Canadian Rockies (Banff, bears and beautiful views 3,117 miles )

After a short drive to the Canadian border crossing , we left Idaho behind and began the most exciting part of our journey.

The checkpoint was quick and easy. We’d read stories from other travelers of having their RVs searched by border agents so we were prepared for the same. The officer was very friendly and asked only if we had excessive amounts of alcohol or cigarettes, any firearms or ammunition, where we were going, how long we’d be in Canada and why we’d chosen this route since we live on the East Coast. That was it.

The drive over the next few days will take us through the Canadian Rockies with the first night at Tunnel Mountain Village II in Banff National Park.

We arrived in Banff in the early afternoon and stopped downtown to check it out before going to the campground. It’s a cute town, but super touristy and crowded. I can’t imagine how it must be in the middle of high season.

We found on street parking without too much trouble and walked over to a nearby bakery. Well, actually we went to two different bakeries. The first had fresh bread but the pastry case was nearly empty, as any decent bakery should be this time of day. Fortunately there was another around the corner with one last cinnamon roll just for Riley.

Tunnel Village campground is one of the oddest places we’ve stayed. The sites are basically parallel parking spaces on either side of the roads running through the campground. A picnic table and water and electric hookups are in the grass beside the road. So odd.

But, you can’t complain about the view!

The weather on the drive in was mostly rainy and cool. I wore jeans for the first time this trip and pulled our jackets out of the closet. We felt lucky that it cleared up about the time we arrived in Banff but it wasn’t long before we realized just how quickly the weather changes here. It literally would be sunny and almost feel like summer one minute and dark skies, cold wind, lightening and rain/sleet/hail the next. Then sunny bluebird skies would return moments later.

My WeatherBug app said no rain was expected for the next couple hours so around 5:30 or so we hopped on our bikes and rode back to town to hike the Tunnel Mountain trail. The trail is about a 3 mile round trip to the summit of Tunnel Mountain, with great views of Banff and surrounding area.

There were as many trail runners as hikers, running up and down past us on the rocky trail. I’m sure it’s a standard route for local runners. One fellow passed us three times, twice going up and one going down. Riley said the only way he’d run that trail is while wearing a RedMan suit. If you’re like me and don’t know what that is, look it up. I’m betting if he had one he still wouldn’t run up or down the trail. Haha.

Tunnel Mountain was named by the railroad when they were mapping out the route through the Rockies because they thought they’d need to tunnel through it. Ultimately they decided to go around it instead but the name stuck.

The sky darkened and thunder rumbled as we rode back to camp. It cleared up again in time for Riley to grill turkey burgers for dinner. He was doubtful when I suggested ground turkey instead of beef but even he agreed these were some of the best burgers we’ve had.

Another storm blew through at about 9:30 and the rain and howling winds drove all the campers inside their RVs for the night. Up until then, there had been a handful of hardy campers sitting out at their fire pits bundled up in down jackets and beanies looking like they were cold in spite of the fire.

It wasn’t that the temps were super low, probably around 50 degrees, but the wind was definitely chilly. It did get down into the 30’s overnight though. Our furnace came on for the first time this trip. I hope we don’t need it for long but I’m betting it will be awhile before we’re wearing shorts again.

Our first wildlife sighting happened on the drive into Banff. A smallish black bear was walking in the woods beside the road. This morning there were four of five elk grazing in the grass between the picnic tables beside Charlie. I’m hoping we’ll see a lot more!