation in summer. Washrooms and picnic tables mid-May to Labour Day. Dogs welcome; leash on the paths. Stay on the gravel walks. Do not climb unstable walls.

Hillcrest Mine Disaster Memorial
Short detour into Hillcrest. June 19, 1914. 189 men killed. Worst coal-mining disaster in Canadian history. Cemetery, mass graves, later memorial. This is a working cemetery and a place of mourning. Keep voices down. Stay off graves. Do not treat it like a photo booth.

Frank Slide
April 29, 1903. Turtle Mountain let go. Part of the town of Frank buried in under two minutes. Seventy to ninety people died; most are still under the rock. Walk the marked paths on the boulder field. The Interpretive Centre is the place for the full story if you have extra time. Do not scramble off-trail on loose rock.

 How to keep the day decent

• Check 511 Alberta. Pass weather changes fast.
• Fuel in Pincher Creek, Blairmore, or Coleman.
• Bear spray if you wander any trail beyond the viewpoints.
• Pack out everything.
• Private property and cemetery rules are not suggestions.
• Pair the loop with Waterton, Castle, or a night in the Pass if you have the day. Do not try to rush Frank Slide and a long hike in the same afternoon.

Beauty here is mixed with grief. The waterfall is easy. The tree is stubborn. The ruins show how fast a fortune can fail. Hillcrest and Frank ask you to stand still for a minute.

Watch the walk-through, then drive it yourself:

https://youtu.be/h8feqfWtB6Q

Helen
Helen’s How To

Rowley Alberta, the Town That Refused to Die | Exploring Ghost Towns

 

 

How to Explore Alberta Ghost Towns (Without Crossing the Line): Rowley, the Town That Refused to Die

If you are hunting Alberta ghost towns, abandoned prairie villages, or a Drumheller day trip that is more than hoodoos, start with Rowley.

Rowley sits in Starland County, north of Drumheller in the Alberta Badlands. In the 1920s it had hundreds of people, a train station, stores, a hospital, a church, and three grain elevators on the skyline. Then the Dirty Thirties, better roads, and the end of rail traffic emptied it out. Today eight to twelve people still live there. They mow the grass. They keep the saloon. They call it a historical village more than a ghost town — and they are right.

KassDays walked the streets in this 23-minute video already live on YouTube:

Inside the Abandoned Ghost Town That Refused to Die! (9 Residents)
https://youtu.be/tSDHEJurHYE

You will see the three grain elevators, the old hospital, the church, the bank, Sam’s Saloon, the community hall, and the speeder car on a short stretch of track. Hollywood has used Rowley as a period set. Locals still run Pizza Night on the last Saturday of the month to pay for repairs. That is why the place looks cared for instead of collapsing.

How to find Alberta ghost towns to explore

• Search “Alberta ghost towns map,” Starland County, Special Areas, Crowsnest Pass, and Highway 9 / Highway 56 corridors near Drumheller.
• Good public or semi-public stops: Rowley, Dorothy, Wayne, East Coulee, Atlas Coal Mine, Leitch Collieries, Nordegg, Bankhead (Banff area ruins), and parts of the Crowsnest Pass.
• Use Travel Alberta, municipal heritage pages, and recent visitor photos. Old map pins are often wrong or on private land.
• Pair Rowley with Drumheller, the Royal Tyrrell Museum, the hoodoos, and the Atlas Coal Mine for a full Badlands loop.

Mind the signs. This part matters.

Many “ghost towns” still have residents, private houses, working farms, and buildings owned by the community association. Rowley is one of them.

• If a sign says Private Property, No Trespassing, or Residents Only — stop. Do not walk around it, do not try the door, do not film through windows.
• Stay on public roads, marked paths, and clearly open townsite areas.
• Do not enter boarded buildings, climb elevators, or treat someone’s home like a movie set.
• Dogs on leash. Pack out everything. Do not move artifacts.
• Ask before flying a drone.
• Pizza Night and posted summer tours are the welcome mat. Random weekday peeking into yards is not.

A ghost town that still has nine people in it stays alive because visitors treat it like a living place, not a free-for-all ruin.

Watch the full walk-through here:
https://youtu.be/tSDHEJurHYE

Experiment first. Please yourself. Keep going.

These two photos are from a Friday at the workbench. A resin sword on the mat, blue fading into gold like water meeting sunlight. Small pours nearby. Brushes in every cup. A colour chart on the wall. A UV lamp. Molds waiting for the next try. It looks like a studio. It was really just a table and a person learning out loud.

