If you hit this cache at the right time of year, you'll get a few quintessential Alberta experiences:
1. The opportunity to check out a wind farm up close (there's a full blade in the village of Carmangay that you can stop and look at - it's pretty cool)
2. The opportunity to see a field of grazing bison in their natural habitat, not far from the tipi rings that make the area famous (might not be there in the winter).
3. The opportunity to finally understand that, in Alberta, just because you can see something, it doesn't mean it's close. Sorry about that. But the prairie sky is gorgeous.
What's a Chinook?
A chinook is a warm prairie wind that has the potential to turn the coldest winter into a warm summer day, even in January. It's a famous wind in this area where winds are strong enough to generate power.
Who is Johnny Chinook?
Johnny Chinook is a bit of a legend in Alberta. He's the source of all Alberta folk tales, and often the star. Here are a few Johnny Chinook stories:
- A man rode his horse to church, only to find just the steeple sticking out of the snow. So, he tied his horse to the steeple with the other horses, and went down the snow tunnel to attend services. When everybody emerged from the church, they found a Chinook had melted all of the snow, and their horses were now all dangling from the church steeple.
- A man was riding his sleigh to town when a Chinook overcame him. He kept pace with the wind, and while the horses were running belly-deep in snow, the sleigh rails were running in mud up to the buckboard. The cow tied behind was kicking up dust.
- A man and his wife were out during a Chinook. The wife was heavily dressed and the man was wearing summer clothes. When the couple had returned home, the man had frostbite, and the woman had heatstroke.
- The western wind in Alberta is so strong, it blew an entire town away. That's how Saskatchewan started.