Summer 2024 – Camping in the West, Round 2

We really enjoyed last summer’s camping trip, and it turned out to be a great way to keep our costs down while seeing some beautiful parts of Canada. We previously skipped over a section of southeast British Columbia due to rain, so we thought it could be nice to revisit that area.

When putting together our itinerary, we looked at a few factors and I’ll update on each of them towards the end of the blog:

• The temperatures are normally very nice in that area during the summer. We hoped to stay between 70-80 degrees during our trip, and the internet says that typically the western “Central Kootenay” side warms up first, followed by the “Eastern Kootenay” side.

• We covered a lot of ground in Canada in 2023. For 2024, our plan was to make a smaller loop and travel shorter distances between camping spots.

• Planning the trip in 2023 was tedious – working out a route and deciding how long to stay in each spot, then hoping that our planned move-day would have nice weather. This year, we decided to have a general route and destinations figured out, but make reservations one week ahead. We weren’t sure if it would work, but decided to take the chance.

• The CDC announced new rules for importing dogs to the U.S. in 2024. Though Gunner is a U.S.-born dog, every entry is considered an importation. The new regulations, scheduled to start August 1, included uploading information about his embedded microchip and rabies vaccination to the CDC website before travel. We made some calls in June, but no vets were familiar with the new forms. Instead, we planned to return to the U.S. on July 31, falling under the old regulations.

  
  

How

Based on last year’s trip, we decided to invest in some new equipment for 2024:

• Tent – our Coleman tent was just large enough for us plus Gunner. One of our poles had snapped in a windstorm and our rain fly was a little leaky during hard rains. After some research, we invested in a Core 9 with full fly. It has a woven plastic bathtub bottom, nylon upper, two doors, plenty of windows, and a mesh roof. The Core 9 is an “easy-up”, so the poles stay attached and just lift into place to create a rigid structure. That structure is covered by a nylon rain fly that goes all the way to ground level when closed, but has lots of zippers to expose the windows for ventilation. The only downsides are that the packed tent is about 1ft x 1ft x 4ft long, and it weighs about 50 pounds! The tent and ground cloth cost just under $400. Since we camped for almost 6 weeks, I guess that’s about $10 per night.

• Sleeping – we felt our sleep system was pretty reliable, but we got Sandy a new flannel sleeping bag, as well as a battery-powered flannel under-blanket. Basically, just plug the under-blanket into a portable USB battery and it works like a giant heating pad, with electric coils providing heat through the night. The total for both of these was under $100, and we already had the battery.

• Solar power – we use enough electronic gadgets that we decided to invest in a small Bluetti-brand solar panel and battery. The panel folds down small, weighs very little, and generates about 120 watts. The battery is smaller than a lunchbox, weighs about 7 pounds, and stores about 200 amp-hours. We bought the panels and batteries during a sale, and got the set, plus accessory cords, for a bit under $400.

• Firepit – this was our splurge. About half of our campsites in 2023 had fire bans, so we couldn’t sit by a fire. When we could have a fire, the wood would cost about $7-$10 per night. I found a nice propane firepit online, built to be portable. It has a small square design, packs up nice, and had an optional carry bag. We got the pit plus bag for about $180.

• Cookware – we needed a new griddle and found a heavy aluminum double-burner version on Amazon for $35 before we left the U.S.

Our new Core 9 tent

We have lots of room in our tent!

Gunner and our new gas firepit

Everything else was pretty similar to our trip in 2023 – targeting campgrounds with running water and flush toilets, cell service, and ideally wifi. (Our cell phones work in Canada, but we have a data cap, so wifi is nice to have!)

Where

We entered British Columbia from northern Idaho, then made a small clockwise circle past some beautiful national parks, before dropping out of the mountains towards Calgary. Here is where we stayed:

Scottie’s RV, Creston, British Columbia – Creston is just over the border from northern Idaho, on a small two-lane highway with a very quiet and quick border crossing. Everything in this park was well-maintained and the bathrooms were clean and nicely decorated. The RV portion of the park stayed about 90% full, but for most of our visit, we were the only tent campers.

