Western Canada – Page 3 – the wandering spot

June 20-23

Day 7 and 8 were all about driving 1300 km across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and into Alberta. Endless flat highway, small green hills, fields and pastures. We stopped briefly in Winnipeg to retorque car wheels and then at Portage Spillway PP MB for driver’s nap and watching pelicans and gophers. Very good Echo Valley PP Campground SK was almost empty. After walking around the park in the morning we were back on Trans-Canada Hwy. Stopped for lunch break in Moose Jaw, passed by sodium sulphate mine in Chaplin SK, another driver’s nap in Swift Current SK. With weather deteriorating we decided to park for the night at Tel Star Motor Inn in Brooks AB.

Trans-Canada Hwy (Hwy 1) in Saskatchewan

Day 9 and 10 were all about dinosaurs in Alberta badlands. We liked it so much that we decided to stay an extra day in the area to have enough time for both ☞ Dinosaur Provincial Park AB and then Willow Creek Hoodoos, ☞ Midland Provincial Park and ☞ Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller AB. Hours of walking the badlands and studying fossils at museums. Interesting and worthwhile even on very hot days (walking) and in sometimes crowded spaces (museums). We found refuge camping in very quiet and “local” Little Fish Lake Provincial Park.

But end of the day brings dramatic change of scenery. We are in Canadian Rockies camping the first night at Two Jack Campground in Banff National Park.

We have three-four months for 12k-mile road trip across central and western Canada, and all the way north to Alaska (our longest so far). The trip will take us across six provinces (ON, MB, SK, AB, BC, YT) and eight states (IL, WI, MN, WA, ID, MT, ND, AK). We are looking at some 20 major parks as our main destinations. Many very popular, but still of great interest as it is our first trip in this direction. We cannot see them all, but will make final decisions on the go. Same goes for camp sites, guest houses/motels, trails and alternate roads.

We have made quite a few improvements to our ☞ Subaru camper to make it more streamlined and comfortable on longer trip. We will gear-up for a couple of short multi-day hikes. So it will be a combination of car camping, tenting and from time to time resting under a roof. Packing the right stuff is critical. Minimalist is the description – it all worked quite well on our prior long road trips.

To get started we are looking for the first 3-4 overnight spots: in central Wisconsin (near Eau Claire), north Minnesota (Superior National Forest/Voyager National Park area) and after crossing the border in Internationl Falls somewhere along Trans Canada Hwy near the border between Ontario and Manitoba. The first leg of the trip is 1800 miles from Chicago past Calgary to Canadian Rockies.

We plan to publish short posts on-the-go on our companion Facebook page: ☞ The Wandering Spot and full report on our website after we come back.

Considering these main destinations

	Day	Main destination
June	1	Chicago	IL
		Banff	AB
		Kootenay	BC
		Yoho	BC
		Jasper	AB
		Glacier	BC
		Kluane	YT
		Denali	AK
		Chugach	AK
		Wrangell St Elias	AK
		Kenai	AK
		Glacier Bay	AK
		Wells Gray	BC
		Garibaldi	BC
		Vancouver Island	BC
		Olympic	WA
		North Cascades	WA
		Waterton-Glacier	AB/MT
		Theodore Roosevelt	ND
September	100	Chicago	IL

Tag: Western Canada

Days 7-10: Manitoba, Saskatchewan and dinosaurs in Alberta badlands

Central and Western Canada, and Alaska road trip Summer 2024