Mike, my daughter’s boyfriend, now her husband, was talking about racing in the Tour Divide when they visited, Christmas 2014. This is a self-supporting bike race from Banff, Alberta, Canada along the Rockies to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, 2745 miles. He was talking about flying up and wondering how to pack his bike and his supplies. I, mostly joking at that point, said, I’ve never been to Banff so if you need someone to drive you there, I will. He called a few months later and asked if I was serious so I started planning. I found a place to stay in Banff, a town called Field. It was quite a bit further than I expected, bad planning on my part.

We left June 6th, very early. I picked Mike up in the Quad Cities and we drove to Portal, North Dakota, spending the night in a hotel. Sunday, we crossed the border. It took about an hour because Canadian Customs had us come inside after checking our passports at the booth. We went in and gave them our passports and licenses. They were on the computer for 20 minutes, then told us to pull the car into the garage and we waited while they took EVERYTHING out of the car. They scanned it, took everything out, opened everything, searched everything, looked under all the seats, the hood. They took our clothes out of the bags, even turned pockets inside out. Interesting. I still wonder why we looked so suspicious that they had to strip search my car. We had lunch at a Tim Horton’s in Moose Jaw then drove and drove and drove across boring, flat Saskatchewan.

We made it to Alberta, Banff, very late, and still had an hour drive to Field in British Columbia, much closer to Yoho National Park than Banff. It took a while to find our place, the Garmin maps were a bit off.

On Monday, June 8th, we visited Banff National Park and Yoho National Park. These two parks are close together and there are great sites and trails in both. We visited Lake Louise, did the Fairview walk, the amazing Plains of Six Glaciers and visited the very interesting and unique Spiral Tunnels. We had dinner in Field at Truffle Pigs.

The next day we did the Johnston Upper and Lower Falls trails. We saw Johnson Lake, the Hoodoos, and Lake Minnewanka. We had dinner in Banff at Carlito’s Pizzaria.

On Wednesday, we drove towards Jasper National Park. We saw Bow Lake, Crowfoot Glacier, Bow Glacier Falls, Mistaya Canyon, Peyto Lake, and Columbia Ice Fields. We saw several bears, fortunately not on the trails, just on the sides of the road, and lots of mountain goats.

No hikes on Thursday since Mike mostly getting ready for his bike race. We went into town for dinner, steaks at The Keg Steakhouse & Bar. A great meal and Mike’s last hot meal for a several weeks.

On Friday, June 12, we got up very early to get Mike to Banff for the 0830 “Grand Depart” of the Tour Divide, Great Divide. I waited to see Mike bike away then drove to West Glacier, Montana. I had a lot of rain before leaving Canada, then a very easy border crossing; they even let me keep my bag of apples.

I drove the Going To Sun Road to Logan Pass. It was very early in the season so the road was closed beyond Logan Pass. It was so beautiful. I felt like a kid again, remembering my visit with my parents and sisters. We had been there in 1969 and I remember a great snowball fight I had with Mom and Dad and my sisters.

I did some great hikes but was a bit nervous. The first rule of hiking, don’t go alone! And I was in bear country. I did pack bear spray and had a whistle and bell hanging off my backpack. I did hear a bear once, off trail, but stopped, blew my whistle and heard him running away.

I had dinner in the park at the West Glacier Restaurant, a good burrito and local beer. I stayed at Vista Hotel right outside the Glacier National Park gate for one night.

Saturday morning I drove over to the west side and visited Avalanche Lake, did a 5.2 mile walk through the Trail of the Cedars, and a Lake McDonald boat tour at 1500. Late afternoon I drove to East Glacier. I spent two nights at Mountain Pine Hotel.

Sunday, I went to Many Glacier first. I did the Lake Josephine walk, and visited the Many Glacier Hotel. I went on to Saint Mary and the visitor center. I ended the day at Two Medicine, with hikes at Running Eagle (Trick Falls) Falls, Aster Falls, and Aster Park Viewpoint. This was a great hike around Two Medicine Lake, not many people so I was worried about bears, but had great views. I also saw a moose, right after walking past a cute ground squirrel who stopped and stared at me. I did not see Boris or Natasha, though.

The next day, I had a long drive to Dickinson, North Dakota. I stopped at Theodore Roosevelt NP (about 30 miles west of Dickinson where I was going to spend the night), and had a great afternoon at the park. I spent time at the visitor center and did a walk with the ranger that included a tour of Roosevelt’s cabin.

I drove though the park, going clockwise and stopped at Skyline Vista and did the  Wind Canyon Trail. The park was wonderfully empty of humans so I saw lots of animals. Hundreds of prairie dogs, several herds of bison and wild horses, so great. I continued to Dickinson, checked in mt hotel and found a restaurant, JD’s BBQ.

Tuesday morning at the park, I finished the other tours I didn’t do the day before. I headed counter-clockwise to do the Ridgeline Trail, Badlands Overlook, and Coal Vein Trail. The park has North and South areas plus the Elkhorn Ranch Unit, Theodore Roosevelt’s ranch home. I only visited the South unit just off I94. Late afternoon I headed home. I made it to just northwest of Minneapolis, and found a hotel in Monticello.

I spent Wednesday, June 17th driving through Minnesota and Iowa. Right before taking 80 east, I thought about Star Trek/Kirk birthplace. I had read about it years ago, and thought if I’m ever close, I will stop. So I searched for that while getting gas and found Riverside. It was very close, just off 80, about 20 miles south. Perfect. So I stopped there on way to Quad Cities. Fun! Then I continued to the Quad Cities where I met my daughter, Alex, for dinner and spent the night at her house.

A short vacation but full of amazing scenery and wildlife and it was fun to see all the adventurers starting the Tour Divide, too. Mike finished his race in 22 days, Alex flew down to Albuquerque to meet him and they drove home together.