Creston is a nice small town with a very strong sense of community. Most of the locals are farmers or ranchers. We visited some local wineries and found a quiet wildlife area for walking. The only negative was that Gunner can’t walk much distance anymore, so Sandy and I would take turns exploring the area. Creston is a good access point for the east side of Kootenay Lake, but otherwise there’s not too many attractions. The nights were cool, and we ran our small propane heater a couple of times, along with a new heat-powered fan that did a great job of circulating air through our tent. We had booked 7 nights in Creston and had good weather during our stay, so we left as planned. The campground price was decent – 40 CAD per night, plus the 7th night free – for an overall average of $25 USD per night. We enjoyed the area and would return to both the town and to the RV park.

While in Creston, we had our first minor hiccup in our trip planning. We were planning to go to Castlegar, but some online reviews didn’t paint a very nice picture of the town. Instead, people suggested staying in Nelson, known for its revitalized downtown and its growing tourism industry. We got our hopes up about avoiding a bad town / finding a better town, until we learned that Nelson’s only campground has a bit of a bear problem - RVs are welcome, but no tents! Back to planning a stay in Castlegar, hoping that it wouldn’t be too bad…

Pass Creek Campground, Castlegar, British Columbia – When we booked our 7 nights here, the hostess noted that the water was not working in the campground, but we would have access to showers, etc. at the local rec center. This worked out, but the showers were not very good, and filling our water jug was inconvenient. The campground itself was decent, with a few trees, and we were able to get a nice big site close to the office with strong wifi. We were in Castlegar over Canada Day (similar to 4th of July) and were surprised that the campground didn’t fill up. The weather warmed up a bit, so we didn’t run our heater, though we did get two good rainstorms to test out our tent and rain fly. The tent worked great, and everything stayed dry.

From Castlegar, we explored a couple of nearby mining towns, the west side of Kootenay Lake, and the town of Nelson. We liked Nelson, and would consider staying there in the future if they chase away the bears. While in Castlegar, I managed to fish the Columbia River, unsuccessfully, on two separate occasions. The streets of Castlegar had many statues and murals to see, but overall, we didn’t feel that Castlegar or its surrounding area was anything special, and the municipal campground was just mediocre. The main highlight was that the campground was a bargain – only 20 CAD per night, again with the 7th night free. This gave us an average cost of about $12.50 USD per night! With all that in mind, we’re unlikely to return.

Once we could see good weather forecasted for the end of our Castlegar stay, we booked 7 days in our next stop north – Nakusp. We also broke from our no-planning strategy for our 25th wedding anniversary coming up in mid-July - we decided to treat ourselves to a 3-night hotel stay in Radium, home to some hot springs that we learned about in 2023. With those two bookings complete, we decided to go ahead and book the 7 nights between Nakusp and Radium in the town of Revelstoke. And as we looked ahead to the long-range forecast, we started having some concerns about temps in the 90s, which is about 10 degrees above normal for the area.

Nakusp Municipal Campground, Nakusp, British Columbia – This was another decent municipal campground, in better shape than Castlegar. Our tent site was a bit cramped and sloped, but we made it work. We were surrounded by large trees, which helped keep the temps down, but also meant I had to be strategic when setting up our solar panels. What really made the site stand out was the campground host - a young British kid who worked his ass off every single day! He kept the restrooms and showers clean, kept the campground organized, and was always friendly and cheerful. Our campground cost in Nakusp was around $26 USD per night. The town of Nakusp is quite small, but had a well-stocked SaveOn grocery store and a hardware store with all the basics.

There are a few historic Japanese internment sites around Nakusp. We explored two museums in the towns of New Denver and Kaslo, gaining a lot of insight into how Japanese citizens were treated during World War II. We only spent half a day in Kaslo, and it’s really the only place in the area that we would consider going back to explore more.

Nikkei Internment Center in New Denver

Our trip from Nakusp to Revelstoke was very unique because it included a trip on the Upper Arrow Lake ferry. We heard about these ferries last summer – they are operated by the provincial highway system where it isn’t possible to cross lakes with bridges. The ferries are free and run on a very regular schedule. I will admit that I overstressed about the regulations for the amount of propane we could take on the ferry, or if we even had to use a special sailing designated for hazardous materials. In the end, no one was concerned about our small propane tank, and the ferry ride was straightforward and enjoyable.

Aboard the Upper Arrow Lake ferry

Pinnacle Campground, Revelstoke, British Columbia - Pinnacle was a nice, private campground with a pool and evening movies, and therefore with a higher price tag of 50 CAD / $38 USD per night. Prior to our arrival, the staff contacted us to see if we wanted to swap sites because a large group booked the sites on either side of us. We agreed, but were unhappy upon arrival, finding that our original site was grass and our new site was dirt and gravel. We made it work, but the lesson learned was to stick with an existing reservation in the future. Overall, the facilities at Pinnacle were nice, the wifi was good, the on-site laundromat worked well, and the showers were hot.

