Day 1 - Friday (7/22)

For our Glacier and Canadian Rocky Mountains vacation, we left home around mid-day on Friday. We needed to drive all day on Saturday, arriving in Great Falls Montana to stay the night. My plan was to arrive at Glacier National Park at midday Sunday.  Glacier does not take reservations at its campgrounds so arriving earlier in the day should allow for us to get a site without issues. If we drove for two days straight to the park, we’d arrive very late in the day and would likely need to move to a different campground or stay outside the park.  We drove to Alexandria, MN of Friday which is about 2/3 of the way through Minnesota. We drove until almost 9:00pm and stayed at a Country Inn and Suites. 

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Day 2 - Saturday (7/23)

On Saturday we drove about 13 or 14 hours to Great Falls, Montana, the largest city south of Glacier National Park. We choose this city as it was large and at about the maximum that I like to drive in one day.  Much of this trip was across sections of Montana where it’s just ranch land and nothing else.  Really, really nothing!!  We were off I-94 most of the time as this was the most direct route for us. You could drive as fast as you wanted. I’d get concerned that I’d not find anything so I’d buy gas at each town I found so that I would not run out. In this section of the state, we could drive very long stretches without seeing another car (actually truck, since everyone in Montana drives a truck). We stayed in a Best Western Plus hotel that night as we got into town very late and wanted to get going as fast as possible the next morning.  

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Day 3 - Sunday (7/24)

On Sunday we left Great Falls and drove into Glacier National Park. Our goal was to first look for a site at Avalanche Campground on the west side as sites were not reserveable. We were able to find a site there and set up camp. Glacier is a very large park with big mountain ranges separating the various areas of the park. To get from the east side to the west side took about 2 ½ hours for us. With a camper, you must take US 2 and cannot use the ‘Going to the Sun’ road. Even when using that road, which goes over the top, it may still take that amount of time. There are always multiple spots on that road where construction is going on. For this day, we decided to take a hike to Avalanche Lake and the Trail of Cedars. Both of these are right next to our campground. We ate dinner at our site that evening and finished our setup. It’s important to note that you need to do a lot of hiking to get up close to a glacier, usually requiring an overnight trip. Those that are left in the park are in some pretty remote areas and continue to recede over the years. Later in the trip, in Canada, along the Ice Fields Parkway, we will get our chance to see one up close. We are looking forward to that.




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Glacier Day 1 Slide Show

Day 4 - Monday (7/25)

On Monday we decided to visit the Many Glacier area of the park. This was on the east side. We took the ‘Going to the Sun’ road over. The road is really a fantastic drive; likely the best I’ve ever been on. The road is literally build ‘as a shelf’ into the side of many sheer rock cliffs. There was no other drive for the remainder of the trip that could match this. It’s something that really makes Glacier National Park unique. At Many Glacier, we first did a short hike to a nearby waterfall, Appekunny Falls. One of the biggest attractions in this area is the boat rides that take you up the valley towards the Grinnell Glacier. The tour we took was comprised of two boat rides with a ranger guided tour. We first took a ride across Swift Current Lake with views of Grinnell point with the Many Glacier Hotel as our back drop. We then had a short hike to our next boat ride, which was across Lake Josephine. At the far end of the lake, we proceeded to hike across a mix of marsh, streams and woods to the foot of Grinnell Lake. The ranger did a nice job of discussing the various sites and natural attractions, including Hidden Falls. We did not see any bears on this hike but there were many in the area. The large amount of snowfall that past winter has caused a lot of trails to be closed in the park and also increased bear activity. Some of the prime trails in this area were closed due to excessive bear activity. We made our way back to the lodge and treated ourselves to dinner in the Many Glacier Lodge. We were excited to visit the lodge and eat here. The girls had read a lot about this area from the American Girl books series for Kit Kittredge. The lodge is one of the oldest in the national park system and should not be missed. We took the long ride back to our site arrived back quite late.

