Missoula to Polson, Montana (80 miles)So with Heather picked up from Missoula’s International Airport it was time to get this road trip going… Once we get north we will have plenty of chances for wilderness camping. But for now we will make do with convenience which involved our first Walmart camping experience in Polson, Montana (if the city ordinance doesn’t specify no camping then Walmarts allow you to camp for a night in their car park). We got lucky and found one of the most scenic Walmart car parks there is with a cool view over Flat Head Lake.
Polson, Montana to Calgary, Alberta (370 miles)
With no reason to hang around a Walmart car park early in the morning we headed off to the border. We would have loved to have added Glacier National Park to our visited list but this time of year the road is closed so we had to make do with skirting the edge on highway 2. The park must be stunning as even this highway had some cool views. After passing Glacier we headed up the 89 to the border. We had our first ‘should have stopped at that last gas station’ moment but made it in the end over some gorgeous scenery to the border.
After passing back over the continental divide and into Canada, it was funny how flat this part of Alberta was.
It wasn’t long before we hit the city limits of Calgary. As with last night we went for the convenient option of the Walmart car park to spend the night. No scenery like last night but it was within walking distance of a brewery so all good!!
Calgary to Jasper National Park (250 miles)
We did a 10K running event in Calgary and after which we had to check weather forecasts and toss coins on deciding a route. The most scenic route north for us was the Icefields Parkway through Jasper National Park but this time of year it is hit and miss – only last week they had closed the road for a couple of days because of snow. The forecast was good so we went for it. It would have been a good chance for a blog post of us stuck in the snow but unfortunately we had brilliant clear skies and an amazing drive through some awesome scenery.
National Parks are not really known for their wild camping options in an RV so we ended up at a campground just outside of Jasper but we had the place to ourselves and found a great spot. Very happy campers.