During this time, the same heat wave that hit the western U.S. also extended up into B.C. We found it too hot to wander around with Gunner, so we weren’t able to explore much of the actual town. We were also surprised to find that most places in town were not dog friendly, though we did find a brewery near our campground where we could sit outside in the shade with Gunner.

The town of Revelstoke provides good access to both the Revelstoke and Glacier National parks (Canada’s Glacier National Park, not the U.S. National Park), plus other lakes, streams, and waterfalls in all directions. We felt that Revelstoke National Park was a waste of time/money – it’s a small park with one road, and due to bear problems, visitors with dogs aren’t allowed in most areas of the park. We might think differently if we came back without Gunner and saw the top of the mountain or more of the scenery and views, but for us it was just a two-lane road surrounded by trees. Canada’s Glacier National Park is also a bit limited. You can actually see most of it from the highway and you only need a park pass if you want to stop at the roadside attractions or do some hiking. We did take one short boardwalk hike amongst cedar trees, and we also went into the visitor center.

Because it was in the upper 80’s / lower 90’s during our time in Revelstoke, we tried all sorts of tricks to stay cool. We even bought a small yard sprayer to mist ourselves with water, which worked ok, but was tedious to continually wet ourselves down. We also traveled north and east to gain some elevation to avoid the heat. To the north, we found the Downie Creek Recreation Site. On our first visit, we had a shady picnic lunch by the lake and on our second, I also tried some fishing. East of Revelstoke, we visited Glacier National Park and also the Bear Creek Falls site. It was a hard hike to the falls (too hard for Gunner, so Sandy and I took turns), but the area was cool and shaded. On a different afternoon, we returned to the area just to have lunch and sit in the parking lot for 4 hours, because temps were in the 70's, 20 degrees cooler than in town.

Gunner at Revelstoke Lake

Canada's Glacier National Park

Canada's Glacier National Park

Overall, Revelstoke seemed to be a nice town, but we would probably not return. Even though we spent very little time in the town itself, we felt that we saw all of the surrounding sights, with nothing spectacular enough to warrant a return trip.

Prestige Resort Hotel, Radium, British Columbia – For our anniversary, we chose this hotel, with an upscale appearance, and on-site restaurant, but no breakfast. Though we had a ground-floor room, the hotel was built on a small hill and we had to go down a full flight of stairs to get to the pet area out back. With limited amenities, we ended our three-night stay with the conclusion that the Prestige Resort Hotel was really nothing special.

As a town, Radium is small and touristy, as we expected. We chose it for the nearby Radium Hot Springs, which we skipped because sitting in hot pools in hot weather wasn’t appealing. Instead, we spent one day exploring the town – just a couple of blocks of restaurants, shops, and a tourist center – and a second day driving south to the larger town of Invermere. We found a couple of good restaurants there, including Black Forest, a very nice Austrian restaurant for our anniversary dinner, and Smokehouse 93, one of the better barbeque spots that we’ve found during our travels.

What Radium is best known for is an entry point to the Kootenay National Park. We saved the park for our final day, driving through on our way to Calgary. It’s another very nice, scenic area in the Canadian Rockies, and we probably should have spent multiple days exploring. Sandy took a short hike to some paint pots while I stayed at the car with Gunner, and we didn’t have enough time for me to also take the hike. Other than the national park, we found Radium and Invermere to be pass-through towns rather than stopping points.

Kootenay National Park

From a travel-planning perspective, we had intended to return to camping in the mountains in either Golden or Cranbrook. But with only hot, dry weather ahead, the only cooler options I could find were 500 miles north (too far!) or east towards the Albertan plains. With short notice, and close to the large city of Calgary, we couldn’t find any campsites with weekend availability. Instead, we booked a Calgary hotel for the weekend, followed by five nights of camping near the small town of Bragg Creek. We would have stayed longer, but there were no sites open the next weekend either.

Centro Hotel, Calgary, Alberta – This was a very unplanned stop, so we chose the best-rated, least-expensive hotel around. It turned out to be a nice, renovated, older motel, and we had called ahead to get a first-floor unit so that we wouldn’t have to take Gunner up/down stairs. We were surprised to find a revitalized neighborhood around the hotel, and we were able to walk a few blocks to a brewery and some good local restaurants. I was also able to access miles of walking trails along the nearby Bow River, which led me all the way to downtown Calgary.