Day 5 - Tuesday (7/26)

On Tuesday we visited the park art studio in the St. Mary’s area. This was a special treat for Doris, Monica and especially Martha. We got a chance to create some wildlife artwork and contribute to a large mural project that the ‘artist in residence’ for the park led. This was also a good plan as the morning was cloudy, wet and rainy. After the visit to the art studio, we drove back up the valley to the St. Mary’s Falls area. We hiked to a number of different sites in this area. About mid-afternoon, we drove up to Logan Pass and visited the visitor center. At the visitor center we took a hike to the Hidden Lake overview. This hike was about 99% in snow. As previously mentioned, there were a large amount of trails still closed due to either snow depth or bear activity. The large amount of snow left the pass snowed in until the third week of July, just two weeks before we arrived and about a month later than usual. The day was wet and rainy and we had hoped that the clouds would lift when we were up at the pass. That didn’t really happen. Since the hike was across snow and through the fog, we had a difficult time following the trail. We finally reached the lookout but were not able to see much. The girls were quite concerned that were going to get lost on top of the mountain as you couldn’t see the trail well and you couldn’t see where we started or where we were going. The hike across the snowy terrain was interesting though and we were able to see what the high alpine spring thaw looks like. We also got to see a marmot up close, which was quite a treat. We returned back to the campsite for the evening with a much shorter drive back down the mountain that we had the previous day.

Day 6 - Wednesday (7/27)

On Wednesday we decided to drive up to the north end of the park and the Waterton Lakes area. We had a long drive from the west side of Glacier to Banff and decided to break up the trip by staying at the north end of the park for the next night. This area is on the Canadian side of the boarder. It’s actually a Canadian park but many of the trails and other resources are shared with the U.S. side.For example, there are many cruises that leave the park and travel across Upper Waterton Lake to hiking trails on the U.S. side in Glacier National Park. Overall, we saw a lot more wildlife in Canada than we did in the U.S. We passed through the boarder check on our way in and had our first really good bear sighting. We saw a mother and cub along the road from about 10-15 feet away. Overall, we saw about 20-30 bears on this trip. The farther north we went, the more we saw. The campground in Waterton Lakes National Park was full so we stayed outside town in a small private campground. We set up camp and then went hiking in the Red Rock Canyon area. This was a unique area with layers of deep red stone in a small canyon with a stream. We visited the town area and the Prince of Wales Hotel. This is as grand a national park lodge as you would see in the U.S. and stands on a bluff overlooking the lake and facing in towards the mountain peaks to the south. It’s a very impressive sight. We returned to our site and took the opportunity to use the laundry facilities at the campground and also a hike a nature trail at a nature preserve adjacent to it.

Day 7 - Thursday (7/28)

On Thursday we packed up and headed north to Banff National Park. We decided to stop and visit the Canadian National Historic Site ‘Smashed In Head’ Buffalo Jump. We always like to visit historic sites. In Canada, this site would be about the native or ‘aboriginal’ people of this area. The term ‘Indian’ would not be used. Like the diorama at the Milwaukee Public Museum on the second floor, this site is museum built into the side of a hill and canyon used as an actual buffalo jump. The museum and exhibits were very well done. The site is in the middle of the lower Alberta plains; which are a mix of agricultural and oil fields. This particular area is sparsely populated, so you really get the feel for how the plain and cliff was used. We left the site around mid-day to continue up to Banff. We drove through Calgary, seeing some of the site used by the Olympics. We reached our site at Johnston Canyon Campground in Banff National Park. We did not have reservations but had no issues getting a site. The Canadian National Park campgrounds are very nice. I was looking forward to getting into Canada. They have nice facilities, well spaced sites and they are cared for well. We set up camp and did a hike near our campground; the lower and upper falls of Johnston Canyon that evening. This was a very nice hike up a canyon with many bridges, catwalks, etc…. Just as at Glacier, the area is absolutely beautiful. There are towering snow capped peaks in all directions. In this area, there is a large valley that centers the park and travel is primarily up and down that. It is much easier to get around to the various sites in the area as opposed to Glacier.

Day 8 - Friday (7/29)

On Friday we spent some time in the Banff town area. We later found out this was a good idea as this was a holiday weekend in Canada, so they expected a large influx of people from neighboring Calgary and beyond. We visited the Hoodoos area (very small, not worth it) and also drove and hiked the Signal Mountain area. We ate a nice lunch in town and then did a short, but rather uphill, not very good hike in the ‘C Level Cirque – Mines Area’. We next drove into the Lake Minnewanka area. This area was a very pretty area, perfect for a picnic. We did a nice walk around the lake to the Stewart Canyon Bridge and got some ice cream for a late afternoon snack. As in Glacier, there were quite a few bear warnings that caused us to take some shorter hikes. We caught a bit of rain while there but it was over with pretty quickly. We also stopped at nearby Johnson Lake and got the opportunity to see a beaver up close. He was just a few feet from shore and we were able to watch him for a good 20 minutes eating and trimming some branches that hung into the water. That was something rarely seen anymore in Wisconsin. We stopped back in town on the way back to our camp site to pick up some groceries and other supplies.

