Glacier/Banff - Day 10

Day 10 - Helena to SLC - July 29, 2018

Today was another long drive, this one from Helena, Montana, through Idaho to home in UT. 

Ada somehow managed to sleep like Gumby.

I got up early and went to charge the car.  I found a Goodwill to wander through and had to document some of the treasures. 

I'm not sure why Mr. & Mrs. Asbury gave this one up. 

The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful.  Now we're looking forward to our next trip to the Oregon Coast!

Glacier/Banff - Day 9

Day 9 - Banff to Helena - July 28, 2018

Today we start the long drive south to take us home. I was really nervous about the drive today because this is the one portion of the whole trip where there not any Tesla Superchargers for a too long stretch between southern Canada and Helena, Montana. 

Charging in Canmore (near Banff) before leaving. This was one of the first Model 3s that I recall seeing.  Now they're everywhere!

We stopped by the Calgary temple. 

Lyla loved her hairdo today. 

While charging in Calgary we visited a Bass Pro Shops and checked out the taxidermized critters. 

We knew we had to get poutine before leaving Canada. 

Oddly, there are superchargers in Fort Macleod, Alberta, which is not on a main highway or interstate.  We stopped there to charge and grabbed some lunch from the local Igloo restaurant. 

Fresca and ice cream. Good combo. 

Our route took us through Cardston, Alberta, Canada.  We stopped to see the temple.  

This next portion of the drive was the one that I was most worried about. It's a long distance between high-powered chargers, but I had mapped out a location with an RV plug-in pedestal.  Luckily, we were able to find it and I had the correct adapter.  Unluckily, charging at this rate is much slower, so we had a few hours to kill. 

I think we walked through the entire town of Conrad, and spent quite a while playing on the playground at the elementary school. 

Dinner was at another small diner. 

Finally when the sun was long down we were able to keep going with another short stop to charge at a hotel in Great Falls in order to get enough charge to make it to Helena. 

Interestingly, it would be a long time before this part of the drive was finally covered by superchargers.  A supercharger in Great Falls opened in the summer of 2020 and another one on I-15 to bridge the gap only opened about a month ago (Nov. 2022). I'm glad we didn't wait to make this trip!

Glacier/Banff - Day 8

Day 8 - Banff Day 2 - July 27, 2018

Another day in paradise. 

We started off visiting Johnson Lake. 

I think this is Lake Minnewanka.

 

Overlooking Banff. 

Our next stop was a cool hike in Johnston Canyon. 

Highly recommended.  Most of the hike is on an elevated boardwalk through the canyon with views of lots of waterfalls along the river. 

After the hike we took a drive north to see more of the blue lakes of the Canadian Rockies. This one is Peyto Lake. 

Tomorrow we start our long journey home!

Glacier/Banff - Day 7

Day 7 - Banff Day 1 - July 26, 2018

Today we started to explore Banff and the beautiful surrounding areas. 

We started our day in the town of Banff and walked around looking at the sights.

The bridge over Bow River. 

We visited the gardens surrounding the Banff National Park Administration Building. 

Banff has no shortage of beautiful luxury hotels. This one is the Fairmont Banff Springs. 

Our next stop was Lake Louise.

We went to check out the water.

Before blowing up stand-up paddleboards and lugging them to the lake. 

We lugged these paddleboards all the way to Canada in our car just to get these epic shots on the lake. Totally worth it! 

The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. 

Luckily none of us got dumped into the lake. 

We paddled over to the shore to find a hiker willing to take some photos of us. Of course we had our critter heads. 

This was the riskiest move, but I somehow stayed dry!

USA! USA! USA!

Our next stop was Moraine Lake.  Can you believe that it was almost 10PM in these photos?

We were starving, so we found a picnic ground for a late snack, mint Oreos and Nutella on bread. 

Tomorrow, we keep exploring around Banff.