We found Calgary is be a nice city overall. We found some parks where we could sit, walk, or eat lunch, and we also spent one afternoon in the central business district at Four Dogs, a very dog-friendly brewery. Sandy and I would like to return and explore the city further, including their Chinatown and other sights. Attending the Calgary Stampede (rodeo) has been on our radar for a while, but we haven’t wanted to schedule it while we’re traveling with Gunner – as he’s gotten older, he’s gets anxious if we leave him in a hotel or Airbnb for more than 4-5 hours.

McLean Provincial Park, Bragg Creek, Alberta – We had to book a “double site” in this campground, and though it was joined to the adjacent site in the back, there was a lot of space between all of the sites, low traffic, and we really didn’t feel like we had neighbors, especially compared to the city campgrounds we had stayed in. This provincial park had flush toilets and paid showers during office hours only, and the vault toilets were old and not well-maintained. The park had a small store on site for ice, and it was about 15 minutes to town for real groceries. All of the sites had electricity, which we didn’t really need with our solar setup, but we did use it a couple of times out of convenience. Overall, the park was decent, with a cost of about 40 CAD / $30 USD - a bit higher than average, but the rate included the power available at the site.

McLean is a decent location for access the Kananaskis Conservation area. We had heard about this area before, and figured we should check it out since we were nearby. Though less well-known than Banff National Park, Kananaskis did not disappoint! The scenery is very similar to Banff, with dramatic mountains, lots of pine trees, wildlife, and winding roads. There are a lot of nice lakes, but none have the blue glacial color found between Banff and Jasper. We really liked Kananaskis and spent three days exploring the byways. It’s not part of Canada’s national park system and has its own access fee – 90 CAD for an annual pass or 15 CAD ($12 USD) per day per car.

Kananaskis Conservation Area

Other than the Kananaskis Conservation area, we didn’t find much to see or do in the foothills around Bragg Creek. We passed through the town of Diamond Valley, where we found the Fahr Brewery, with very good German-style beers. We also passed through Canmore, a small town south of Banff, where many Banff employees call home since they can’t afford rent in the popular tourist town.

Though Bragg Creek and Kananaskis were not originally on our radar, we were happy that we got diverted to such a scenic area. We would happily return to Kananaskis, knowing that we would need to plan ahead and reserve a campsite in the area. We had no issues in Bragg Creek, but it’s a bit far from the best scenery and things to do, and we probably would not stay there again.

Comfort Inn, Lethbridge, Alberta – For our final five nights in Canada, we had debated “Lethbridge campground or Lethbridge hotel”. We chose the hotel to avoid the heat of camping on the Canadian plains. Temps were indeed warm, though not as hot as originally forecasted. And out of curiosity, I checked campground websites in both Lethbridge and Cranbrook, and our original approach of just-in-time bookings would have been successful, so it’s a strategy we will probably use in the future.

Our Lethbridge hotel was decent but nothing special. The bed was ok, and the breakfast and hot tub were good. Lethbridge is a small city with light traffic, and it’s easy to get around. We visited the revitalized downtown a couple of times and finding parking was never an issue. We also found a few nice parks, the nation’s longest railroad trestle, and an old Indian Battle area. Lethbridge also has any and all shopping options that we might need, including Costco and our favorite – Canadian Tire.

Railroad trestle and Indian Battle Park

After our stay in Lethbridge, we crossed back to the U.S. on July 31, as planned, with no issues entering with Gunner. Now back in the U.S., we had a couple more stops planned on our northwest travels. At the beginning of the summer, Sandy had coordinated a meetup with her parents in Great Falls, Montana, so we could see Jeff Dunham at the Montana State Fair. If you’re not familiar with Jeff Dunham, he’s a very funny ventriloquist and comedian, and you can find a lot of his comedy specials on Netflix.

Motel 6, Great Falls, Montana – We chose Motel 6 because every location is pet-friendly. This location had decent reviews, but was older, a bit run down, and some of the people seemed to be full-time residents. We had no issues during our stay, and the location worked well for Gunner. The price was right for our long weekend for the county fair, but I’d say we would not likely stay at this particular hotel again.

