08-29-19 - Going around Edmonton, Elk Island NP to Battleford, Saskatchewan

There are a lot more farms and cattle and crop land. We've also noticed oil wells and oil companies.  We went around the top of Edmonton and then stopped at Elk Island National Park. From there were went on to Vegreville Walmart for the night.

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Elk Island National Park plays an important part in the conservation of the American bison. The Canadian government purchased one of the last herds of bison and between 1907 and 1912 and shipped 400 wild bison by train to Elk Island National Park.  They also have elk, moose and deer. Elk Island National Park is the only national park that maintains herds of both subspecies of North American Bison; Wood Bison on the south side of the highway and Plains Bison on the north side.

From there, on to Battleford, Saskatchewan.

We stopped at North Battleford Walmart in Saskatchewan for the evening. We were going to stay at Finlayson Island, a gravel parking lot that we found on iOverlander. As we got to the bridge to cross to the island, we saw a sign that says "Bridge Restriction 8 tonne";  so we went to Walmart.

I saw this at Elk Island and thought it was cute.

For more pictures, please click here.

08/27/19 - Through Dawson Creek, BC, Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada

Dawson Creek is "mile 0" of the Alaska Highway.  It provides a gateway to the Alaska highway, which connects Northern British Columbia, the Yukon and Alaska to southern Canada and the lower 48 states of the United States. We happened to take this way home, instead of on our way there.

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

We stopped at Grande Prairie Walmart for the evening, along with many other RVs. This was the first Walmart we've seen that charges to use their carts, and then the coin back when you're done and connect it to the other carts.















 To see more pictures, please click here.

05-06-2019 Columbia Icefield, Jasper National Park

Taking highway 93 through the Icefields Parkway, it’s a beautiful area. We stopped at the Columbia Icefield Glacier Discovery Center and took pictures of the glacier, but didn’t pay to drive on it. There’s 2 parking lots by the building. There is also a parking lot across the highway near the glacier where people had parked and walked around, but it didn’t’ look big enough for us to get into and turn around with cars parked there.

You can click on the pictures to make them larger.

We stopped at Wapiti campground at Jasper and got a spot. It’s not real big rig friendly, although we didn’t have any issue getting in. You have to watch out for the trees driving through the campground and parking. Luckily the spot she gave us didn’t have close trees to worry about backing in. The campground has 30/50 amp electric, a dump and water fill. We were in FF14.  It cost $32.30 Canadian.

From there we went to the Visitor Center and got some information on the area. They had wifi so we updated some apps and checked emails.

We drove to Pyramid Island, Maligne Canyon and Lake Annette. There’s a lot of hiking in the area, but we didn’t feel comfortable without bear spray. A lot of the area was pretty wet and muddy also. (I had asked at Banff NP visitor center and she told me we couldn't take bear spray across the border.)

We saw elk in Tunnel Mountain II campground in Banff this morning, bighorn sheep on the highway by the Columbia Icefield Center,  a black bear shortly before Jasper, deer and quite a few elk around the town.

For more pictures of the area and the road through the Icefields Parkway, please click here.

05/05/19 Banff Park Museum, Cave & Basin National Historic Site

We woke up to snow covering our jeep and decided to stay one more day and go to the Banff Park Museum and Cave & Basin National HistoricSite. They’re both free to enter with the Canada parks pass.

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

The Parks Museum was advertised as a history museum, which we thought was the history of the park or the area. It’s a history of the animals and birds in the country, with exhibits. The oldest exhibit is a red-breasted merganser collected in 1860.

At the Cave & Basin Natural Historic Site, we weren’t sure what to expect. The first building you walk to is a gift shop, then you have to walk up a hill to the main site. Unless they have an area for handicapped people to drive to, I don’t know how they get there. When you walk in the main building, you smell the sulfur smell from the water in the cave.  It’s a small cave, room enough for maybe 10 people.  The rest of the area is large with pictures and information panels throughout. Behind this building is a small building for the Internment Camp display. Without a map, it’s kind of hard to find your way around the whole area.

For more pictures, please click here. 

Day 4 - Kootenay and YoHo National Parks

Filled gas in the jeep $1.269/liter Canadian) and took off to Kootenay NationalPark, down to Radium Hot Springs where the visitor center is. From there over to Golden and in to Yoho National Park with a stop at Fields where their visitor center is.

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

We went to Emerald Lake, which is mostly frozen over, and to Natural Bridge, which had people crawling all over it. There were busloads of people at both places. We can’t imagine it in the summer time. A stop at the spiral tunnels. From there the road goes back to Lake Louise and on highway 1 to Banff. 

