Day 6: Waterton Park, AB Canada to Radium Hot Springs to Banff, AB Canada - Wednesday, 5/15

Today was a travel day between Waterton and Banff, with a stop at Radium Hot Springs along the way.  We learned that western Alberta has a thriving A&W population as well as a lot of pine trees.  Seriously, most every town had an A&W.  They must be doing better here than in most spots in the US.  Also, as expected, there are lots of Tim Hortons but with better views!

The first part of the trip took us from Waterton to Radium Hot Springs, which included crossing into British Columbia.

In Sparwood, British Columbia, we drove past what a sign promised to be the world’s largest truck, but it was blocked off so we couldn’t stop for a picture.  Since we felt compelled to share it, we instead found a picture off the Internet (it looks just like what we saw from the road minus the fences around it).  According to the web, it is now just the world's largest truck in the western hemisphere, so looks like they need to update their sign!  Big truck.  For those who know the Kmart commercials, it's a Big-Gas Truck!

The other major sighting was logging trucks.  More than 20 logging trucks hurtled past us at 100km per hour, and we saw many hillsides that were either bare or had young growth.  

The Kootenay River was wide and often a very pretty aqua blue/green color, and then we saw Columbia Lake.

Columbia Lake is the source of the Columbia River, which empties into the Pacific Ocean in Oregon.

Dave powered through all the miles today as we wound through the valleys of all the pretty mountains.

We soon got to Radium Hot Springs and decided to stop for a dip in the naturally 102 degree water.  We spent longer than we thought we would in the water, about 45 minutes total.  It was relaxing.  I doubt we'd stop again, but it was worth it this one time.

Looks like a pool, but only chlorine is added to the naturally warm water.

We saw this vehicle at Radium Hot Springs.  Check out the URL on the truck to see their adventure.  The short story is they bought the $250k+ truck in Luxemburg, shipped it to eastern Canada and drove it all over Canada and around Alaska!!!

After leaving Radium Hot Springs, we drove through Kootenay National Park, where we saw several underpasses built for animals to cross under the highway.  We didn't see animals using them, though. (maybe they need signs telling them where to cross like we have in the US?!)  During this drive we also saw our first bear.  Unfortunately, or luckily according to Lynda, we didn't see it in time to stop for a picture.  It looked to be a black bear.

After exiting Kootenay, we headed south (yep, a slight backtrack) to get to Banff.

After getting to our campground in Tunnel Mountain Village II, we grabbed a bus into Banff for a bite.

We stopped at Banff Ave Brewing Company and Three Bears Brewing.

While in Banff, we noticed a couple strange sights:  

Lynda saw a guy walking a bear.  Seems dangerous to us, but he wasn't concerned.

We didn't tell this woman that a mountain lion was sneaking up on her!

Here is our site for the next two days.  Not quite as picturesque as Waterton, but we'll take it.

The part of the campground we are in has over 600 sites.  In total there are over 1200!

In the last post, we mentioned the fires that might change our plans.  Our current plan has us taking the Alaska Highway through the upper right in the following picture, but that might need to change.  This picture shows the number of fires burning throughout British Columbia.  So, we will probably take the Cassiar Highway to the West to be safe. The other thing we are keeping track of is lack of internet along the way, which could mean a lack of credit card processing.  We don't have that much Canadian money yet, but might need to get more since the RV is a thirsty machine and gas costs more in Canada.  (Our first fill-up cost $1.599/liter or $4.44/gallon.)

Total Distance Traveled: 516 km/320 miles

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