I did some googling.

It seems that the larger woolly bear caterpillars are completely black...

http://home.att.net/~larvalbugbio/leopardmoth.html

Could this be your caterpillar??

Brenda

Thank you Brenda!
Perhaps it could be one.
Before I posted this, I was looking at the woolly bear too, but couldn't find any this black as you have found!
However,...this one still shows some dark red color between, most have more.
When I picked it up, the caterpillar rolled several times but never shown any red.
Still strange, when googling on black caterpillars, nothing ever showed up.
If my memory is correct???? timing, [month] was way off too.
Konrad

How large was he? I can't tell from what he is crawling on.

Brenda

I would say if it's not the Giant Leopard Moth, it's a really close relative. Here's another page of pictures. There is a note that later instars (stages of development) show less and less red. The range given here doesn't go as far northwest as Alberta but you never know. The adult moth sure looks cool!

Here is a link that might be useful: Leopard Moth at BugGuide

Thank you all!

The link below shoes you the comb size....it looks lile the caterpillar is just over 1" long.
Konrad

Here is a link that might be useful: