Banff and Jasper National Parks

Day 7    Tuesday June 21, 2016  Banff National Park, Tunnel Mt. Trailer Campground, site 731

324 miles  (521 km)       10.2 mpg  (4.34 km/l)

Left Two Medicine camp site at 06:30 and went to the dump station before leaving the at 06:50.  Stopped in Browning for gas, ice, and beer, but they couldn’t sell beer before 08:00.  It wasn’t for breakfast.  I just wanted to have some on hand so I wouldn’t have to figure out how to buy beer in Alberta.  Got some in Many Glacier on the way north.

Hit the Canadian border at 09:00.  Very simple compared to crossing in any of the Michigan entry points.  One guy in a booth and there were no lines.  Always asked the same questions:  have any guns, pepper spray, firewood, or alcohol.  Had no guns, no wood (remember I left it behind), had a six-pack (no problem), and no pepper spray (told him I had bear spray, and he said no problem).  Asked me how long I was going to take to get to Alaska and answered about 10 days to pass through.  He then waved gave me back our passports and wished us a good trip.

After crossing the border, the weather got pretty gloomy.

The GPS wanted to take me north on a freeway to Calgary and then west on the Trans-Canada to Banff.  We elected to take back roads and eventually connected to the Trans-Canada highway east of Banff.  It was a good choice.  Excellent roads and scenery all the way to Banff.

Drove through downtown Banff on the way to the campground, which was just outside the town.

 The campground was a place to stay for the night, that’s about it.  Sites were very close, with no privacy at all.  They even had us on a double site.  It’s like a pull through, but only one guy gets to pull through, the other camper backs in.  That was us.  Our door faced the wrong way.  We shared a common electric pole but had separate water and sewer hookups.  Full hookups in a national park is unusual.  At least in the US.  But some of the views of the surrounding mountains were good.

Our neighbors were a very nice couple from Manitoba.  The first thing they said to us was that they were dying to ask an American about Donald Trump.  Canadians follow the election like it was for them.  The TV news has the same news about Clinton and Trump as the US does.

Would not stay at this campground again.

Day 8    June 22, 2019                                                 Hinten, Alberta, Hinten-Jasper KOA, site 48

234 miles  (376 km)                                                     12.4 mpg   (5.27 km/l)

The Canadian Rockies are the most breathtakingly beautiful scenery we’ve ever seen.  Miles and miles of high peaks, rock formations, ice fields, glaciers, rivers, lakes, and on and on.  The Icefields Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper should be on everyone’s list to do before they die.

Here’s why:

These pictures were taken on a gloomy, drizzly day.  And they are still awesome.

Saw a bear:

Saw caribou crossing signs, but no caribou.

There are these animal crossings they built so animals can cross the Trans-Canadian highway through here without crossing in the road.