Frontier: Finding Aden

After four attempts, I made it to Aden. Not the ancient port city and de facto capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea, but another port of entry. A tiny border crossing in Alberta, Canada, on the frontier with the USA.

The first go, in April 2024, I was travelling east on the 500 from Coutts. A fox ran out in front of me, and I pulled over on the desolate gravel road for a photograph. In a moment, she was gone, trotting away across a vast prairie field. I glanced at the fuel gauge, and the needle was sitting close to the red. Reluctantly, I headed north to Milk River. Shearwater was refuelled with diesel, but I lacked the personal energy to return to my big adventure to visit all of the frontier posts in Alberta without crossing over to the other side.

I returned in July, equipped with a yellow jerry can filled with diesel in the back of the van. But a torrential rainstorm turned the road into a slick mud river, making it too challenging even for the Sprinter’s rugged tyres and four-wheel-drive system. With 25 km to go, I turned around. Aden was abandoned again.

I went back ten days later, heading west this time from a visit to Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan. The road from Wild Horse border crossing (the most easterly in Alberta) into Montana had dried out pretty well, kicking up a dust cloud the three times I encountered other vehicles in five hours of anything but quiet driving. The continuous rattle and roll of these cattle farm tracks was too much for me. This driver was exhausted. I left to join the smooth, black tarmac and the long drive back home. Aden would have to wait.

Almost a year later, in June 2026, I returned with enough fuel and a clearer mind to drive the dry road as far south as you can go in Alberta and stand at the international boundary stones. My mission to Aden was accomplished.

Location

Aden Border Crossing is located 34 km south of Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, Alberta, on Highway 500, a gravel farm road running parallel with the Canada-USA frontier. To the west is the larger, more frequently used border crossing at Coutts (57 km) and to the east is Wild Horse (190 km). The other three official border points along the 49th Parallel are (west to east) Chief Mountain, Carway and Del Bonita.

Frontier

Frontier is my photographic exploration of the landscape between Canada and the USA, made without stepping across the border. Other related stories can be found in The Voyages of RV Shearwater and my Captain’s Log.