Day 2
June 22, 2026 Monday
Choteau MT to Banff AB Canada
Entering Canada on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The Port of Piegan/Carway near Babb MT. It enters Alberta west of Lethbridge and directly south of Calgary
Driving north of Choteau on the Ivan Doig Memorial Highway. Ivan Doig is a famous Montana writer. Some really good novels.
Green grasslands forever. Big Sky!
Rocky Mountain front to the west and Glacier National Park. Today is overcast so mountains are obscured. Boo hoo!
Reservation towns we passed through:
Browning
St Mary’s and the two lakes. Also an entrance to Going to the Sun Highway in Glacier Park.
Babb (closest to the Canadian border is where we crossed into Alberta Canada. The border crossing was quick and easy. Biggest question was if he had any firearms and then surprised when we said “no”. I guess we’re unusual. He remarked “no personal protection?”
River Drainages crossed:
Two Medicine River
N fork Milk River
St Mary’s River
CANADA towns and interesting points of view we travelled through:
Cardston a First Nations community
Fort McLeod stopped for gasoline.
Oldman River
Okotoks Erratic is a few gigantic chucks of Rocky Mountains that ended up in the prairie from glacial activity. This area was west of Calgary as we were heading to Banff. Beautiful drive from here to Banff
Canmore is the town just before the Banff National Park. It’s pretty modern and bustling with shops and condos and hotels. It wasn’t super busy when we stopped to walk around a bit. Nice place to visit and very bicycle friendly. There is a bike path from Canmore to Banff.. maybe 16 miles.
Gas Stations in Canada. We came across this puzzler at our first gas stop in Canada.
Do you know the difference between dyed and clear gasoline? It’s a Canadian distinction. Clear is for passenger vehicles and dyed if for off road machines
Filling up: you have to input a monetary amount to charge your credit card in $25 increments. The point is you must choose the monetary amount… you can’t just fill gas until it shuts off. Kind of an inconvenience with some math skills of liters/dollars.
Gas prices are between $1.52 and $1.89/liter.
You can never get tired of being awed by the Canadian Rockies. As we approach Canmore we are between these glacial carved steep mountains. It’s just stunning.
Actually found a campsite for 2 nights at the NP campground in Banff. We stayed at this campground in January when we skied here. The area we are in was now was closed on Winter. It’s enormous. We don’t have electricity or water but there’s a very nice bathroom with showers and hot/cold water. That will work for us!
cinnicrew 