What’s for you in Banff, eh?

Yup, that’s what the customs officer asked us as we crossed the border from Montana into Alberta early on Thursday afternoon. I was thinking, are you serious?, but I answered politely. I guess they’re probably more paranoid at the small back-country border-crossing deeply in unabomber territory than in other places.

So far, we’ve been having an awesome vacation. It started, as many Gribble vacations do, with a lot of car time. We left Boulder basically after work on Tuesday night and drove through cover of darkness into Montana. The rental car we’re using for the trip has XM Satellite Radio pre-installed, and I must say it’s a pretty nice feature. We don’t typically have much luck finding radio stations in Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, etc. so it was certainly convenient to be able to put something on, get a clear signal, and not have to search for something new every few miles. As an added side benefit, I was actually able to listen to a Penguins game. Unfortunately, it was the Ducks radio broadcast crew, but the Pens managed to get their 7th straight road victory to open the season.

After driving all night without much traffic, we pulled into Bozeman, Montana, just in time to watch the sun come up while grabbing some breakfast and coffee in one of the downtown’s many coffee shops. A review of the other options should really be forthcoming! Jess sat in the coffee shop for a bit using their WiFi to get some of her teaching work done, while I walked around the downtown taking pictures. I think I passed 3 other coffee shops, a bagel place, two fly shops, a few mountain sports/mountain bike/ski shops, a couple of banks, and the rest of the stuff you see in a typical mountain town. There are some nice older buildings, and the downtown is generally quite clean. You could also catch a glimpse of mountains in just about every direction, and that’s always a good sign.

After leaving Bozeman, we started our sight-seeing phase of the long drive to Banff. We stopped briefly in just about every city we passed through. I got to check out the awesome (at least in size) Berkley Mine Pit in Butte, but alas we couldn’t get into position for a good photograph. Before getting back onto the road, we grabbed another cup of coffee, it was getting harder to stay alert, and despite being very reasonably priced, this time it came with a bendy straw! I guess there are weird customs all over the place.

By this point, we were getting anxious to reach Glacier and do some real sightseeing. We finally got to Missoula, where we left the super highways for slower roads. By now we were driving past a variety of splendid mountains and lakes. The northwest corner of Montana is quite lovely. We had a little traffic to contend with from a couple of road construction projects, but it was a pretty nice drive. When we arrived in West Glacier, just outside the park, we discovered that the National Park is pretty much closed for the winter.

We used the self-pay station, as the park was pretty much deserted; however, some recent snow sitting on the mountain peaks really made things spectacular. We spent a few hours driving around and snapping pictures. While only a few miles of the Going-To-The-Sun Road were open from each direction, it seemed there was a new and fantastic view of the mountains around each corner. I pity those that have to view the slideshows later!

We had planned to get something to eat in Kalispell, MT, that night and camp in the park, but I hadn’t realized how far it was from the west entrance of Glacier National Park to Kalispell. Instead we decided to try our luck with the next little town heading east around the park and see where we could find to camp. It turns out that a little Forest Service campground near the summit of Marina (?) pass was open and we found a little greasy spoon in Browning. I think we were in camp by about 8:00 and asleep by 8:30.