Coulees Along the Crowsnest

I was in Alberta last month to visit family, and one evening I took a bus from Calgary to Lethbridge — a journey I haven’t made in a very long time. I took this photo of the coulees as we drove along the Crowsnest Highway. I just love this landscape.

The coulees are ravines that formed when the glaciers retreated after the last Ice Age. Wind and water gave them their characteristic V-shape. They are everywhere in southern Alberta, but are especially prevalent along the Oldman River that flows through the middle of Lethbridge.

Coulee evolved from the French-Canadian word coulée, which in turn evolved from the French word couler, which means “to flow.”