Grande Cache to Dawson Creek

We left Grande Cache Municipal Campground at little after 8:30. We had a great view of Grande Mountain as we were leaving town.

From Grande Cache to Dawson Creek

We had driven about 15 minutes north of Grande Cache when we passed by the Grande Cache Coal Corporation. Coal mining and oil drilling are two major industries in this part of Alberta.

From Grande Cache to Dawson Creek

We saw these deer that had come down near the highway and were going back up the hill.

From Grande Cache to Dawson Creek

We also saw a number of places near the highway where people had parked their RVs and were camping for free. If you had a large RV you would have to be very careful parking in some of the places we saw because the ground didn't look like it would support the weight.

From Grande Cache to Dawson Creek

We stopped for lunch at the Wal-Mart in Grande Prairie and did a little shopping also. We saw these RVs parked in Wal-Mart's lot and they looked like they were staying there for more than a day.

From Grande Cache to Dawson Creek

After lunch we drove through the town of Wembley and saw this 1956 Chevrolet cross the highway in front of us.

From Grande Cache to Dawson Creek

A little farther on we saw a small herd of elk grazing on farm land.

From Grande Cache to Dawson Creek

Then we saw dark rain clouds ahead of us. One storm was to our left

From Grande Cache to Dawson Creek

and one was to our right.

From Grande Cache to Dawson Creek

So which rain storm did we get caught in? The one that was between the 2 dark clouds.

We drove through the town of Beaverlodge and saw this giant Beaver sculpture. As part of the town's 75th Anniversary in 2004 they had this 15 foot high, 28 foot long and 3000 pound sculpture made.

From Grande Cache to Dawson Creek

We arrived at Dawson Creek at 2:00. Dawson Creek is Mile Zero for the Alaska Highway. In 1942 Dawson Creek had a population of 600 and by the time the American troops came to build the highway, the population had grown to 10,000.

From Dawson Creek

We got in here at the Mile 0 Campground at 2:20. Two other motorhomes had pulled in to the campground ahead of us. When I went in to the office to register, I heard the people who were ahead of us request pull-through sites. But they were told that there weren’t any available today. Thank goodness Mike had called yesterday to make a reservation for a pull-through site.

We are in site #67. We have full hookups (30 amp electric). There is wi-fi here and we can pick up the signal in the RV. We did manage to tune in our satellite dish, but we’re not receiving all of the stations that we normally would get.

We’re staying here for 2 nights. After dinner I walked the short distance over to the laundromat and washed our bedsheets. Tomorrow I’ll catch up on the rest of our laundry and we plan to do some sightseeing, too.

Columbia Icefields to Grande Cache, AB

When we got up this morning we saw these 2 hikers walking past the Columbia Icefield parking lot. They must have camped out at a campground a couple of miles east of here.

From Columbia Icefield

Six other RVs spent the night in the Columbia Icefield parking lot. We left the Icefields this morning at 8:15 and continued north on the Icefields Parkway.

After driving about 40 miles we pulled off onto a turnout by the Sunwapta River to walk Tinker.

From Columbia Icefields to Grande Cache

There were 2 signs at the turnout pointing towards 2 mountains near there and the signs had the date and name of the first person who climbed the mountain.

From Columbia Icefields to Grande Cache

From Columbia Icefields to Grande Cache

In August 2009 we had visited Jasper with our friends, Symphony & Al, and had a great time. We rode on the Jasper gondola and enjoyed walking around town. This time we decided to stop in Jasper long enough to buy a few groceries. We parked the RV across the street from Robinson’s Grocery and Mike walked Tinker while I went shopping.

From Columbia Icefields to Grande Cache

When we were about 30 minutes north of Jasper we saw some cars that had pulled off the road and everyone was looking up towards some rocks. Whenever you see cars stopped like that, it usually means the people are looking at some wildlife. It was true this time and I managed to get this photo of some bighorn sheep.

