On Thursdays, downtown Canmore hosts the Canmore Mountain Market. The market is a summer tradition that has been happening for the past twenty years. Lucky for us it was only a block away. The market showcases local and regional items such as fresh fruit and vegetables, meats like elk and bison, baked goods and crafts. The market reminded me of the one we visited in Anchorage in that in terms of unique items for sale. Besides picking up a few things, we also grabbed some lunch and headed back to the condo.
Amanda from work is doing the same trip right after we get back and she mentioned that she was going to Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary. We took a look at their website and decided that we also had to go. The sanctuary is outside of Cochrane which is about an hour west of Canmore. We left around 1:30pm because we did not know how many times we would stop to check out the scenery.
Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary is a rescue organization run entirely by volunteers. Wolfdogs are dogs that have some amount of wolf in them. They are categorized as either high content (displays mostly wolf traits) or low content (mostly dog traits with some wolf traits). Based on their content, they are placed in an appropriate pack. Their are six packs with each one having their own enclosure roughly one to two acres in size. Right now there are seventeen wolfdogs at the sanctuary.
We got there about half an hour before our scheduled time for the interactive tour ($51 CAD / person) so we ended up just walking around looking at all of the wolfdogs. The interactive tour lets you get up close and personal with the them. Angie was our guide and she has such a passion for the wolfdogs.
The first pack that we visited with was the Yamnuska Pack. This is a high content pack which includes Kuna, Zeus, Nova and Rue. As we were walking into the enclosure and taking our seats, the wolfdogs stayed back observing what was happening. Angie had a bag of treats and gave each of us a little bit. She tried to entice the pack to come over but Kuna, Rue and Nova were too busy playing while Zeus was just hanging back. Eventually they settled down and Nova came over to get treats from Angie. We ended up just tossing the treats to him since he really did not want to come over. All the while that Angie is feeding Nova, she is giving us tons of information about wolfdogs. Like how to distinguish a high content one from a low content one. She also told us great information about the sanctuary. I noticed that as soon as we left the enclosure, all the wolfdogs came over and started eating the leftover treats.
Next we went into the Cascade Pack’s enclosure. Loki, Nikki and another guy (I can not remember his/her’s name) are low content wolfdogs. As soon as you walked in, they were looking for attention and were much friendlier. Angie gave us more treats and right away, the wolfdogs came over. They listened very well and if you asked them to sit, they would. Unfortunately it was a quick visit with these guys.
When the tour was over, we walked around the sanctuary some more trying to see some of the wolfdogs we had missed earlier. If you are ever anywhere near this place, please make sure to stop by for a visit.
We left the sanctuary and drove down Highway 1A all the way into Banff. No bears today but we did see Big Horn Sheep. The scenery was different, wide open plains.
We thought we should have steak again for dinner so we went to The Keg. Afterwards, we checked out a couple of shops that we missed yesterday. Before heading back to Canmore, we drove part way up Mount Norquay and did the Minnewanka Loop. I sure am going to miss this scenery when I get back home.
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