I’ve been working on capturing every grain elevator I can find here in Alberta fore the past few years now. I’m getting close to completing my project, with only about a dozen left to shoot now. The trip journal below doubles as a dress rehearsal for another project. You can learn about what I mean by dress rehearsal here, and the other project here.

The First Grain Elevator

It was a four hour trip just to get to my first location: Kirriemuir. Don’t ask my how to pronounce it. Kirriemuir is just a handful of kilometers from the Alberta/Saskatchewan border and is a hamlet with a reported population of just twenty-eight. The grain elevator sits on its own, abandoned and unlocked, so of course I went inside, poked around and captured the interior. I’ve been in more than a few abandoned grain elevators during this project and the way in which they are left most of the time always stuns me. It’s not so much like everyone left, but just popped out of existence. Notices on walls, piles of grain near scales, coffee mugs on tables…it’s all there.

After looking around in the office I moved on to the elevator itself. The remains had a lot to offer photographically and the open doors allowed for enough natural light for good exposure.

In some areas, like there these photos were taken, the floor beneath me sagged ever so slightly.

Altario Grain Elevator

My next stop was just a short jaunt away, a place called Altario. I assumed that was a combination of Alberta and Ontario and a quick Wikipedia check confirms it.

I was gifted with not one, but two elevators. Unfortunately, one was behind an analog firewall. i.e. private property. Sometimes people build a homestead around one, while in other cases it’s actually moved onto the property to save it from demolition. For this one I opted to use my Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR Lens. For the trip, I decided it would live on my D780.

The other, in town elevator didn’t offer much in terms of aesthetics. I took a few snaps for posterity and was on my way. That’s the way it goes sometimes. You drive hours to these locations only to take a few shots and move on.

Car Camping Dress Rehearsal

It was time for me to start looking where I was going to park and sleep for the night. I ended up finding the Ribstone Campground northwest of the first of next days destinations. Just five bucks and on a first come first serve basis, Ribstone was a quaint little place just off the highway. I parked, cracked the windows, set up my covers for privacy, had a bite and settled in for the night. This is when I encountered my first major flaw of the trip.

Not to get too personal here but I have sleep apnea. This means I need a device called a CPAP. Think Happy Hogan in Spider-Man: Far From Home and that mask on his face while he slept. It pushes air, so you don’t stop breathing while you sleep. Not only does it prevent snoring, but high blood pressure and a myriad of other heath issues associated with apnea in the long term. Thing is, I packed the machine, but I forgot the damn mask. It’s something I’ve never done before, and now I was four and a half hours from home, and it was late. While inconvenient, it wasn’t life threatening. It just meant poor sleep, and a sore throat the next day.

While I contemplated my packing error, I took a bunch of notes on my Kindle Scribe. These are some of the observations thus far from my dress rehearsal. It’s not crucial to this blog overall and you can skip it if you want but here are the highlights.

Car Camping Revisions

• The solar panel for my Ecoflow battery bank is bulky and unnecessary.
• Having a water jug on the roof cargo is a good idea until it’s midnight and you need a drink.
• The sleep setup in general took too long and is still very janky.
• While cool and nostalgic, bringing cassettes and CD’s is redundant now that Spotify is a thing.
• Considering limo grade tinting on the tiny windows near the back.
• A molle organizer strapped to the back of the passenger seat for ease of access.
• Advil.

It’s was mostly overcast but the clouds did break for long enough for me to lay back and stare at the stars and a few satellites though the moon roof.

I woke up to three-degree weather. Both my blankets were not cutting it. A battle raged where I wanted to get up and start the car to blast the heat, but also didn’t want to leave the little warmth my makeshift bed provided. Eventually I caved.

A gas up, coffee, beef nuggets and Halls from a night of sawing wood and I was on my way to capture more Alberta grain elevators.

Undiscovered Grain Elevator

Before my next destination, just a few clicks away, I spotted an elevator not on my map, which is always a nice find. Currently in use and in the town of Chauvin.

Isolated

Just 4 KM from the border is the Butze grain elevator. This one was abandoned, isolated, and involved parking off road, in a field by the tracks. After a trek through hip high overgrowth and a quick bathroom break, I tentatively stepped inside. Every time I do this I am keenly aware of my mortality, so I probably don’t venture in as much as someone half my age but I make it a note to push myself just a little bit each time to remind myself I’m still alive.

I love the beautiful decay of this shot. I think it really turned out well, and if you get it, you get it. Probably my favourite from the whole trip and in my top ten for Alberta grain elevators.

When I got back to the car, I pulled out the D780, and snapped a few telephoto shots before moving on.

Trouble in Paradise Valley

I got excited when I entered Paradise Valley. I saw a sign that listed the grain elevator as a museum and while I prefer what I encountered with the Butze grain elevator, I also like the ones that are restored and repurposed. The one in Creston British Columbia that sells art and the Prairie Elevator Museum in Acadia Valley Alberta spring to mind. Pulling into the parking lot, I saw an “open daily” sign, and my arrival fell within the hours posted. I’m sure you can tell what happened next. I checked the entrance, only to find it locked.

I decided to bust out the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED for this location. The images I took are nice, but not the dramatic representations of other Alberta grain elevators I had taken earlier. I focused my attention on details of the train car, the peeling paint and nearby farm equipment. Photographically I don’t think I missed anything from the inside. I am not a fan of staged photography to that degree, I just wish I had a chance to see it.

Kitscoty Grain Elevator & A Bust

The strangely named Kitscoty was next on my list of Alberta grain elevators and this was another case of snap-and-go. I’m not sure why I spend an hour at some locations and five minutes at others. Sometimes I’m lazy. Sometimes I’m uninspired. Usually it’s a little of column A and a little of column B.

Vermillion was a bust. The only grain elevators I saw were the giant modern ones, which I have been known to shoot on occasion but that is not why I’m out here.

Car Trouble

In between Vermillion and Elk Point, driving down the highway my EyeSight feature on my Subaru disabled. EyeSight does everything from aid in cruise control to automatic braking if a car suddenly comes into my path. At the same time the RAB (Rear automatic Brakes) also disabled and the check engine light came on.

I googled the issue. It said that sometimes this happens when the sensor is obstructed, so I went and had it washed. It took damn near twenty minutes to get all the mud off. it came off in chunks. A few hours earlier I went through a few back roads. Mud, puddles, dirt, overgrowth, etc. But when shit went south, I was on smooth pavement. I gave it a shot anyway.

No luck.

At one point the lights went off after a fill up but came back on and stayed on shortly after.

After trouble shooting and considering my options, including visiting a local mechanic and spending a night in a motel, I decided the best course of action was to take the long, five hour drive back home to Calgary.

This is why a dress rehearsal for road trips is so crucial. If I hadn’t thought to do one. If I was overconfident, this would have happened halfway to Winnipeg.

The issue was a faulty coolant bypass valve and thankfully a common issue. This meant Subaru would cover it under an extended warranty. The part will take about ten days to ship from Toronto and won’t cost me anything. This is a best case scenario and I made the right choice taking it to my regular mechanic. During that lull where the warnings turned off I did manage to get a half decent photo of the elevator in Elk Point.