Almost everything is an experiment when you are still figuring out the why and the how. You mix, you pour, you wait, you sand, you look at it under different light and decide whether it is finished or whether it is only another step. Some pieces land. Some do not. Both teach you something the instructions never will.

The point is not to make something the internet will crown as perfect. The point is to make something that pleases you. That is harder than it sounds. Insecurity likes to sit on the edge of the table and ask who you think you are. The only useful answer is to pick up the next cup and pour anyway.

Beauty lives in the eye of the beholder. That includes the person who made it. If the sword makes you smile when you walk past it, it has already done its job. If someone else sees a mermaid tail or a toy or a failed pour, that is their seeing. It does not cancel yours.

Time and patience are the real materials. Resin is just what you pour them into.

Helen
Helen’s How To

 

 

Easy Eco Resin Skulls

Easy Eco Resin Skulls | One of my favourite molds

Make what you like. If skulls please you, pour skulls. Dragons next. A spoon rest when the idea is ready. The craft is the same: a mold, a mix, and a finish you actually want to look at.

What you need
An eco resin (water-based casting resin — mix to the maker’s ratio), a skull mold, a scale or marked cups, a stir stick, a release if the mold needs it, and a level work tray. Gloves. Paint and sealer only after it is fully cured.

Pour

1. Clean and dry the mold. Mist or brush release if required. 
2. Mix the eco resin exactly as the bag or bottle says. Scrape the sides. Do not guess the water. 
3. Tint in the cup if you want colour through the whole skull, or leave it raw for paint later. 
4. Pour slowly. Tap the mold to lift bubbles. 
5. Leave it undisturbed until the cure time is done. Demolding early is how faces tear.

Finish
Sand any seams. The speckled skull with a pink jaw and the pearly one with blue sockets are the same pour in different clothes: dry-brush, inks in the eyes, a wash in the teeth, then a sealer so they can sit on a shelf and not stay tacky.

That is the whole trick. The mold does the anatomy. You do the character.

I have not used the spoon rest mold yet. Same steps when I do: mix, pour, wait, then make it look like something I would keep. Art is not a committee. Pour the skulls. Paint the dragons. Use the rest when the idea shows up.

A Few Minutes of Flowers, a Buck, and Letting Go

 

A Few Minutes of Flowers, a Buck, and Letting Go

I put together a short clip — mostly stills — of flowers, a beautiful buck, and a little art. The soundtrack is one of those AI nature tracks from Filmora. It is fine. It is not special. I did not want to hunt for something better, that is not really the point of this point, I babble a bit here and there.

Nature does not have to be a mountain range or a perfect sunrise. It can be a bloom in a yard, a deer standing still long enough to be seen, a piece of art that holds a bit of wonder. Whatever form is in front of you is enough.

The goal is simple: look at what is there. Let the noise drop, even if only for a short stretch of time. You do not have to fix anything. You do not have to keep the feeling all day. A few quiet minutes counts.

Watch the clip, share your thoughts with me, just be in peace, if even only for a few minutes.
If it gives you even a small pause, that is enough.

 

How to Capture the Beauty of Waterton National Park Alberta

How to Capture the Beauty of Waterton (and Come Home in One Piece)

A couple of years ago I stood on a hillside in Waterton Lakes National Park and took this photo: a weathered snag reaching over turquoise water, mountains holding cloud, new green pushing up around old wood. I have not been back since. Next year I really must. Places like this do not just look beautiful. They reset you, if you let them.

This is a how-to for getting there, staying ready, and actually seeing what is in front of you.

How to get to Waterton Lakes National Park

Waterton sits in the southwest corner of Alberta, right against Glacier National Park in Montana. The practical way in is a car.

From Calgary it is about 270 km south — roughly three hours. Highway 2 south, then Highway 6 into the park. From Lethbridge it is closer, about 130 km. You need a Parks Canada pass at the gate. Summer weekends get busy, so a weekday or shoulder-season visit is kinder on both nerves and parking.

Check 511 Alberta before you roll. Fuel up in Pincher Creek or Mountain View if you are arriving outside peak hours. Once you are in the townsite, the lake and the peaks do the rest.

How to get ready for the trail if your knees or ankles have a past

Better to have the brace and not need it than to need it and not have it.

