Today (Monday, June 9th) we drove our motorhome about 307 miles from our campground near Glacier National Park, to the Tunnel Mountain Village II campground inside Banff National Park in Alberta Canada!
Driving from Glacier to Banff
When researching the route, we found 2 different potential routes, one going up the east side of the park and coming in from Calgary, and the other going up the west side of the park through Kootenay National Park. We opted for the more scenic westerly route.
We left our campground (Moose Creek RV Park and B&B) around 10:30AM and stopped right away to top off on gas. Despite many trips to Canada, I still do not understand their gas prices and figured it was best to top up before crossing the border as I seem to recall it being more expensive.
Border Crossing!
We meandered our way up US93 and crossed the border at Roosville around 12:30pm.
After a quick 2 minute chat with Canadian border protection, we were on our way, continuing on Canadian route 93.
We made a brief pitstop at the Rock Creek Rest Area near Caithness around 3:30. This rest area was a little different. Instead of an easy off-ramp/on-ramp type we see in the US, it was a turn off with a big loop turnaround to go back out the way we came. Not really designed for many big vehicles like ours, but did the trick.
Outside of some slow downs due to the construction of a wildlife bridge just south of Radium Springs, it was a lovely scenic drive.
Tight Squeeze
Once we got to Radium Springs and entered Kootenay national park we hit the mountains. Right off the bat we encountered a tight pass with rocks overhanging the road, and steep climb.
This stretch of CA 93 zigs and zags itself through various mountain passes so it was a mix of pretty river valleys and meadows, with steep mountain passes. Overall, it was very pretty, and not too difficult of a drive.
CA 93 met up with CA1, the Trans-Canada highway. Despite some climbs this was an easy divided 4 lane road with extensive wildlife management. The entire highway seemed to be lined with tall electrified animal fencing, and many wildlife bridges spanned the highway. This was a short stretch that brought us directly in the Banff.
Downtown Banff
Unfortunately, it brought us directly into Banff. Our route took us directly through downtown Banff, which is a hopping place with lots of pedestrians, bicyclists, cars, motorhomes, busses, as well as trucks pulling trailers piled high with river rafts. Not the most exciting of places to be driving a large motorhome, but we made it through slowly with no issues.
After passing through downtown we headed up Tunnel Mountain and made it to Tunnel Mountain Village II campground. After a short line of RVs checking in, we got our site and were on our way.
Tunnel Mountain Village II
Since this stop we only had electrical service, we stopped at the dump station on the way in and filled our freshwater tank up to the tippy top. This ended up being overkill as we only ended up using about 1/3 of our 90 gallon fresh water supply, but I would always prefer to have more water than we needed. If we needed more, we would have to breakdown the whole RV, drive back to the dump station, and take on more.
We then made it to our site, C1. This was the first time we have encountered a campground where all of the stops are just lined up on the street. So we just parked the RV on the shoulder and setup camp! In the future, I would like to stay at Trailer Court campground. Those spots were off the road like a traditional campground, and had full hookup, but it was hard enough scoring these reservations, so I will take it!
Trip Totals
Total Miles Today: 307
Fuel Used: 34.6 gallons
Day Average MPG: 8.9mpg
Check Engine Lights: 0
Trip Total Miles: 1280
Trip Total Fuel Used: 151.6g