From Columbia Icefields to Grande Cache

We stopped for lunch just outside the north entrance to Jasper National Park at a turnout on the highway. We were about 77 miles south of Grande Cache.

We saw this young Woodland Caribou walking along the side of the highway.

From Columbia Icefields to Grande Cache

We were arrived in Grande Cache we stopped to get gas at the Esso station. We got 189.741 liters at $1.199 a liter ($227.55); that’s 50.139 gallons for $4.641 a gallon. Mike asked the clerk at the Esso station where we could have our propane tanks filled. The Home Hardware store in Grande Cache sells propane, but the tank isn't at the store. They have the tank at the RV storage lot near the campground and someone has to meet you there. Mike got Home Hardware's phone number from the clerk at the gas station and called the hardware store.

We drove over to the RV storage area and waited for someone to come from the hardware store. For some reason the nozzle on the propane tank's hose wasn’t compatible with our onboard propane tank’s connection, so we were only able to get the portable propane tank filled. We had wanted to "top off" our onboard propane tank, so we weren't low on propane.

We arrived at the Grande Cache Municipal Campground a little after 2:30. We are in site #57 and have full hookups (30 amp electric) and with our Good Sam discount our site cost $27 CAD for tonight ($28.60 US). As you can see by this photo, we had to put the front tires up on blocks in order to get the RV level.

From Columbia Icefields to Grande Cache

From Columbia Icefields to Grande Cache

Calgary to Lake Louise

When we woke up it was 45 this morning and cloudy.

We left Symon’s Valley RV Park at 10:00 and headed west on Hwy 201 to TC-1 then west out of Calgary. We passed by the Canada Olympic Park.

From Calgary to Lake Louise

We stopped at a roadside stop at 10:30 for about 15 minutes and saw this pile of grain and a lot of Columbian ground squirrels. We don’t know if the grain was left there on purpose or by accident.

From Calgary to Lake Louise

From Calgary to Lake Louise

We drove through the Stony Indian Reserve and saw this billboard for the Lake Louise Gondola (which we’re going on tomorrow)

From Calgary to Lake Louise

and then this billboard for the Columbia Icefield which we’re going to after Lake Louise.

From Calgary to Lake Louise

At 11:15 we stopped for lunch at the Lac des Arcs roadside stop, which is a resting area for swans, geese and ducks in their migrations in the spring and autumn.

Then we saw this sign warning of wildlife on the highway and hoped we would see some, but they must have been hiding.

From Calgary to Lake Louise

We stopped at a Petro-Canada in Canmore to get gas in the RV. We got 128.314 L (33.901 gal) and paid $1.169 a liter (abt $4.884 a gal).

We arrived at the entrance to Banff National Park at 12:30 and paid $49.80 CAD (senior rate) for the 3 days that we’re staying in the park. The park charges a daily fee per person which for seniors is $8.30 CAD.

We arrived at the entrance to the Lake Louise Trailer Campground and paid $64.60 CAD for a campsite for 2 nights. They aren’t taking reservations until June 17th, so you’re assigned a site when you get here.

We are in site #77 with 30 amp electric hook-up, but no water or sewer hook-ups. The site is a long gravel site with grass on each side. A lot of the campsites are double occupancy (2 RVs), but the ranger at the entrance assigned us a single site.

From Lake Louise

We have nice view of the Bow River out our front windows. The weather was cloudy most of the day, but it is supposed to clear up tomorrow. The temperature stayed around 49 for most of today, but did get up to 51 for a little bit.

From Lake Louise

After setting up the RV, we took Tinker and went for a walk along the Bow River.

From Lake Louise

From Lake Louise

Then we drove into town to go to the Visitor Center and the Samson Mall. We bought some postcards and got stamps at the Post Office. When we were in Canada in 2009 the postage for postcards to the U.S. cost $.99 and now they cost $1.03.

When we returned to the campground, we drove around to see how many RVs were here and stopped to look at the Bow River again.

From Lake Louise

It is now 9:30 and still quite light outside and the temp is 45. I think the temp in the morning is supposed to be in the mid-30’s.