Great Falls is a decent town with a revitalized downtown district. We found some good restaurants and breweries, and a very good museum covering Lewis and Clark’s westward expedition. We feel that we saw pretty much all of the sights and attractions, except for the multiple waterfalls along the Missouri River – actually, we didn’t realize that there are five waterfalls in the surrounding area, and we only managed to see the one right in town.

KOA, Whitefish, Montana – It felt like we backtracked a bit as we drove west to Whitefish, but visiting Glacier National Park has been on my bucket list for a while (Sandy visited a few years ago with our daughter, Skylar). We had a rainy drive, arriving late-afternoon to a nice KOA campground with good amenities. The campground had a lot of RV sites and approximately 10 tent sites, though only two were reasonably-sized and flat. The campground had a nice full breakfast included with its overpriced rate ($62/night!), so of course we took advantage of that. Typical to KOAs, there was a nice store on site with decent prices (i.e. $4 for a 10-lb bag of ice). Unfortunately, both wifi and cell service were weak and spotty at our site.

Whitefish is a small town, with a nice downtown district, including the Jeremiah Johnson brewery and their great beers. Whitefish has basic shopping available, and it's only a 15-minute drive to Kalispell for Walmart, Costco, Lowes, or any other shopping. It’s a good jumping-off point for Glacier National Park, and it was easy to access the North Fork area and the main Going to the Sun area. The park now limits the number of entries each day, but I found it easy to get online each evening to reserve a spot for the following day. We also explored the St. Mary area on the east side of the park. We saw some good scenery over there, plus there is access to the Many Glacier area (that we didn’t get to), but I don’t think the town would be good for an overnight location – it’s pretty small and the campground was unimpressive.

Bowman Lake, Glacier National Park

Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier N.P.

We really enjoyed the Whitefish and Glacier areas. Unfortunately, the weather was overcast or rainy most days, so it would be nice to return with better weather. With a 1-hour drive from Whitefish, we would likely look for a campground closer to the park. Surprisingly, we had decent cell coverage on the west end of the park, including a strong 5G signal in the Apgar area.

Whitefish was the last stop on our 2024 camping trip. Wrapping up our thoughts on our new equipment and the factors we used to plan our travels this summer:

• Temperatures were perfect for the first half of our journey, then got abnormally hot. We could have traveled further north for moderate weather, but that wasn’t practical with our planned return to the U.S. on July 31.

• Our goal for a smaller loop and less driving worked well. We would probably target a small region again for any return trips to Canada.

  
  
  

  Our 2023 route

  

  Our smaller 2024 route
  
  

• Planning our trip as we traveled also worked well. We were able move on good-weather days, making each reservation about 3-4 days ahead. Our only challenges were close to Calgary and popular areas like Kananaskis and Banff. To stay in those areas, we’d need to make advanced reservations and accept whatever weather we have during our moves and stays.

• The CDC regulations became a non-issue. Border Control was not ready on August 1, and the CDC has now relaxed their requirements. I just need to complete an online form before each entry and we need to keep Gunner’s rabies vaccine up to date.

• We love our new Core tent! It’s super-easy to set up and take down, we have a lot of floorspace and headroom inside, it’s stable in the wind, and it held up great during rainstorms. We had zero leaks inside, though we did find water trapped between the ground cloth and tent. In Castlegar, there was actually quite a lot of water, but the tent functioned well and nothing seeped in. We also got two large moving blankets from Harbor Freight, which worked well to insulate and cushion the tent floor.

• Our sleep system worked well to keep us comfortable and warm. Sandy didn’t need her heated sleep pad very often, but it worked well when she did.

• We love our Bluetti solar system. We charged our phones almost every day, but also tablets, laptop, and the battery pack that Sandy used for her sleeping pad. Our usage required us to recharge the Bluetti battery every 2-3 days, which was very easy and didn’t really impact our daily activities. On days with full sun, the panels worked great, and only took 1-2 hours to charge the battery. Otherwise, we used the car charger to recharge while driving. This also took 1-2 hours, and was easy to do while running errands in town.

• Our firepit worked great. It doesn’t use much propane, and is permitted even in areas with fire restrictions. Because of the hot days / warm nights, we didn’t use it as much as we hoped, but it will be a permanent addition for future trips.

• Cookware - we didn’t use the griddle a lot, and really, it was just “ok”. The griddle’s size and shape didn’t sit well on our specific camp stove, and we quickly realized that a double burner griddle prevented us from cooking two items at the same time. Halfway through the summer, we bought two new pans at Canadian tire. They heat more consistently and don’t scorch the way my stainless backpacking pots did.

