Into the National Parks

We left Pincher Creek and tripped to Okotoks, just south of Calgary, to visit Rusty and Mary Ann Stuckey who we met last winter. They introduced us to other friends in Okotoks, including Bernie, Rusty's brother, and his mate Alison. Bernie and Alison have more wanderlust than we do, they bought an around the world air ticket and stayed in hostels all over.
While in Okotoks, we went to the Saskatoon Farm for breakfast, then tripped into Calgary to shop at Costco and visit a few other stores. We also shopped in Okotoks, checking out the shops downtown.

Banff Train Station

We said our goodbyes to our friends in Okotoks, hooked up our car and headed for Banff. We figured it would be a 2-3 hour trip. We took Alberta route 22 around Calgary, then connected with the Trans-Canada #1. On the way, we stopped in Bragg Creek for lunch, and found a gas station there that could fill our propane tank, which was nearly empty. We also stopped at a truck stop where 22 & 1 joined and bought 174 liters of diesel at 78.9 cents per liter. Since I had filled our water tank, and dumped all our holding tanks, we were fully loaded for whatever might come along.

Ariel Tram in Banff

We entered Banff National Park at Canmore, and purchased the Annual National Park Pass for $138.00. We figure it will pay for itself before we leave Canada later in the year. We traveled up to the first Banff exit and turned left into Banff. Consuelo saw a sign for RV Parking, but following that got us into downtown, lost and coming up against a closed road construction area, but we managed to escape through a hospital parking lot and found our way back to Transcanada #1 one exit up from where we got off before. We took the highway south, back to our original exit, and made our way to the Tunnel Mountain Campground. A line of 10 or so RV campers pooled together at another one lane road construction, then we all convoyed to the campground entrance. They moved us along pretty well. We got an electric only site for about $33 for one night. Once we hooked up, it was about 4:30, so we relaxed a bit then made some supper.

Park where Thumper and I walked

After supper, Thumper and I went out in the bug to scout out the town. We found an easy trail along a stream and walked for a mile or so, took some pictures. I then drove back into town and up in the hills toward the gondola and hot springs. Took some more pictures, then went back to our camper. Consuelo was busy catching up on her craft shows that she had captured on our DVR, and watched them into the evening.

Darkness arrived around 9:45. The daytime temperatures had been in the mid 60s and sunny. Overnite lows were expected to be around freezing.

The campground is busy, with lots of class C motorhomes, many of which are rentals. Downtown looke pretty busy to me as well, lots of people walking around looking in the shops and stores. As soon as we hit Transcanada #1, we started bumping into lots of RV travelers. We spoke to one couple at the diesel station, they were from North Carolina, on their way to Alaska. We hope it's not as busy as we head north.