Banff, AB to Polebridge, MT

Day 36: Tue 26 Aug: Out of the Rockies and back into them again.

It was pouring rain when I left Banff. I had gotten some information on a scenic route to Waterton Lakes National Park from a ranger at Yoho National Park -- she mentioned Kananaskis Country, and gave me routes to drive through it. Basically, it's more of the Rockies. The rain eventually changed to slush (in August!) as I drove over Highwood Pass. It was there that I could see that the snow line was only a little higher than the road.

Once I got down out of the Rockies, I was on the high plains of Alberta, with the Rockies, covered in clouds, constantly to my right. It cleared up over the plains, but the mountains were still shrouded in clouds and mist.

I saw some large wind farms in Alberta, which was cool.

I had a near-fatal mishap, that was terrifyingly stupid. The road (Alberta-22) is two lanes, mostly straight, flat, and has a high speed limit. I was attempting to pass a dump truck filled with dirt (that had already dinged my windshield), in a passing zone, on a curve, on a hill, and I didn't have enough power (or he sped up going down the hill) as an RV came over the top of the hill coming the other way, down the hill towards me. Stupidly, and for unknown reasons, I did not slow down and pull back behind the dump truck. I tried to speed past it. I really don't know who was in control of my brain; certainly not the person who usually is. The near fatal mishap was the three of us passing each other -- the RV way over on their side of the road, the dump truck way over on our side, and me in the middle. Afterwards, I did brake and pull behind the dump truck, and slowed down to just below the speed limit, and let him get far ahead of me. I'm not sure, but I don't think I've passed another car on a two-lane road since (I'm writing this three days, and thousand(s) of miles, later.). Stupid stupid stupid. I'm very glad no one was hurt, the RV was fine in my rear view (didn't go off the highway), and no one stopped. I was afraid that the trucker would call it in or something and the Alberta police would be after me, which, frankly, I deserved. It was stupid and I have no explanation for it.

It took quite a while for the adrenalin to go away, and as a result, I don't have many pictures of what was incredibly beautiful Alberta foothills and sky.

I entered Waterton Lakes National Park, went to the Visitors Centre, and realized that Waterton Lakes is not, really, a mountain park. It's more the lakes in the foothills park. The US side is where the huge mountains are. So I turned around to head to the nearest border crossing.

Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park is interesting in that there are no border crossings within the park. There are also no roads that cross the border in the park. There are hiking trails that cross the international border, but none of them end up in a different country than the one you started in.

Aside from the US border guards wondering where my temporary plates were (California tapes a folded temporary registration to the lower passenger side of the windshield), I was back into the US with no hassles.

And thence to Glacier. Wow. Another mountain park. And it's pretty. And cold. And windy. It turns out there's a significant weather difference between the two sides of the continental divide. I entered the park on the east side, where it was dry and windy. I went up over Logan Pass, where it was very windy and in the 40s. The wind tore the car door out of my grip and slammed it into the next car's side view mirror. No damage to the other car. Mine now has a not insignificant ding (which, since I bottomed out on a speed bump in Jasper, and dinged the windshield from the dump truck, pretty much completes the break-in process on this vehicle. It's no longer new; it's mine.).

Coming down the west side, it's wetter -- temperate rain forest again, with lichen dangling down from the trees and lots of lush green.

The second of these Glacier Park pictures was taken from near the top of the pass, looking down onto one of the U-shaped glacial valleys below. It was beautiful, but too cold and windy to hang out for long.

I decided on the trip down the west side that I wanted to camp in as remote a location as possible, that I could drive to (since I don't have backpacking-style gear). That meant either Bowman Lake or Kintla Lake campgrounds. After taking the 15 mile dirt logging road to Polebridge that was required to get to either of them, I decided I'd had enough of dirt roads where 30mph was going too fast. So it was Bowman Lake, which was about 14 miles less of dirt road.

It was beautiful. I got there after the sun had set, but set up my tent and walked to the lake and just watched it disappear into the dark and mist. I think there were only about six other people at the campground. It was exactly what I had wanted.

I ate dinner (leftovers from the Safeway in Banff), and read some, and went to bed.