Drive to Banff, Alberta, Canada

Saturday, August 27

I picked up Auggie first thing Saturday morning and was delighted to have my furry little co-pilot back with me. Yes, it’s nice to be completely footloose and fancy-free for a few days, but I certainly miss him when he’s not here!

We got on the road and headed north – the Canadian Rockies were waiting!

 Since we had left Glacier from the west side of the park, we actually entered Canada from British Columbia (not Alberta, which was our final destination). The crossing was fairly painless and quick. I told them I had only two bottles of wine with me (wink wink), I confirmed I had no firearms, and they gave the dog’s paperwork only a passing glance. And off I went. Welcome to Canada!

We drove and drove, with more mountain showing on the horizon with each mile that passed.

I stopped at Radium Hot Springs, which is the last town before you hit Canada’s largest national parks. Auggie and I went into the visitor’s bureau there to purchase our Canada parks pass and get some tips on what to see while we were there. There was a lovely woman there who helped us out a lot. She also gave us a sobering grizzly bear talk, showed us where on the map was a good place to hike by ourselves, where the “busy” trails were where we might hook up with other, larger hiking groups and where Grizzlies had been active. She also gave us some very helpful strategies about what to do if we saw a bear – it’s not always “be big and be loud”. (If the bear doesn’t see you, what’s the sense in drawing its attention to you???)

We then took off into Kootenay National Park, which lies adjacent to Banff National Park.

Kootenay was awesome! We got our first glimpse of the big ole Rockies. Wow! At the base of those big mountains were these broad, ice-blue creeks, so clear you could see the stones at the bottom of the creek bed. It was a really beautiful drive.

And then we made it to Banff. More stunning beauty, with a cute little mountain town nestled into the valley that was created by the convergence of multiple mountain ridges. 

We pretty quickly found the campground and checked in. Too-much-Potter-and-not-enough-sleep the night before had made me pretty tired and focused on dinner and then sleep. There was, however, time to note the beautiful mountains surrounding the campground, as well as our desire to go on a hike the next day and go be in them!