6-2-2021 - Wednesday
Today was our day to tour the International Peace Garden. So after our breakfast at the picnic table (first time on this trip),
we headed that way. Joe was determined to drive every road in here, so we did see most of the buildings. Sadly, the infrastructure here is in very bad disrepair. We realized COVID probably kept this place shut down last year, but some of the deterioration seems to go further back than that. The Lodge, which was built by the CCC's, was filthy, bugs all over the counter, the mantle over the fireplace had fallen off. The Music Camp area looked like it hadn't been used for years. We saw maintenance trucks out today, so maybe they are just now starting to get this place in shape. We haven't been bothered by bugs, but apparently they are coming out. This is the front of the jeep. Joe had to clean the windows again today, then we got a chip in it when we were on the highway -- a dump truck went by going in the other lane.
We continued our drive into the Canadian side. There are lakes on both the U.S. side and the Canadian side, but Canada's is bigger. Lake Udall (U.S.) and Lake Stormon (Canada). We saw evidence of beavers in this area, and three different beaver lodges. Unfortunately, we didn't see any beavers working (watching beavers at work is on our bucket list).
We stopped at one of the picnic areas and Joe took an action shot of me!
For some reason, this area is infested with dragonflies, even at the campground. You can see them swirling in the air here.
We finally parked at the Formal Gardens and walked through them. We didn't expect to see much because the season has not started here, but they were working hard today.
A very nice acknowledging the CCC's involvement in this place was mounted just at the beginning of the Formal Gardens.
This is what this place is supposed to look like in full bloom! Too bad we were too early!
The "flags" of flowers had been planted so we were happy to get to see those. The U.S. flag on the left, the Canadian flag on the right. The sunken garden and fountains were not done yet.
We assumed these ladies were volunteers, but they were working hard, unloading and planting the flats of plants. We talked to this gal briefly. She said this was the first day of planting, they had frost here on Sunday night and were hoping that was the end of cold weather. She was sprinkling some kind of pre-emergence for weeds, but there were other ladies out planting the flats of flowers from the greenhouse
When we walked up to this section, the gates were closed and we assumed this, like most everything, was still closed. But the gates were just closed to protect the plants from the deer, and we were able to open them.
Back near the entrance, we saw this building that turned out to be the Conservatory and Interpretive Center (and Gift Shop). Next to it was a butterfly at the entrance to a little trail, with "Polinator Garden" on it. Joe needs that for his hothouse plants! Inside the building, they had quilts on display, but the best part was the cactus garden.
The cactus garden had lots and lots of cactus planted in pots. We thought that made sense, and it was beautiful. There were sections entered the "Tropical Walkway, Desert Garden, Solarium."
They also had these 2 old chairs with very nice floral arrangements on them.
In the Solarium, it felt like we were back in Arizona. But the plants were beautiful, exotic, many we had never seen before. They should have been selling books with pictures of these plants. Joe thought some of them might be brought in from foreign countries, like Australia (but what does he know?).
This Peace Dove is at the very front of the Formal Gardens.
We talked to some of the boys working here. They were at a Missionary Camp from North Dakota. One of the boys was from Gilbert. Joe asked him when he would be back in Gilbert, and he said probably a year and a half. Joe said we should be home before him, then.
We left here and started on today's Scenic Drive about 2:30 -- The Turtle Mountain Scenic Byway. I told Joe even though we were getting a late start, since it doesn't get dark here until almost 10:00 p.m., we had plenty of time. On the way back to Danseith, we spotted the white birds again, and chased them down this time on gravel roads. It turns out they are North American White Pelicans, not swans, and they nest here from April to October. He worked and worked to get a good picture of them through the bushes, then we drove on and had a clear picture. Later on, on our drive, we found them again, out in open water this time.
We reached our Scenic Byway, then we found a dirt road off the main road, and ended up driving that, so it took longer than for most people.
Eventually, he found a lesser dirt road, that turned into a rutted out two-track, and he had to try that one too. Finally, we had to turn around on this one. I felt like it was a road from "Deliverance." Some of the ruts could have swallowed the jeep.
We had a map of this drive, but since we took the "backroad" we were never sure where we were. There were 6 lakes or ponds on the map, and there must have been 20 lakes on this road. So I kept trying to figure out which of the 6 lakes each one we passed was. Only two had signs. Basically, we didn't know where we were the whole time.
At one of the lakes, there was a barrel for bird hunters. Joe found that interesting.
We got back to camp about 4:30, tired from the ride, and were in for the night. We only traveled 68 miles today, but some of them were hard miles. We did scare up one deer on our backroads, and found the pelicans again, so we were happy about that. They were still working in the Garden when we came back.
It got pretty warm today (high 80s), and tomorrow is predicted to be even warmer (mid-90s). We are ready to go back to the cold weather we had when we first got in the Dakotas!
Cathy Croxton, thank you so much for your help tonight with my never-ending problems with this Blog. I absolutely could not do this without you.
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