Glacier National Park to Calgary, Alberta

It was cool again this morning when we got up - the mid 40's and overcast. By the time we stopped at the dump station to empty our tanks and get some water in our fresh water tank and leave the park it was almost 9:00. I drove the Vue and Mike followed in the RV.

We stopped at the St. Mary Gas Station to top off the tank in the RV and paid $3.999 a gallon.  We also stopped at the St. Mary Supermarket to get some propane in our on board tank and found out that they had run out of propane. We hitched up the car to the RV there and headed north on US-89 to the U.S.-Canadian border. We again tried to call the Symon's Valley RV Park where we're planning to stay tonight and only get voice mail.

We passed through the small town of Babb and saw this large log house.

From Montana to Calgary

We arrived at the Canadian border at 9:45 and were the only ones crossing into Canada. 

From Montana to Calgary

We handed our passports to the border officer and she asked us the usual questions - purpose for entering Canada, where was our residence, any alcohol & tobacco and how much, any firearms, what our occupations were, and did we have any items we were planning to sell in Canada. She also wanted to know if we had spoken with an immigration officer on our 2 previous visits to Canada. On our first visit to Canada we had to go inside and spoke with an officer and he entered our information in the computer, but we didn't know if he had been an immigration officer. She handed back our passports along with a yellow paper and instructed us where to park our RV and that we were to come inside and talk with an immigration officer.

Once inside we handed over our passports again (& the yellow paper) and he asked us if we had ever been to court or convicted of a felony. He asked some of the same questions the other officer had asked and then entered our passport information in the computer. After a few minutes he handed back our passports and wished us a pleasant trip.

We headed north on Highway 2 and passed through some small towns on our way to Calgary. We drove through Cardston and saw a Fay Wray Fountain (we did get a photo of the sign for the fountain).

From Montana to Calgary

We saw this gas station in Cardston $1.219 for regular. Not bad, but that is for a liter and that works out to $4.614 a gallon (that's not accounting for the currency exchange rate).

From Montana to Calgary

We stopped at a pull-off about 25 miles north of Cardston for and early lunch at 11:00.

We then drove through Fort MacLeod and decided to drive on the historic Main Street instead of the truck route

From Montana to Calgary

and if we had taken the truck route we would have gone by the reconstruction of Fort MacLeod which is now the Museum for the North-West Mounted Police.

From Montana to Calgary

We saw this gas station in Claresholm and the gas is lower here - $1.154 a liter ($4.368 a gallon)

From Montana to Calgary

and saw these familiar businesses

From Montana to Calgary

and this cute drive-in.

From Montana to Calgary

We saw the Happy Face Equestrian Farm near Nanton

From Montana to Calgary

and this interesting building or ten near High River.

From Montana to Calgary

We continued north on Hwy 2 and drove on the east side of Calgary and then on the Beddington Trail to the north side of Calgary where we saw housing areas built up on the hills around Calgary. The housing developments extended as far as we could see - talk about urban sprawl! But the houses are really nice looking and some are quite large. Some have almost no space between homes and others have large lawns.

From Montana to Calgary

We arrived at Symon's Valley RV Park at 2:30 and the office was closed! Mike called the phone number on the office door and got voice mail. He saw a couple of men at the park and they said to just walk around and find a site and register later. It had been raining here and the roads inside the park were muddy. Mike called me while he was looking for a site and said the place was a mess - there was mud everywhere.

From Montana to Calgary

While Mike was looking for a decent campsite, I was trying to find an alternative campground nearby. Mike eventually found a site that would do and we pulled the RV into it.

From Montana to Calgary

From Montana to Calgary

We are in site #112 and have 30 amp electric with water and sewer. There is free wi-fi here - it isn't a strong signal, but it is adequate. Mike put blocks under the jacks to keep them from sinking into the mud under the RV. Tomorrow we'll see if anyone is in the office so we can register. This is a Passport America campground and the cost if half-price.