We arrived in Banff on Monday after a 7 hour drive from Columbia Falls, MT. The boarder crossing into Canada went very smoothly, thankfully. I had not realized what a big deal the boarder crossing was going to be until we started talking with people that had done the crossing before. There are a lot of rules (no fruits or veggies allowed in, only 44 pounds of pet food, if unopened and in original packaging, etc) and depending on the day and the officer you get, you may be completely searched, with every item in your RV taken out and put on the ground. You then are left to put everything back in. Many fellow travelers reported several hour delays at the boarder due to this. Then there’s the issue of firearms. Canada has very strict rules about bringing firearms into the country. I had done quite a bit of research on this before leaving, and thought I understood the procedure, which was to complete a declarations form, list each firearm on the form, and don’t try to hide anything or risk being arrested when found. We then learned that absolutely no handguns are allowed unless you have applied for a special clearance through the Canadian Mounted Police which involves taking a class, background check and other hoops to jump through. This applies even if you are just traveling through Canada to Alaska like we are. This special clearance takes weeks to obtain. We also heard that if showing up at the boarder with a handgun without this special approval would at minimum cause you to be delayed and have your handgun seized; or you could be arrested for attempting to smuggle an illegal item into the country. All this being said, we elected to leave our handgun in Montana at a safety deposit box we rented in Columbia Falls. We declared the other guns (22 and shotgun) on the proper form and there was no issue at all. We are not gun people as most of you know, however, we thought being prepared for the wilderness of Alaska and also traveling full time in remote areas was important.
Our next door neighbor at the Columbia Falls RV park was also traveling to Banff the same day as we were, they left an hour before us and were still at the boarder crossing being searched when we arrived. And they had no guns of any kind to declare. There also was a guy in a Jeep that was about 5 minutes in front of us – when we pulled in they were putting handcuffs on him and took him inside, leaving his large doggie alone in the back of his Jeep. We will always take the boarder crossings seriously and be prepared as best we can and be thankful when they go smoothly.
Otherwise the drive was uneventful and beautiful. This is an amazing part of the world, some of the most beautiful landscapes we have ever seen. We are staying at Tunnel Mountain Village II campground, about 5 minutes outside the town of Banff. Another lesson in campground site selection has been learned….we (I) had reserved a spot in the no hook up area of Tunnel Mountain Village I campground as this was all that was available. It said it could accommodate RVs 35 feet and over. We are nearly 41 feet. We got back to the site and knew there was no way we were going to be able to back into the tight squeeze. While we were standing there fretting about what to do, a hawk swept down and grabbed a chipmunk or something like that right on our site. We went back to the front check in office which was backed up with about 20 RVs trying to check in, and the nice person there took pity on us and found us sites for each of our 4 nights in the much larger, pull through, full hook up sites in Tunnel Mountain Village II. We have to move each day to a different site as none were available for 4 nights in a row, but we are lucky to have the sites and moving is not a big deal.
On the drive into Banff we saw a black bear along side the road, and also a group of mountain goats, with babies. Hoping we see a lot more!
We did a 6.8 mile hike yesterday (Tuesday) and took Gerry. Fortunately, unlike in the states, dogs are welcome on most national park trails in Canada. It was a very challenging hike, very steep. There were gondolas you could take to the top or back down, many folks hiked up and rode down, but no doggies allowed on the gondolas so we hiked both ways. A nice coffee shop on the top of the mountain and amazing views. Gerry did great, although he protested much of the way back down and had to be coaxed to keep going. It took us about 4.5 hours to complete the hike. The trail was very popular, and Gerry was a rock star on the trail! People of all nationalities stopped to pet him and tell him how cute he was in all kinds of languages! After every visit he pranced up the trail like, “I’m cute and I know it!” Shortly after we started back down we had a few sprinkles and then a beautiful rainbow came out below us – I hope the rainbow shows in the picture – it is the last one below. These pictures are from Steve’s “big” camera – he’s working on his photography skills and doing very well I think.
We are nursing blisters on our feet today and plan to make it a day of exploring the very cute town of Banff.