We saw grizzly bears on the roadside in Kootenay National Park. They were behind a barrier eating, so it was hard to get good pictures of them.  In the town of Radium Hot Springs, after leaving the visitor center, there was a traffic jam of bighorn sheep!

It started snowing late afternoon and into the evening. That wasn’t in the forecast, but we were back home by then.

For more pictures, and copies of brochures, please click here.

Day 3 - Banff National Park and Tunnel Mountain Village II Campground

We took off about 9:00 to go to the Tunnel Mountain Village II Campground to get there early, as it's the only open campground in Banff National Park right now.  The mountains are beautiful with the snow. 

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them. 

Getting in to the National Park, you either stop to buy a National Park pass or take a "through lane" which  takes you through the park, and which you aren't suppose to stop. The daily pass is $19.60 for a group up to 7,  or annual for $136.40, or individual passes.

Once we got to town, we went straight to the campground, which had a lot of room. We stayed in site B82 with perfect mountain views. 

After that we went downtown to the Visitor Information area and got some maps of the town and hiking and scenic drives. They've also got wifi so we updated things. 

We drove to Two Jack Lake and to Lake Minnewanka. Two Jack had a lot of open area, but Minnewanka was frozen. 

Then we took part of the Bow Valley Parkway to Lake Louise. The east half is closed for road construction. I thought there were be wildlife on the side road, but no such luck.

Since we got to the town of Lake Louise, we decided to drive to the lake. Sadly, it's mostly frozen. There were a lot of people on the ice and snow.

After that we headed back to Banff, where were stopped at the tourist center again and I got their National Passport stamp, and then headed to the campground for the night and look through papers and brochures and maps. 

I took lots of pictures today, so uploaded them to a OneDrive file, which you can click on here to see them. 

Canada Day 2 - To Stoney Nakoda Resort & Casino, Kananaskis, AB

Southern Alberta has a lot of farming and cattle feedlots, also a lot of horses. The area is flat, and windy.

We weren’t sure on truck stops along the way near Jasper, so we decided to top off the diesel (only 35 gallons) in Calgary. It was $1.289/liter Canadian. Calgary is a large city, population 1,149,552 per The Milepost, but the highways were easy to follow through. Calgary has its own Philharmonic Orchestra and ballet. There is Fort Calgary, the Glenbow Museum and annual Calgary Stampede. There is the Calgary Zoo and Calgary Tower with a revolving Sky 360 restaurant, and much more.  Once you get up to Calgary is when you hit the hills. It is the gateway to the Rocky Mountains.

West of Calgary is the site of the 1988 XV Winter Olympics.

We stopped at Stoney Nakoda Resort & Casino in Kananaskis, AB for the evening. We found this on freecampsites.net. There is a helicopter glacier tour business right beside the parking lot.

Canada - Day 1 - Crossing the border, to Lethbridge, Alberta

We spent the night in Shelby, MT in the Shopko parking lot, with permission. We found this on freecampsites.net. It's right by the railroad tracks, and it was a noisy night. Filled diesel the next morning and headed out.

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them. 

We got to the International Border at 11:09 AM and waited in line until 11:41 AM.  After a few questions, we drove through at 11:43 AM. Quick and easy!  They asked where we were going and how long we were going to be traveling through Canada. Vehicle licence number? Guns, weapons, mace? Liquor? Cannabis? Cash over $10,000?  They didn't ask about plants or food. I don't know if the crossing in to Alaska is going to be that easy.

It got pretty windy as we kept going and we stopped at Pure Casino in Lethbridge, Alberta for the evening. We found this on freecampsites.net also. I think you can stay quite a while at the casino in your RV. They told me we can register for a couple of days, and if we stay longer just to register again. There is free wifi inside also, a restaurant, bar and entertainment. 

A little history of Lethbridge: 
The Lethbridge region was home to 3 Indian nations, which the fur traders traded with. After the US Army stopped alcohol trading in 1869, traders John J. Healy and Alfred B. Hamlton started a whiskey trading post at Fort Hamilton, near the future site of Lethbridge. The post's nickname became Fort Whoop-Up. It was the most notorious of some of the 44 trading posts built in southern Alberta from 1869 to 1874. The whiskey was a concoction of 9 parts river water to 1 part pure alcohol, to which was added a plug of chewing tobacco for color and a can of lye for more tasted. The whiskey trade led to the Cypress Hills Massacre in 1873. The North West Mounted Police was sent to stop the trade and managed the post for the next 12 years. 

Early development of Lethbridge commenced in the late 1870s with development of a steady coal market and permanent settlement. The Canadian Pacific Railway constructed the High Level Bridge at Lethbridge in 1909. The "Bridge", with a mile-long span and 300-foot elevation, is still the longest and highest steel trestle bridge of its kind in the world.