As with last year, here are some other general notes and comments about camping in Canada:

• Canada Provincial parks are free for day use, only overnight camping has a fee.

• More locations were allowing wood fires this year, though the wildfire risk is still high, as evidenced by the lightning strike and horrible fire that swept through Jasper mid-summer.

• We saw a lot of deer, but no elk or moose. We found some nice herds of bighorn sheep, mostly in Kananaskis. And we only found four black bears this year, and no grizzlies.

• We found a new favorite grocery store – the “No Frills” chain. In particular, Sandy liked their selection of low-priced spices and stocked up on anything and everything she thought she’d need for the next year.

• Similar to 2023, we went grocery shopping 2-3 times per week. With limited cooler space, it’s easier to shop frequently, since we’re out buying more ice anyways.

• We used a lot of ice! When possible, we bought blocks rather than cubes, but needed to restock every 2 days. Early in the trip, most blocks cost CAD 4.50 / $3.50 USD, so we spent approximately USD $12 per week for ice. As the temperature climbed in Revelstoke, we bought ice almost every day, either 1 block (4.5-kg/10-lb) or 2 bags (4-kg/9-lb), raising our costs to about $25 USD per week. And while camping at the isolated Bragg Creek, our ice costs were about CAD 9 / $7 USD per day, or about $50 USD per week! Once back in US, we were able to find 10-lb blocks for $2.50 or 10-lb bags for $3-4, cutting our costs back to about $15 per week. We’re not sure why ice is generally more expensive in Canada, but we have been talking about getting a better cooler next year.

  
  

Costs

Similar to 2023, camping helped us control our costs in a beautiful part of Canada. With hotel rates in the popular spots around $250-$300 USD per night, camping for around $30 USD per night sounds pretty good! Additionally, camping gives us the opportunity to cook our own food, as well as to fully enjoy the nature and scenery. Also, the U.S. dollar remained strong, around 73 cents to the Canadian dollar during our trip.

Our campsite costs ranged from $12-$38 USD per night, with an overall average of $27 per night. However, ten nights in hotels added $1,400 to our lodging bill, raising our overall Canada average to $53 per night for lodging. This is quite a bit higher than we expected for the summer, but still very reasonable compared to our typical lodging in the U.S. or Mexico.

We normally ate in camp, took a picnic lunch when we explored, and only ate in restaurants once or twice per destination. Grocery costs in Canada were a bit higher than 2023, and ended up at $54/day for groceries, restaurants, and alcohol. Of course, while staying in hotels, we didn’t cook, so our food budget ballooned to about $75/day.

With our tent heater, camp stove, and fire pit, we only needed to refill our 20-lb propane tank once, at a cost of $17 USD.

A bit surprising is that even with a smaller loop through Canada, we still managed to spend about $590 on gasoline for our 6-week trip, only $115 less than 2023. Gas prices themselves were similar, around $4.80 USD per gallon, we just continued to do a lot of driving. We had a lot of daytrip exploration, especially factoring in multiple 100-mile days in Revelstoke seeking cooler temps, and equally long drives through the Kananaskis area.

Other higher-cost items included $111 USD for a Canadian National Parks pass and $66 USD for a British Columbia fishing license that I used a few times. Our final average cost for travel, lodging, food, and entertainment while camping was close to our target, and similar to 2023, around $107/day. Adding on the ten days of hotels and food for “city living”, and our costs rose to an average of $136/day.

In addition to what I would call “daily travel costs”, if you add up our investments in our camping gear, we spent another $1,100 for our tent, solar system, firepit, and other items. The good news is that we were happy with all of these purchases, and (hopefully) won’t need much for 2025. We will probably buy a newer “roto-molded” cooler and perhaps some new equipment for our camp kitchen, but we don’t expect to need much else.

Final Thoughts

We had another wonderful camping trip in Canada and Montana. We continue to prefer the mountains of British Columbia to other parts of Canada, and enjoyed exploring the numerous small towns versus the congestion and over-touristed Banff. If we return, we would consider a repeat visit to Creston, and potentially stops in Cranbrook, Nelson, or Kaslo. We might also look at heading further north towards Prince George. Now having spent two summers in the area, we feel that the best scenery is in the Kananaskis area (south of Banff) and the Icefields Parkway (between Banff and Jasper), so we’ll need to think about how to incorporate those areas into our trip.