July 21

The day started out and stayed cloudy and rainy for most of the drive south. It kept the mountains out of view but it made us keep our eyes open for the wildlife. The person at the visitors center that called our drive yesterday a drive through the Serengeti was right. We started out with a black bear running across in front of the car and of course I had my camera in the back in its case when the bear stood up by the side of the road to look at us. Oh well one picture missed but a memory none the less.
Shortly after that we started seeing signs warning of buffalo on the road and sure enough we came upon 2 that were headed out of town walking along the left side of the road so that oncoming traffic could see them. A few miles further on we came across a whole heard of them as they were settling in for their afternoon naps. I didn't count them but I'm guessing there were at least 50 in two different settings in about a 1/4 mile setting.
Following the bear and buffalo we saw some shaggy caribou. This time of the year this far north they are still losing their winter coats and are not the most photogenic.
We just missed a large moose with what looked like a huge rack of antlers as we came up upon a couple of cars that were stopped along the side of the road just in time to see the moose run into the woods after someone did something to spook it a bit.
We also saw several groups of Dall Sheep as we went into one of the mountain passes. The first group was two females and two young ones (bonus points for any of you who want to fill in the correct descriptors for the young of these animals that I'm describing). I was just commenting to Kathy that we handed seen any sheep with the full rack of horns when around the corner we came to find ourselves car to horn with this pair who were simply grazing along the road conveniently right along a turnout area.
Yesterday as the clouds and rain finally began to lift we passed along the northern edge of the Canadian Rockies. The terrain begins to change again and we continue to be awed by the great beauty of God's creation around us.
Yesterday we also finished up listening to the Message version of the New Testament on CD. We have been listening to a CD or 2 each day as we travel. It has been a very good experience to listen to large chunks of the Bible at one time. In the midst of it you hear the flow of themes that continue to repeat in various ways that you don't hear or read when you only do a few versus at a time. There are overriding themes of God's love and the call for those who believe to love others in return that are repeated over and over again in different ways. If this is something that you haven't done yet I would highly encourage it!
Ok, this is enough for now. I need to get ready for our trip south into the heart of the Canadian Rockies as our destination tonight is somewhere in the Jasper area.