Dead Man's Flats

When I was trying to describe where we stayed in the Rockies I came up with two approaches.  I called them the “castle” and the “Titanic” analogies.  Banff is a beautiful town situated inside a Canadian national park. Because it’s inside the park there are restrictions limiting the lodgings options and driving up the price.  Banff can be VERY expensive.  It’s a place to see and be seen.  Banff is a little like staying in the king’s castle.

Canmore is just a few miles away.  It too is surrounded by majestic mountains, but because Canmore is outside of the national park it has been able to capitalize on its proximity and cater to the needs of the masses who make the pilgrimage to the parks every year. Staying in Canmore is like staying in the village - still nice with great views of the castle -  just less expensive and less exclusive.

We stayed just outside of a “hamlet” with the less than glamorous name of Dead Man’s Flats. Our little hamlet featured a Husky gas station/quickie mart and an awesome . . .restaurant?  I added the question mark because I don’t think you can describe the Mad Dog Cafe as simply a restaurant.  Denny’s is a restaurant.  Panera might be described as a restaurant.   But Mad Dog?  We bought delicious home made curries and fresh Indian pastries.  They brewed exotic coffees that made my mouth water and I don’t even drink coffee.  This little side of the road cafe was so intoxicating they could have bottled and sold the scents wafting out of the screen door.  Oh, and the same building housed the offices for “Mad Dog Tours,” they run sled dogs in the winter.  The first time I pulled in there I could see several dogs in kennels near the back of the property.  I didn't explore any further but now I kind of wish I had. Mad Dog was an experience.  So we weren’t staying in either the castle or the village.  To complete the analogy Dead Man’s Flats would be like the staying in the king’s stables.  

When I gave Jenny the two analogies I’d come up with she preferred the Titanic analogy.  If we’d been on the Titanic then Dead Man’s Flats would have been steerage. Regardless of how you prefer to describe the place  it couldn’t have been a better fit for us.  While other people may have enjoyed their plush hotel rooms within walking distance of Starbucks we woke up each morning to silence. Our driveway was a half mile gravel road up the side of our own mountain.  There were about thirty cabins clinging to the mountainside each with its own front deck.  There were no McDonald’s  or Dunkin’ Donuts signs obscuring our mountain view; only a few aspen trees.

 The weather was temperamental our first few days there, alternating from sun to fog to overcast to crapulous by the minute. We’d step outside onto the deck several times a day just to view the mood of the mountain.  Not a bad view - even if it was from the stables . . .