Alberta
Alberta is a prarie province with enormous skies, beautiful mountain scenery and of course, a whole lot of money. I could feel it oozing out of the pavement as soon as I crossed the border. Without a doubt, Alberta has the best quality roads in all of Canada. To put it in perspective, Alberta's tertiary highways are better quality than the Transcanada is over 95% of Ontario (which doesn't take much if you've ever visited Ontario). If you want to compare road quality (in my opinion) please review my page on road quality.
The turtle mountain rock slide (Frank Slide) was the first major landmark as I entered Alberta. The ominous boulders are everywhere along the highway. The nearby interpretive center has a very nice set of resources about the slide and is well worth a visit. It is rather hard to imagine the shear size of the landslide which has changed the area forever. Not wanting so sleep in this area I continued onward to the small town of Lundbreck.
From Lundbreck there are two routes to go to Calgary (my home). Take Highway 22 north to Turner Valley/Black Diamond, or highway 3 to Fort Macleod and then north on highway 2. I took the highway 22 route which has better scenary but lacks very much civilization. Fortunately there is a campground halfway to Calgary which I took advantage of. Leaving the chain lakes camp ground, the road went north to Black Diamond, and then East to Okotoks where I met up with Highway 2 which got me into Calgary very quickly.
Personally I stayed a couple of days in Calgary, and then moved East along the TransCanada to Gleichen, then to Brooks and finally to Medicine Hat where I had to have my rear wheel replaced because of a broken axle. Alberta was complete for me the next day as I crossed the Saskatchewan border to Maple Creek.
Before I continue I should mention one thing. Although the prarie provinces seem to be very quick and easy to cross, they can be anything but. The winds (which are predominantly westerly) can be far tougher to bike against than the hills or mountains of the Canada. A day of biking against the wind is by far the hardest task a biker can go up against in Canada. If you have questions about various type of terrain and how they are to bike on, please contact me, I would really like to hear from you.
Next Province - Saskatchewan