We rolled out this morning, and headed for the Canadian border! We had been staying around 30 minutes from the border. After much discussion about whether or not we would have to throw away all of our fresh fruits and vegetables (which some said we would), we were pleasantly surprised with how simple and easy the process was. We pulled into the drive-thru Customs Office and thanks to the friendly guard, we were in Canada within five minutes!
Our first stop today was Calgary, Alberta where we were hoping to meet up with one of my mom’s best childhood friends, whose family has been vacationing in Canada. The VanEyk family currently lives in Montana, near Glacier National Park, and happened to be in Canada as we were passing through. We hadn’t originally planned to meet up with them, but thanks to Facebook, we knew we were going to be in the same city at the same time. We met them outside the Aerospace Museum. Everyone had a great time catching up after so many years!
After loading everyone back up, we headed towards Banff National Park, about 3 hours away from Calgary. Banff is Canada’s first national park, and is quite the popular tourist destination. We pulled into the campground around 3 pm, and let’s just say that Canada does its campgrounds a little bit differently than we do in the United States. The campsite was literally a parallel parking spot in a row of other parked RVs. Quite practical, but also quite different. In search of something to do, we headed out to the main road and found the Hoodoo Overlook Trail. For those of you that don’t know what a hoodoo is (which I had never heard of either), it’s basically a gigantic stalagmite growing on the side of the mountain- here’s a picture for clarification.
The trail was paved, and had a few gorgeous overlooks of the river below and the Banff Springs Hotel off in the distance. We hiked back down the trail and headed into Banff Town to do some exploring.
Banff is by far the strangest National Park I have ever been to. On one side, there are beautiful, snow capped mountains surrounded by wide open fields full of wildlife, but right down the road is basically Canadian Gatlinburg (as many Americans call it). I guess because there are so many full time residents in the park, it is much more developed than our Yellowstone or Glacier National Parks. Although Banff is quite different, it’s not disappointing in the slightest.
After dinner, we were bound and determined to find some animals during our first day in the park, so my family headed out in search of wildlife. We drove around for a while, quite unsuccessfully, but we eventually came across a group of sheep on the side of the road. There were quite a few of them, and they even had two babies with them.
After dinner, we were bound and determined to find some animals during our first day in the park, so my family headed out in search of wildlife. We drove around for a while, quite unsuccessfully, but we eventually came across a group of sheep on the side of the road. There were quite a few of them, and they even had two babies with them.
Continuing on our search, we even stumbled across two grizzly bears. We were not able to stop to get good pictures of them because a park ranger was trying to scare them away from the road and back into the woods. We circled back around, and by that point both the bears and the park ranger were gone, but in their place was a small group of female elk up on the hill. It’s amazing how much wildlife we were able to see in such a short period of time.
More about the Cranberry- it’s absolutely filthy, and I have convinced my parents to not wash it the entire trip (with the exception of the windshield and front windows). Just to give you an idea, here is a picture:
More about the Cranberry- it’s absolutely filthy, and I have convinced my parents to not wash it the entire trip (with the exception of the windshield and front windows). Just to give you an idea, here is a picture:
This trip has been absolutely incredible, and it’s amazing to think of all the things we have already seen so far-and we haven’t even made it to Alaska yet! 3,000 miles later and we have seen 5 national parks/monuments, taken over 2,500 pictures, completely caked the Cranberry in a layer of mud, and made countless memories along the way.