Alaska 2010 – June 7-9: Great Falls to Fort Macleod, AB, Canada

We were up early and drove over to Whalen Tire Inc. to have the torque checked on all our lug nuts. (We’d purchased our new tires from them just 2 weeks before.) They kindly checked the ones on our truck, too, even though we’d bought those at Sam’s Club at about the same time.

Whalen’s service is very good and we were done in no time. Off we went up I-15 toward Shelby, MT, and up to the Canadian border at Sweetgrass! We made a pit stop en route and enjoyed seeing the wind ripple through the roadside grass and in the adjacent field. The Sweetgrass Hills of Montana are beautiful. Per my spouse Richard, the wind up here is called a “Great Falls Breeze”!

There were only a half dozen vehicles in front of us as we approached the border and they moved through at a good clip. When we pulled up to the guard’s booth, he first asked for our passports. We wondered if we’d be the “random” search vehicle so were VERY relieved when asked us only 5 more things:

1. How long would we be staying in Canada?
2. Were we carrying any tobacco, alcohol?
3. Were we carrying any firearms, mace, or pepper spray?
4. Had either one of us ever been in trouble with the law?
5. Were we carrying anything which we would be giving away, selling, or discarding while staying in Canada?

(We’d been advised not to wear sunglasses so our eyes could be seen at all times and to answer each question as asked. When asked if you’re traveling with any cigarettes, answer simply “Yes” or “No”. Don’t say you don’t smoke. That wouldn’t stop a person from transporting them for someone else!)

We weren’t asked about any food products. We weren’t asked if we had any pets with us, so I asked if he wished to see our dog’s Health Certificate. He replied, “Is it rabid?” I replied, “Highly unlikely!” We must have answered everything to his satisfaction because he waved us through! Go figure!

Our mileage at the Canadian border: 31,650. We’d traveled 2,268 miles from our home in Texas!

Just on the other side of the border is a “roadside turn-out” (Canadian for “pull-off” or “picnic area”) so we made our lunch stop there. Conveniently, there’s a “Welcome to Alberta” sign and a token elk herd in a fenced pasture next door. Our first photo op’s in Canada! Unfortunately, the camera gremlins “ate” my photo of the Alberta sign (yes, it was really there!) yet saved the ones on either side of it—go figure!

 

 

 

 

We proceeded north toward Lethbridge and on to the next town, Fort Macleod. Obviously, the farther north we travel, the later spring arrives. So, we were still seeing a mix of spring green and winter tan on the rolling hills of the Canadian prairies. Grain storage silos in farm lots, well-planned wind breaks around each home, and full-size grain elevators in each of the town.

Lethbridge is a big city, full of all the amenities you could need. Gold’s Gym, Safeway, Boston Pizza, and many more! Just west of Lethbridge, we got to see the Canadian Rockies for the first time. (The lighting wasn’t good for a photo. Hey, I don’t want to bore you with TOO many gorgeous mountain shots! I figured Banff and Jasper would fill that bill!)

We were pleased to see two more wind farms sprinkled between Lethbridge and Fort Macleod.

Our destination for the next couple of days was Buffalo Plains RV Park & Campground, just n.w. of Fort Macleod. It’s located about a mile shy of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, our reason for stopping here.

The RV park is small, clean, quiet, and the views from here alone are worth the visit! You can see the prairies, the Oldman River Valley, the Porcupine Hills which contain the Jump, and the Canadian Rockies. There are sweeping views in all directions!

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is the site local aboriginal people used to herd bison off a sharp sandstone cliff to their death below. This entailed a massive cooperative effort between different bands of these people and could feed all of them for many months. We’d heard of this through television programs but wanted to see one for ourselves.

The Centre’s architecture won several awards because the architect embedded it right into the hillside; very little protrudes. The color of the concrete was determined by matching it to samples of the native rock. You can see how successful that was in the photo below:

Have I mentioned the views around here a lot? Well, here are a few from the Centre looking out at the prairie. The first is a view of the cliff edge itself, off which the buffalo were driven. Below it, you can see the walkway out from the Interpretive Center building.

A partial view of a wind farm in the distance. (Alberta’s known for its prairie winds!)

The clump of trees in the center of the photo below is our RV park. This shows our view from there to the Jump is very good.

 

A passing rain shower out on the prairie. 

And, finally for this stop on our journey, views from our RV park of the mountains…

the sky after a storm… 

and a cloud over the prairie…

From here, we change our scenery from prairie to mountains: Banff National Park.

Alaska 2010 – May 23-June 7: Great Falls, MT

Our first night in Great Falls (Sunday 5/23) was spent dry-camped across the street from Whalen Tire, Inc., where we would purchase 6 new tires for our motorhome on Monday, 5/24. We were very impressed with the service we received and the price. The boys had the tires installed by late morning of Monday, 5/24, so off we went to Dick's RV Park, here in Great Falls, where we stayed until we left for Canada. Dick’s is THE staging location for everyone crossing at Sweetgrass, MT, into Alberta. We were all Alaska-bound, except for a few “seasonal” residents! RV caravans also use this park as the last stop before heading north. Whalen’s suggested we return the morning of our departure to have the torque on the lug nuts all checked: motorhome & truck.

Montana has no state sales tax. This is why we scheduled this major tire purchase here. We also bought 4 new tires for our truck at Sam’s Club. This was a good place to buy last minute things as well: new hiking boots for me, new handheld radios, etc. We’ve spent our days catching up on chores (including our blog!), making minor repairs, and creating a pad to protect our truck’s windshield against rocks while on Alaskan roads.

And we waited for the temperatures to warm in Ft. Macleod, AB, Banff, BC, and Jasper, BC, our next 3 stops. When we first arrived in Great Falls, the temp’s were in the 40’s by day and dipping into the 30’s at night. It warmed up quite a bit after a few days, but not so up north of here. Having lived in south Texas for a while, we’ve become wimps when it comes to getting cold!! The folks up here in Great Falls are hardy—even on those coldest days in the 40’s we saw many people (usually in their 20’s-30’s) walking around in t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops!! Of course, after the normal winter temps here below zero, the 40’s must seem balmy!

June 6, the day before we left, we cleaned house and packed up. Then, we went on a 40-mile test drive south of Great Falls—20  miles out to Cascade, MT, on I-15 and 20 miles back. The tire company from which we’d bought our new motorhome tires recommended that we do this, then bring the motorhome in before leaving so the torque on the lug nuts could be checked. Even this was a beautiful drive! What a sense of space and distance! (Sadly, these particular photos didn’t transfer off the memory card before images on the card were automatically deleted. The remainder of my photos survived.)

The good news was we were totally packed up and ready to go, the day before our scheduled departure date! This was a FIRST! Too bad no one was around to document this! Usually, we don’t leave until about 11:30am, despite our best intentions!

The next day would be our anticipated border crossing into Canada! We had our passports, our Insurance Cards for Canada, and our Dixie Dog’s Health Certificate. We were totally ready!

[Note: we searched every pertinent Canadian website trying to find a single exact list of restricted foods which cannot be bought into Canada. None such exists! We gleaned from several sources the following: Prohibited are potatoes, meats not still in their original packaging as proof of origin, some fruits and vegetables (the lists never clarified which ones!), some plants (again, lists not clear), some dairy products, eggs, and chicken. So, we’d eaten all our eggs, chicken and potatoes, and prayed the border guard wouldn’t get fussy about anything remaining.]