I found that out the hard way. An old ankle injury woke up on the way down, not the way up. Fancy that. Uphill you are working and paying attention. Downhill is where the joint takes the pounding, the trail gets steeper than it looked, and pride says “I’m fine” a little too long.

If you have weak knees or ankles:

• Pack the brace even on an “easy” day
• Use poles on the descent
• Slow down before the joint tells you to
• Turn around earlier than your ego wants

Waterton trails can look gentle from the lake and still chew you up on the return.

How to pack so the day stays a good day

Carry what the park actually asks of you:

• Bear spray, where you can reach it, not buried in the pack. Know how to use it before you need it.
• Bug spray
• An extra layer — Waterton weather changes its mind
• Snacks
• More water than you think you need

Then add the unglamorous stuff: the brace, a bandage, a little tape. Beauty is easier to notice when you are not limping and hungry.

How to share the trail with wildlife that does not want you there

This is their home. You are passing through.

Keep your distance. Make a little noise on brushy stretches. Never let food or scented items wander. A deer, elk, or bear that does not see you as welcome is not a photo opportunity first. It is a reason to give space, stay calm, and leave them the trail.

Watch the edges of the frame — the shoreline, the berry patch, the blowdown. That is often where they are.

How to let go of what is dragging you and actually see the place

This is the part a packing list cannot do for you.

Stop. Put the phone down after you take the shot. Breathe in through the nose, out longer than you want to. Look at the dead tree and the living green around it. Look at the water changing colour under cloud. Let the day you brought with you sit down for a minute.

Capturing beauty is not only pointing a camera at mountains. It is noticing the snag, the little yellow flowers at your feet, the fact that you made it here at all. The picture I took that day still works because I paused long enough to see the whole scene, not just the postcard peak.

Waterton will still be there next year. So will the list of things that wear you down, unless you practice leaving them in the car.

Go prepared. Go slowly on the downhill. Carry the spray and the water. Keep an eye on what lives there. Then breathe. That is the how-to.

#WatertonLakes #Alberta #HikingTips #HowTo #NationalParks #GetOutside

Location: Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada

How to Lighten and Stripe a Dark Purple Eco-Resin Dragon Belly

This little dragon started with a solid dark-purple belly. The finished look is lighter overall, with clean white-to-lavender stripes across the tummy and a bit of shine so it doesn’t look flat. You can do the same change on a painted eco-resin piece without stripping the whole figure.

What you need

• The painted eco-resin dragon (fully cured)
• Fine sandpaper (400–600 grit) or a sanding sponge
• Soft brush or damp cloth to wipe dust
• Acrylic paints: a pale mauve/lavender, a light magenta or soft white, and a tiny bit of metallic silver if you want the claws/horns to pop
• Small detail brush and a slightly wider flat brush
• Water cup and paper towel
• Optional: acrylic varnish (matte or satin) and a pearl or interference medium if you want the pearly glow from the second photo

Prep Wipe the dragon so it is clean and dry. Lightly scuff only the belly scales you plan to repaint. You are not trying to remove all the old colour—just give the new paint something to hold. Wipe the dust off.

Paint the base of the belly Mix a pale lavender (mauve pale plus a touch of white works well). Paint the whole belly in thin coats. Let each coat dry. Two or three thin coats beat one thick one on resin. Keep the edges neat where the belly meets the sides so you do not have to fix the rest of the dragon.

Add the stripes Once the pale base is dry, use a slightly darker purple or a clean white (depending on how strong you want the contrast). Follow the existing scale lines. A thin flat brush or a liner brush makes this easier. Paint every other scale band, or every second row, so you get even stripes. If a line wobbles, wait until it is dry and tidy it with the pale colour.

Details Touch up the claws and horn tips with a little silver if they look dull. Check the eyes and snout so they still read against the new belly. Let everything dry fully—acrylic on resin can feel dry on top while the layer underneath is still soft.

Seal A thin coat of acrylic varnish protects the new paint and evens the sheen. If you want that pearly, slightly translucent look, mix a drop of pearl medium into the last pale coat or into the varnish. Do not flood the details.

 

Tips that save a redo

• Thin paint. Thick paint hides scale texture.
• Work in good light so the stripe edges stay crisp.
• If you hate a stripe, sand that band lightly and paint it again. Eco-resin can take a gentle scuff.
• The frog-on-the-toilet in the workbench photo is optional. The dragon is not.

That is the whole change: scuff, pale base, stripes along the scales, seal. The before is the dark solid belly. The after is the striped one sitting on the table with the paint tubes still open.