Field, B.C.

 ... winter storms bring winter disrepair ...

I am making the trip to and from Calgary more and more times each year. In the past the stops usually involved something new I could show the kids: seeing a new sight along the way – a view of a waterfall at Takakaw, a walk along the Hoodoo Trail, or a stop at the Skunk Cabbage board walk. Now things have changed. Now the stops are paced by good health – the timing to get out of the car to give my legs a stretch or even a good walk before going another of the 500 kilometers along the way. Often that stop includes Field, B.C.

Field Parking Lot ... no tourist cars here yet

It is too late to buy the cotton throw into which is weaved all of the secondary places a person might want to see there: Emerald Lake, the Burgess Shale, the Kicking Horse River. I first saw that blanket in the gas station at Field. Though it was on display, I had to go to the lodge to buy one, since they were sold out. Now I have too many covers of all weights and sizes. Still I think of that desire – to capture that beauty in a material object and then to have it rest over me some evening when I am cold and there is no fire in the hearth, as it were.

...  a playground nestles in a valley of Yoho National Park ...

That stop at Field is a golden one. There is the tourist information centre to see. The way to the Burgess shale is well signed and six or eight sandwich boards tell how those fossils fit into the creation of the world. There is a play ground and picnic tables, the meandering river with all of its oxbows, and glaciers on the mountains in the distance. I have even seen a man with a fishing rod throw his lure out into the lake. Field is a good chance to stretch people’s legs after two hours of driving. I saw it this time when it was filled with trucks there to give the place a good repair before the summer tourists arrive.

Arta