Day 9 - Saturday (7/30)

On Saturday we headed up to the Lake Louise area. Our campground was located outside of Banff and about a third the way to Lake Louise. It’s about a 50 mile drive between Banff and Lake Louise so we had about a 30 minute drive there. Lake Louise is one of the most photographed spots in Canada it was easy to tell why. There were hordes of people there. We were able get there early enough to get a parking spot but the lot definitely filled up on this holiday weekend. Our hike for the day was a long one. We would hike to the of the lake and up the valley to the Plan of Six Glaciers. Near the end of the hike is famous swiss tea house. About 90% of the people don’t hike past the end of the lake. We completed the hike to the tea house, got some snacks and ate our lunch. We also did the hike to the Abbot Pass Viewpoint. The view of the six glaciers was spectacular and we even got to see and hear the thunderous like ‘crack’ of an avalanche of ice breaking off a glacier. This was a very long hike. We descended from the mountain about mid-afternoon. We next visited Moraine Lake, just a short drive from Lake Louise. This another picture perfect spot with great views of the lake, glaciers and peaks. We ate dinner at the lake and did a bit of hiking around the lake area. We then headed home for the night.

Day 10 - Sunday (7/31)

On Sunday we spent some more time in the Lake Louise area. We got some help in heading up the mountain by taking the gondola lift at the Lake Louise Ski Resort. We did some hiking at the top of the hill. We were treated by seeing a bear from gondola as we headed down the hill. As with the other area’s we’ve been to, there is a lot of bear activity. They even had the entire area around the lodge fenced in to prevent bears from getting too close to the visitors, food, etc… at the lodge. After we left the ski area, we headed west to neighboring Yoho National Park. We stopped to see the famous Spiral Tunnels of the Canadian national railway at Kicking Horse Pass. This is an interesting engineering feat where two spiral tunnels were cut into the mountain to create a safe decent down the mountain for trains. When trains pass through, you can see the train both entering and exiting the tunnel at the same time. We also stopped at Wapta Falls, an impressive waterfall and did a short hike. We next headed to Emerald Lake, another picture perfect lake, and did a bit of hiking. We also stopped to see a natural rock bridge formed by the Kicking Horse River, the main river in the valley. Emerald Lake, like the other lakes we visited, all have a small establishment to rent boats, a nice café/restaurant and small resort with cabins. The Canadian National Park system does a really nice job of allowing just enough development to support visitors without taking anything away from the site. All of these businesses are very well done with a rustic, national park type of feel. Many have been there for 50-75 years or more but are very well maintained and have lots of charm. After our visit to Emerald Lake we headed back to our camp site for the night.

Day 11 - Monday (8/1)

On Monday we left our campground in Banff and headed north on the Ice Fields Parkway on our way to Jasper. We planned to see a few sights along the way with our major stop of the day at the Athabasca Glacier, part of the Columbia Ice Fields. We first stopped at Peyto Lake for a short hike to an overlook. The lake was a gorgeous blue color and we had a great view from high above it. We then continued on to the Athabasca to catch our tour at 11:00am. We signed up for a hiking tour of the glacier. The tour was given by a local back county ski and hiking guide. Visitors are not allowed to enter onto the glacier surface unless they are guided. This hike was surely one of the highlights of the trip. The guide did a great job and we were able to hike around on the surface for many miles, viewing the large crevasses, flowing streams and other features. There is also a nice visitor center at the glacier that was very educational, explaining lots of details about glaciers and the Athabasca. It’s a bit depressing to see how much the glacier has receded over the years. I’d definitely go see it if you have the opportunity. It’s the most accessible glacier in North America. Many people don’t venture past Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies but we did and it was clearly the right decision. After the glacier, we stopped at Mistaya Canyon to view the rushing river and waterfalls. We spotted another bear, one of many that we’d see in the coming days in Jasper National Park. We then drove up to Jasper and checked in at Wapiti Campground, just outside the town of Jasper, for the night.